question about older Calumet and lensboards

[Cindy_4701]

Hi everyone, I have been working with a field camera for the past few months, and now have access to a studio where I would like to do a series of product shots for one of my crits (I am a photo major). To do this project and others in teh future, I am looking at a used Calumet (older model, with gray bellows and round rail) at a very reasonable price and in excellent condition. My question is how difficult is it to find lensboards for the older models? Also, I would be interested if anyone has views about buying a newer model (Cambo NX?) compared to the older models. Thanks!!

Cindy

[Nick_3536]

Round rail sounds like CC-400 series. Calumet still sells boards I think. So new boards can be found. Making your own is very simple. From memory some of the other 4x4" boards also fit. Lensboards shouldn't hold you back any.

[Cindy_4701]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for getting back to me. There are some lensboards now on e-bay that fit a Calumet CC401; they are 4 x 4. Do you think those would fit?

Cindy

[Gem Singer]

Hi Cindy,

Take a look at K.E.H. , located in Atlanta, GA. They always seem to have previously owned genuine Calumet lensboards, milled out for various sized shutters, listed on their website under new and used large format lensboards. (www.keh.com).

[Nick_3536]

The 401 and the 400 are basically the same camera. The 401 has longer bellows and rail but the rest is the same.

[Kirk Gittings]

Calumet still sells these boards new drilled to your specifications. they also still stock a suprisingly complete stock of all parts for all these early models.

[kreig]

The Calumet 400 series camera is an excellent camera, very easy to use, solid. I still have mine purchased new 35 years ago and I still do my best work with it. I use lenses from 65mm up to 500mm and a few in between. Great camera. I wish i had the short one for wide angle lenses. Lens boards are easy to make or to buy.

[ronald moravec]

I have a log, 20', and a 16" for sale. Boards come with it.

[Kirk Gittings]

The "Wide field" only has four different parts from the regular one, the bellows and two spacers (and longer screws) that move the lens back and the short rail. You also need to flip the front standards around backwards. The bellows for sure is still available from Calumet and maybe the spacers are too. The rail is fixed with a hack saw.

[Dave west]

Hi Cindy, To answer your question the lenes board is exactly 4 inches x 4 inches for most old calumet's. I have the old one with the gray bellows and it works great. It handels the large lense's better than any field camera (I have a Linhof that I use for the field). hope this helps. If you want to borrow one let me know. Dave

[Cindy_4701]

Thank you to all who answered, very helpful.

Dave, you say you use longer lenses on it with no problem--I read on a site while I was collecting information yesterday that the CC-400 is not well-suited to macro photography "because you can't get close enough" and since I want to use it for product shots, I wanted to ask here about this statement.

Also, one more followup. So far I have a 90 and a 135. I was thinking a 210 for my project, but I want to be able to get really close--should I be thinking 240 or 300? I would also like to be able to use the lens for my landscape projects.

Have a great day, Cindy

[Ernest Purdum]

Regarding macrophotography, the CC-401 with its longer extension is better suited than the CC-400, but that doesn't mean that the shorter version can't be used. The CC-400 has 16" (406mm) maximum betweeen the lensboard and the groundglass. Let's say you acquired one of the 75mm Polaroid macro lenses now very cheap on eBay. With 150mm (two focal lengths) extension you would have a life-size image. Add one more focal length and you would have a magnification of 2:1. Sixteen inches is more than five of your 75mm focal lengths, so you could have a little more than 4X magnification. Other focal lengths could be used to give differing macro ranges.



In "getting really close" you need to have in mind the size of your subjects. If they are large, a 240 or 300mm lens would work fine, but for small items you might run out of focusing range before you filled the grouindglass with the subject.