Resessed lens board for Zone VI 4x5?

**Wade Lawrence** · 5-Mar-2005, 07:07

I'm using a Zone VI 4x5 with a 90mm Super Angulon f8 and the wide angle bellows, but it's really a pain to have to tilt the front standard backwards to get the thing to focus. It really makes front rise and fall difficult. Does anyone know of a recessed lensboard for the Zone VI that would allow me to keep the front standard upright?

**ronald moravec** · 5-Mar-2005, 07:33

I have built one for my cc400 from aircraft plywood available at the hobby shop. It worked perfectly.

I have build flat boards for the zone 6 and they are fine. Stained them and all. It is just wood.
Also made cones for Omega enlargers. It is just a box on a flat board with some holes.

Make sure you slant the top of the box down so the board can be installed. Stain and seal with polyurethane so you don`t get a warp, both sides. Paint the back black first.

Make a mock up first for dimensions and to see that it will fit.

**ronald moravec** · 5-Mar-2005, 07:35

You might contact Mr. Ritter for him to make a custom one if you have no tools/skills. I would make one for you except I am very short on time right now.

**Mark Sampson** · 5-Mar-2005, 20:53

I'm not quite getting it. I have a Zone VI 4x5, made in Vermont in '92, that seems equivalent to all the later ones. I have the WA bellows, and I have no trouble keeping the front standard vertical when using a 90mm (or even a 75mm) lens. The standards (on my camera at least) can move close enough togther to allow this. Are you moving the rear standard forward, as well as moving the front standard back?

**Wade Lawrence** · 6-Mar-2005, 10:43

Mark,

My camera is also c. 1992, and I'm using the wide angle bellows. I am moving the the rear standard forward, too, but the ends of the brass bracket that the front standard is attached to bumps into the wood and brass bracket that the rear standard (the main body) is attached to. This keeps me from getting the lens any closer to the ground glass unless I angle the front standard back about 15 degrees and tilt the lensboard forward 15 degrees. This works OK, but if I raise the lens, it moves closer to the ground glass (it's sliding up an slanted standard). I either need to have a recessed lensboard or modify that rear bracket to allow the front standard to move further into the camera body (a modification I don't want to make).