Wide Angle Lens on Technika IV

[Scott Rosenberg]

good day...

just a quick question: what special steps must be taken (ie recessed lens board, dropping the front bed, manipulating the rear standard, etc) to use the following lenses on a linhof technika IV?

-Nikkor SW 90mm

-Fujinon SW 90mm

-Grandagon 90mm

-110 Super Symmar XL

if the slightly longer focal length of the 110 XL will get me out of some minor irritants, that alone might warrant it's price.

as an aside, is there really any separation between these lenses? i realize many users on this forum feel the schneider is the finest LF optic ever made, but is it really that far ahead the the others? i don't care about lab reports, i care about what clients can see on a 30"x40" print.

thanks so much, scott

[Frank Petronio]

All those brands are just as good as the other, only different. I prefer Rodenstocks myself.

The 90s will fit on the front rail, and depending on the details (the faster lenses are larger) such as focal flange distance, they may require you to drop the bed to keep it out of the film area. The 110 is a nice, compact lens and may be the best of the bunch if you don't need to go as wide as a 90. And you won't need to drop the bed no matter what.

[Brian Ellis]

With any of the 90mm lenses you'll need to drop the bed on verticals but not on horizontals. And of course dropping the bed means that you'll have to tilt the front backwards if you want the lens to be parallel with the back after dropping the bed. Other than that there are no special problems or things you need to deal with as long as you don't go wider than 90mm.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'm not sure about that, Brian. I don't need to drop the bed with my 90/8.0 Super Angulon even with verticals, though it is necessary with some lenses like the 90/6.8 Angulon.

[Morey Kitzman]

Scott

I use the Nikon 90 SW and the 110 xl on the Linhof Tech V and shoot without any of the above mentioned adjustments. I do not use a center filter for either and the images seem very even. Good luck.

[Frank Petronio]

Ditto for the 90/6.8 Rodenstock Grandagon - no rails in the view with a straight bed

[Bob Salomon]

"-Nikkor SW 90mm"

No official factory recommendation. If in 0 shutter the 001016 lensboard

"Fujinon SW 90mm"

Ditto

"Grandagon 90mm"

Which one? If 90mm 6.8 then 001016. If 90mm 4.5 then 001026

"110 Super Symmar XL"

001026

The 001016 is a recessed board with a 12mm recess for 0 shutter lenses. The 001026 is a flat lensboard for 1 shutters.

Currently Linhof makes 4 different recessed Technika boards for Copal 0 shutters. Tey differ in the depth of their recess. 001016 = 12mm, 001015 = 10mm, 001047 = 6mm and 001035 = 21mm recess.

[Brian Ellis]

The Linhof literature says to drop the bed with a 90mm lens when shooting verticals. My experience with a 90mm F5.6 Super Angulon was that if I didn't do that the bed appeared sometimes and other times didn't. I assumed the reason for this was that if the lens was back far enough, e.g. at infinity, the bed would show up but as the lens was moved forward towards the end of the bed it wouldn't. Whether this was the reason or not I don't know but since I never found a way to predict in advance when it would show up and when it wouldn't, and since dropping the bed wasn't difficult, I always dropped the bed. Given the Linhof literature, which just referred to 90mm lenses without any distinction as to brand, I assumed this was a potential problem with any 90mm lens but in view of what some have said here maybe it really depends on the lens, who knows. I do know that the bed did sometimes show up with my 90mm lens when shooting verticals if I didn't drop the bed.

[Morey Kitzman]

I need to admend my statement and confirm what Brian reported. If you shoot in the vertical position than the front rails do appear in the image. However, by raising the front standard about half an inch the problem disappears. I find that this method is easier than dropping the bed.

[Scott Rosenberg]

thanks for all the great inputs everyone... this was precisely the information i was looking for.

scott