Sinar lensboard on a Burke & James

[Jim McD]

My problem is that I shoot 4X5 with a Sinar F+, and 5X7 with a Burke & James tailboard camera, and I am tired of switching my lenses onto different lensboards. I would like to standardize my lenses on Sinar boards (5.497" square) and still be able to use them on my Burke & James (5.2" square). This is obviously going to take some careful woodworking/machining on the B&J in order to let it take the slightly larger Sinar boards.

Has anyone else done something similar? Any suggestions before I decide to start carving?

[Nick_3536]

Why not go the other way? Use B&J boards for everything. Then you just need an adapter on the Sinar to take the smaller B&J board.

[Ralph Barker]

Considering the very slight difference in board sizes, adjusting the B&J to use the Sinar boards is probably the most practical approach. Assuming, that is, you don't mind the potential effect of the customization on the resale value of the B&J.

If you can remove the front standard easily, my first thought would be to make a jig and use a router to enlarge the board opening. Then, all you'd need to clean up are the corners. You'll want to carefully measure such things as the light trap offset on the Sinar boards, and all that sort of thing, so you're sure that the jig will do just what you want it to. I'd even suggest making a mock-up of the front standard to test the jig.

[Oren Grad]

The simplest approach - certainly the least risky - would be to standardize on a smaller board, such as the Technika type, and then use an adapter board on both the Sinar and the B&J. Or if you use lots of lenses in Copal 3, Toyo field boards work well for this too.