Anyone ever try to 'trick out' a Toyo Field lens board for architectural subjects?

[JW Dewdney]

So elated to have a Toyo Field now - i can leave the big(ger) cameras at home. But i'm doing some architectural subjects for a new project and frequently need MORE than the max. 20mm lens rise. 40mm is more typical. So I'm THINKING - to make this work - I'm going to need to find a solution like using a recessed board with an offset hole (20mm or so up). At any rate - not a lot of luck finding a BLANK recessed board.... but maybe I can get something made or I'll kludge something. So the question I'd put to you is THIS: "Has anyone here found other, more ingenious solutions to this problem?". Thanks

[Kirk Gittings]

Not me but a very successful AP in my area used Toyo Fields for years so there must be a solution.

[JW Dewdney]

Thanks Kirk - well that's encouraging news... will keep hammering away at this...

[Joseph Dickerson]

You can get more rise on a Toyo field camera (45A/AX?) by using indirect rise. Tilt the camera up, adjust front and back to vertical, and you've increased the effective rise by a lot. Only restriction is the bellows losing some flexibility with shorter lenses.

Toyo 45A/AX (was there an AR in there somewhere too?) field cameras are great.

JD

[JW Dewdney]

thanks Joseph - but I'd rather eat my hand than deal with the tilt trick. just not worth the hassle. I'm into ergonomics (another way of saying 'i'm lazy') ! good suggestion but for the volume of work I'm doing it would get old really fast - so that's why i'm thinking I'd rather get a custom made board or modify the camera somehow...

[Brian C. Miller]

thanks Joseph - but I'd rather eat my hand than deal with the tilt trick. just not worth the hassle.

EAT THE HAND!! EAT THE HAND!!

That little "tilt trick" results in some totally awsome rise! I use it with a three-way pan head, and it's very fast to do it. To make it really fast, put a bubble level on the front and rear standards. Zap! Humongous rise! Put some tiny marks on the body, or use a cardboard or plastic angle, or just a length of string from A to B, and you've totally got it. No problems!

"Dear Abbey: I wanna be an architectural photographer, but I duwanna adjust the camera. What should I do? -- Toyo Man."
"Dear Toyo: MOVE IT BEFORE I COME OVER THERE AND PUT A FOOT UP YO' ASS! You callin' yoself a man and you isn't man enough to move that camera? I'll come over there and beat yo' noggin' wit' my broom, you go spoutin off with that in front of my face! Donchoo you realize that the rear element of any sufficiently wide angle lens is gonna be hittin' the bellows if you use an offset lens board on that camera? Shame on you! You git out there an' put some elbow grease into that photography, and don't you come whinnin' to me about it gettin' old!"

[JW Dewdney]

Yeah i'm aware of the 'bottoming out' effect of the lens rubbing against the bellows for sure - not to worry- don't you think the 'tilt' thing would make that even worse though? thanks for the entertainment in the interim though... the offset lensboard idea still seems better and smarter method to me than a tilt though...

ps - i'm more of a 'has been' than a 'wanna be' though... hence the ennui...

[JW Dewdney]

in case the lack of interest in tilting front and back seems overly 'dainty' to you - let me explain: let's say you're setting up a shot that would normally take 15 mins let's say. And now we need to use our 'tilt' method to shift. There's no seamless way of having a look at what the various positions actually look like. For each 4 or 5 mm of shift, you have to change the entire camera angle accordingly, reset the front standard parallel, and then refocus again.. so let's say you're going to do this 5 or 6 times (worst case maybe?) .... no... not a lot of fun. That's what I meant by it 'getting old'. It would probably add about an hour to each shot (again - probably worst case scenario) but if you've done this kind of work before I think you'd see what I mean...

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

No way can you squeeze 20mm of offset on a Toyo recessed hole. A Copal 0 is pretty tight in there, and a Copal 1 will only fit in one orientation. Change cameras or use indirect rise.

[Daniel Stone]

Make your own lensboards where the hole is greatly off-centered(towards the top(so its already "risen" before applying any subsequent rise with the camera movements.)

Otherwise, get a monorail and a lb adapter. Much easier for an AP than a field, IMO...

-Dan