Fotoman 617 or 4x5 with a 617 back?

[BobC]

For one reason or another, I've been getting a bit cheesed off with digital pics and have been taking more and more images with our 12 quid Holga and Zero Image pinhole camera. The format that really grabs me is 617 - we have a panoramic head and have had some good success creating large panos in digital but I really want something that will capture all the detail of the scene in one go - when there are swift moving clouds or crashing waves, stitching pics together can look quite false.

We recently ordered a Chamonix 4x5 field camera as I'm very keen to explore some different film formats and originally thought of getting the Shen Hao 617 back for it, but whilst out the other night trying (unsuccessfully) to capture a widescreen sunset I wondered whether a dedicated 617 camera would be the best option for this. The Fotoman would suit the bill as any lenses would be compatible between the two formats. The advantage of a 617 back is that you would still have some degree of movements left but then by the nature of a 617 shot, would you generally need that? I suppose the rise and fall would be handy to correct some perspective.

Does anyone here do any large format and could offer any much needed advice on this?

[scoundrel1728]

I don't think the film version takes the entire frame at any one time either.  The advantage is that the film version is continuous but the digital version has discrete seams.

If I understand correctly, the film version has the lens mounted on a pivot that also includes a chamber that is light-tight except for a narrow slit in the back and the lens itself.  To make an exposure, the slit starts at one side of the film and makes a sweep across the film at a constant speed.  In effect, it acts like a big slow focal plane shutter. If anything is moving in the frame, you can expect geometrical distortions similar to what you would get with a slow focal plane shutter whose curtains travel across the frame horizontally but worse.