Recessed lens boards?

[stradibarrius]

Another novice question but what is a recessed lens board for. I know it has something to do with certain types or focal length of lens???

[Bob Salomon]

No, it is required when a lens has too short a flange focal length is too short on a specific camera for the lens to be able to be mounted close enough to the ground glass to allow the lens to be in focus at infinity. Even if a wide angle bellows is used (if available for the camera) instead of the standard bellows. In short, it allows a lens to be mounted closer to the ground glass.

That is the classical use of a recessed lens board. But there is another use for it. Some people want to be able to leave a lens on a folding camera and a recessed board may be required to do this with a normal lens. An example would be a 150mm Apo Sironar S, Apo Sironar N, Apo Symmar L or Symmar S on a 45 Linhof Master Technika. To leave the lens on the folded camera the factory recommended board is a recessed board.

Depending on the camera manufacturer there may be more then one recessed board. Linhof makes several different depth recessed boards for the 45 Technika cameras. But Wista only makes one depth recessed board.

[Gem Singer]

Sometimes bellows compression interferes with camera movements like rise, tilt, and shift when using lenses that have short focal lengths such as a 65, or a 75 wide angle.

A recessed lens board, a bag bellows, or a combination of both will allow those shorter lenses to be used with movements by reducing bellows compression.