Shen Hao PTB45, anyone here actually using it?

[Vertigo2020]

I'm a noob here but, I just ordered the PTB45 today and was told the latest shipment of cameras all have the 3 hole design. I suppose a guy could drill the crosspiece and install an insert to make quick work of adjusting the front standard. It would save the trouble of moving the rear forward on short lenses.

[thafred]

Ouch, thats a frightening picture mark... sorry to see the damage but glad to hear that you could continue shooting!

Arthur, I´ve made compairsons yesterday regarding the groundglass. As you know I have the Sheetfilm.be GG + lumigrid installed on my speed graphic and tried both side by side with my two 150 f5.6 symmar lenses..I also thought the brightness was a tad lower with the shen but comparing them side by side shows that its absolutely equal between the two. (the SG GG just seemed brighter for me because of the focusing hood) Also the fine grain is equal on both so apart from the lumigrid I think you will not gain anything with the sheetfilm gg. Maybe a satinsnow or Maxwell GG would be an improvement thou.
As I understand a fresnel lens will improve the use of shorter lenses (<100mm) but I doubt that it gains anything for your 150mm Nikkor.
I had no problems in using my 90 f8 on the shen (in daylight) and focusing on the corners.

Vwizz, I have a question regarding a fresnel: I allways thought you cannot just install the fresnel on the lens side of the GG because you need to place the GG further back (1/3 the thickness?) to keep focus registration. Is there any manual how to install the Fresnel on the shen or do you just drop it behind the GG (facing the user)?
How distracting are the fresnel lines when fine focusing with a good loupe?

best
fred

[Arthur Fleischmann]

Thanks Fred, I'll just keep the Shen Hao ground glass, then! Satinsnow and Maxwell are way too expensive for me at the moment.

Mark, I really feel sorry... I don't even want to imagine my camera falling on the ground. I hope you can fix the damage!

[Darren H]

I took my brand new Shen Hao PTB 4x5 on its first overnight backpacking trip last weekend. After two shots, a gust of wind tipped it over head first onto the rocks. Yikes!

As luck would have it, the lens was undamaged. Unfortunately, a chunk of wood broke out from the rear of the camera base and the focus knob was dangling loose. The wood split at the screw holes where the focus gear attaches to the base plate. I never did find the piece of wood but I found one of the screws. That was all I needed to make a quick field repair. The only tool I had available was a small Swiss Army knife which did a number on the screw head but got the job done. I was able to continue shooting through the weekend.

A Chamonix, with its carbon fibre base plate, probably wouldn't have broken the same way.

Cheers,
Mark

Here is a quick shot of the damage and my field repair.

Ouch! Sorry to hear it took a tumble. Glad to hear you were able to make a field repair!

How did the PTB peform as a backpacking camera?