Asymmetrical Movements - Pro & Con

[Joanna Carter]

Heres's what I normally do ... With the camera back in the position I want it (framing etc.) I see to that the tilt (or swing) line is at e.g. the top of the house wall. I then adjust the tilt until the whole wall is sharp. If I need to swing as well, I do that now too.
I then read the tilt angle and transfer it to the front standart, after which I also transfer the swing angle.
Then I zero the back standart and refocus. Done. (In practice all of this is done within a minute and it's done with precision.)
What's left to do is the usual part of getting everything sharp, but that has nothing to do with asymmetric tilts and swings.

Hmmm, and that's meant to be simple??? I realise you have scales on the Sinar, something that is not present on the Ebony, but it seems like an awful lot of faffing around when all I have to do is to do about 3 iterations of adjusting front axis tilt and focus to get 95% of my pictures totally in focus.

Given the Ebony where you don't have precise scales where you can read and transfer values from back to front, I'd still do the tilt/swing bit and then loosen the ballhead to get the back into a "zero'd" position, i.e. without tapered walls etc. after which I recon some rise/fall and shift will get everything into place. But I think an Ebony-owner will have to confirm that this is possible.

Of course it's possible, but it's still a lot more work than only working with the front standard. Not forgetting that adjusting the tilt of the camera will move both the hinge point and the angle of the plane of sharp focus, so just what is the real benefit of asymmetric movements???

[Bjorn Nilsson]

Hmmm, and that's meant to be simple??? ...

It's sometimes much harder to describe how somethings done than to just do it. ... and I just have to do this once.

While we're at it. I'm very happy with my decision to (back in the 80'ies) start learning with a Sinar. The scales and gadgets took a lot of guesswork out of the learning experience and I got results more quickly. On the other hand, I find myself using my Hasselblad gear most of the time when I'm outdoors nowadays, which have kind of made me glance at the lightweight Shen Hao's and Chamonix cameras. Those cameras does (of course) lack the asymmetric swing/tilt and also all the scales etc. which I'm used to. But I recon that I've gathered enough experience to "cope". I.e. I'm not saying it's essential to have asymmetric movements on an LF camera, but it's a nice feature which in my way of seeing it makes camera operation quicker.

//Björn

[Dave Jeffery]

I honestly believe that the advantage and best method of using asymmetrical tilts has not been fully taken advantage of by some people.

The Ebony cameras do not have geared movements and I believe these cameras need to be handled with some strength and authority for the time savings of focusing to be more easily achievable, and more evident.

With assymetrical tilts once the far point of focus has been set on the lower marked focusing line on the ground glass, all that needs to be accomplished to set the plane of focus is to set the other point of focus correctly on the upper line marked on the ground glass. There is no need for other rail adjustments as required using base tilts and to quote Joanna there is “ a slight time-saving when photographing non-architectural subjects” I think the amount of time savings depends upon the focusing method used with the Ebony’s specifically.

Unfortunately focusing with an Ebony can be done in a variety of manners which include fiddling around using the “touchy-feely” fiddly manner with little tension set in the adjustment knob, wiggling back and forth behind the line of focus, then adjusting too far in front of the line of focus, then continuing back and forth wasting time with multiple iterations. After one has used this camera for a while it becomes apparent when the plane of focus is coming into fine focus, and there is no need to run past that focus point as it is a known visual setting. I admit that I still go past the line many times as I continue to practice but it is happening less and less, and being able to focus in a couple of quick moves is amazing. It’s a useless waste of time if you set focus on one line and then fiddle fart around at the other line fighting the zero detent of the Ebony.
If you have used the Ebony for a while shooting typical landscapes you have an very good idea of how far back the rear film holder frame typically gets tilted back for the correct focus, and that is very few degrees. If you pre-set the rear tilt angle not too far behind this known line before focusing on the far point, which relates to the lower ground glass line, then little change will happen to the first point of focus when you squeeze in on the second near focus point, which relates with the upper line on the ground glass. If you tension the knob firmly creating good resistance for the movement prior to squeezing in on the upper line of fine focus you will have much less chance of overshooting the plane of focus, and this is most important. When it is time to focus on the upper line then this means grabbing the rear frame, and the titanium upright, and using the POWER of your GRIP to squeeze the two together slowly, smoothly and VERY accurately! You will miss the line many times as you practice but you will become better and better at getting it correct in one smooth fast efficient squeezing motion. There are no gears on this camera so squeezing the movement together when there is a fair amount of resistance is the most refined means to focus IMHO.

One does need to be familiar with the tiny range of fine focus on the ground glass where one needs to STOP as you squeeze forward, but that becomes evident over time. I’m convinced that it is not possible to focus efficiently moving the top of the frame backwards, as the zero detent makes moving the frame back a jerky, jumpy movement since, once the pressure of the spring is overcome, tension is released and the rear frame jumps back a little. Conversely if you tighten the movement and squeeze the frame forward then the movement is consistent and smooth.

IMHO the advantage of asymmetrical tilts is all about squeezing accurately, quickly and smoothly, in one move, onto the second (near) line of focus. I’m not surprised that people might miss this as it probably seems odd to have to focus a camera using some force.

I hope someone else not using this method yet with and Ebony will try this and report back to this forum.

Hope this helps,
All the best everyone!

[timparkin]

I honestly believe that the advantage and best method of using asymmetrical tilts has not been fully taken advantage of by some people.

The Ebony cameras do not have geared movements and I believe these cameras need to be handled with some strength and authority for the time savings of focusing to be more easily achievable, and more evident.

With assymetrical tilts once the far point of focus has been set on the lower marked focusing line on the ground glass, all that needs to be accomplished to set the plane of focus is to set the other point of focus correctly on the upper line marked on the ground glass. There is no need for other rail adjustments as required using base tilts and to quote Joanna there is “ a slight time-saving when photographing non-architectural subjects” I think the amount of time savings depends upon the focusing method used with the Ebony’s specifically.

It's even easier than that as once you've focussed on the lower line you can tilt to get anything in focus anywhere. the upper line is just there if you put the ground glass back in rotated 180 degrees.

Having taught quite a few people how to use technical cameras and been on location with an Ebony 45SU and various other non-asymmetric cameras, the look of amazement on people's faces when they use the Ebony is enough to explain to me the advantages.

It should be said that the more experienced you are at shooting with a large format camera using front tilt, the less the advantage of rear asymmetric tilt. Hence for a very experienced photographer the asymmetric tilt may well have no advantage at all. For the beginner though the time saving is dramatic.

Tim