Combining 4x5 and 6x17 in one camera, wide angle is important

[gleaf]

I believe you have planted a deadly seed. Strikes me this morning after a sleep cycle that the 6 cm frames for my Epson scanner are right sized for 3 6 x 6 frames ergo what am I waiting for.

[Carsten Wolff]

Now over a decade ago, I made a dedicated 6x17 back to use my Canham 617 on my ancient Arca B 5x7 (w/a pleated leather bellows) and never looked back. I do 4x5", 5x7" and 6x17 cm all in one; my widest lens is a 75mm which works very well. The 617 (new) was dearer than the whole camera (used) though.

[sdzsdz]

Hello everybody!

Despite of the fact, nearly nobody gave me the clear advice to make this step I did it in the end. The desire to be able to use various focal lengths was stronger then the doubts. After a little practice I want to share my initial experiance. Perhaps somebody may profit from it.

I bought a Chamonix 045N-2 and a Shen Hao 6x17 back. I chose the Chamonix because its beautiful made, was reported to be lightweight but quite sturdy and should have a very low minimal bellows "compression", what was a major point for me.

As far as I have used the stuff right now I can report the following:

- The Chamonix is a wonderful made camera! There are enough tests on the web
- The Shen Hao back is very heavy, very bulky, not so well made. It sets the film plane back and adds 3,63 cm. Despite it is not beautiful, it works. Thats it. It does what it should. And film flatness is very good.
- With a recessed board (17mm) I can use my 75mm Grandagon at infinity with a little room for shift and tilt, but not much.
- 150mm work flawlessly
- With 210mm I get a frame that is 16cm wide. So I loose about 0,75cm on both edges. This is not at all a problem because when cropped to the original format the loss on the top and bottom boarder is negligible.

I found out, that the peace with the matte screen for composing and focusing is less deep than the film holder by about 2mm! This caused a lots of trouble with wrong focus and bad edges with 75mm in the beginning. But I corrected that by shimming the screenframe. Now its exactly the same and the focus is perfect. I made also marks on the Chamonix base for the exact parallel position of the front and rear standart and for infinity focus positions. The last pics I took with my Sironar W 150mm were perfectly sharp from edge to edge! The 75mm works also very good.

Here is an example:


After sunset by sdzsdz, on Flickr

After all, I´m very glad I did it. I saved not so much space and weight to be honest. But now I can use 150mm and 210mm and thats absolutely beautiful. I also don´t have to remove the camera from the trepod when I want to change the format. I can compose and focus every single frame on the ground glass and can change lenses mid roll. I´m happy so far!

Have a nice weekend!