Linhof Kardan Bi ground glass replacement question

[excanonfd]

Hi,

I've recently acquired a Linhof Bi 4x5 camera with a broken ground glass. I've just received a replacement ground glass from eBay and when I took off the metal strip holding the ground glass in, there were two strips of what appears to be mat board under the glass as shims. They are almost as thick as the ground glass itself, is it normal to have shims between the glass and the frame?

The Bi is missing the lensboard as well, I am thinking of buying a small sheet of aluminum about 2 or 3mm thick and cutting it to size for the lens board. Does the lens sit in the centre of the lens board or slightly below centre like the Linhof Technika field cameras?

Thanks,

[Bob Salomon]

No. There should be 4 metal shims sitting on small posts in each corner.
Linhof Kardan boards are avaible flat milled for 0, 1 and 3 shutters; 001080, 001081, 001083 and in recessed 001089. All have the required light trap on the back to mate with the body properly. All can be ordered from your camera store but your camera needs service to properly set the GG position and set the shims. The seller should contribute if they represented everything was OK.

[excanonfd]

No. There should be 4 metal shims sitting on small posts in each corner.
Linhof Kardan boards are avaible flat milled for 0, 1 and 3 shutters; 001080, 001081, 001083 and in recessed 001089. All have the required light trap on the back to mate with the body properly. All can be ordered from your camera store but your camera needs service to properly set the GG position and set the shims. The seller should contribute if they represented everything was OK.

I acquired this camera for next to nothing - it was a throw-in addition to a Takumar 135/3.5 lens I bought a while ago. I see that the lensboards are available on eBay, though I don't know what would be considered as being reasonable in price. As for getting the camera serviced to properly set the GG, I don't know of any camera store locally (Vancouver, Canada) who can do that. Shipping this camera elsewhere to get it serviced is unfeasible, it will be much too costly to do so.

The GG frame on my Bi is not as you've described it:



The narrow strips of matboard shim/spacer was sitting on the inner polished aluminum beads with the GG sitting on top. The GG was held in place with thin black metal strips secured with 4 screws on the wider polished beads on the GG frame.

[Bob Salomon]

I acquired this camera for next to nothing - it was a throw-in addition to a Takumar 135/3.5 lens I bought a while ago. I see that the lensboards are available on eBay, though I don't know what would be considered as being reasonable in price. As for getting the camera serviced to properly set the GG, I don't know of any camera store locally (Vancouver, Canada) who can do that. Shipping this camera elsewhere to get it serviced is unfeasible, it will be much too costly to do so.

The GG frame on my Bi is not as you've described it:



The narrow strips of matboard shim/spacer was sitting on the inner polished aluminum beads with the GG sitting on top. The GG was held in place with thin black metal strips secured with 4 screws on the wider polished beads on the GG frame.

The matte board does not belong there. Under the GG are 4 small, screw adjusted posts that the shims sit on. You are picturing the other side of the gg frame. You can only see where these posts and shims are by taking the gg out of the frame by removing the three hold down screw on one end of the gg and loosening the three at the other end.

The Linhof Canadian distributor is Blazes in Markham. Call them.

[excanonfd]

The matte board does not belong there. Under the GG are 4 small, screw adjusted posts that the shims sit on. You are picturing the other side of the gg frame. You can only see where these posts and shims are by taking the gg out of the frame by removing the three hold down screw on one end of the gg and loosening the three at the other end.

The Linhof Canadian distributor is Blazes in Markham. Call them.

This is all there is on the Bi, the other side of the frame shows sliding pattern wear from cut film backs being inserted and removed. I'd be grateful if you could post a picture of the GG frame the way you've described it, or a link to one.

[Bob Salomon]

This is all there is on the Bi, the other side of the frame shows sliding pattern wear from cut film backs being inserted and removed. I'd be grateful if you could post a picture of the GG frame the way you've described it, or a link to one.

There is no picture that I am aware of swince you only can see them with the gg removed. It is really a service issue and not an accessory issue. But if you look at the back side of the gg frame that you keep pictuing you will see the small adjusting screws, one in each corner of the gg. They are there for qualified service technicians to use to adjust the focus plane DO NOT ADJUST THEM YOURSELF!