What's this I hear about LFs not handling lenses under 90mm?

[Kerry L. Thalmann]

I'd like to expound a little on my earlier comments about the Shen Hao bag bello ws and recessed board.

WRT to installing the bag bellows - no tools are required. The attachment mecha nisms are quite simple. A slide lock to attach them to the front standard and t wo thumb screws to attach the rear. With the standard bellows, removing and ins talling them is simple and takes well under a minute. It's quite easy. The bag bellows are a little slower, but of course use the same mechanisms as the stand ard bellows. The difference is that the bag bellows are much bigger around and made from a thick vinyl material. This makes them a little slow to cram inside the body and get the rear attached. Again, this is not hard to do, just a littl e slower than the standard bellows due to the geometry and thickness of the mate rial (hint: removing camera back and pulling the bag bellows into the camera bod y is one possible way to speed this up). Removing the bag bellows is just as fa st as removing the standard bellows - just slide the front standard attachment u p and loosen the two rear thumb screws. Again, I have not tried this camera/bag bellows with anything shorter than a 75mm f6.8 Grandagon-N, but with this lens mounted on a flat board the bag bellows permits movements up to the limits of th e camera (exceeding the coverage of my lens). Perhaps someone who has used the Shen Hao with lenses shorter than 75mm could comment?

WRT the recessed board. Like most recessed boards, getting at the shutter contr ols is more difficult than with a standard flat board. Unless you have smaller fingers than I do, you will need some type of small probe (ballpoint pen works) to set the aperture and open/close the shutter preview lever. Cocking the shutt er is no problem (fingers do the job). This is all based on my experience with my 75mm f6.8 Grandagon-N. For lenses with REALLY large front elements (72mm Sup er Angulon XL, for example), it MAY be difficult to access the shutter controls when mounted on this recessed board (I don't know for sure, so best to ask or tr y before you buy). The board comes with a cable release attachment, elminating the difficult task of trying to attach a cable release to a lens mounted in a re cessed board. The cable release attachment on the Shen Hao recessed board is mo unted near the top left corner - outside of the recessed area. It come with a s hort bent rod that connects from this release to the one mounted on the shutter. This rod is purposely made extra long so it can be trimmed to the exact length needed when mounting your lens in the recessed board. Once this is done, attac hing a standard cable release is a piece of cake - no additional adapters or spe cial cable release required. The total amount of "recess" provided by this boar d is 1/2". It is the same size as the Linhof/Wista boards, so it should fit on most cameras that take those boards. Like the Linhof/Wista boards, the hole in this board (and the flat Shen Hao boards) is "south of center". This is actuall y the correct hole position for centering the lens on the ground glass of these cameras. It also makes getting at the controls easier and cocking the shutter p ossible (things that would be more difficult, if not downright impossible if the hole was centered within the recessed area).

Finally, since the rear standard slides far forward on the bed, you do not need to simulate a drop bed for wide angle use.

I hope these comments better explain how these Shen Hao accessories are used. A ll field cameras are a series of compromises. Like all the others, the Shen Hao is not the perfect camera for all users are all uses. For an inexpensive field camera, it does offer an amazing set of features and movements. There are also some very useful, affordably priced accessories (the bag bellows, recessed boar d, 6x12 roll film back, compendium shade) that make the camera even more useful to those on a limited budget. In fact, other than the inability to use long non -telephoto lenses, the Shen Hao is a very capable field camera. The fact that i t's priced so affordably makes it even more attractive.

Kerry

Kerry

[Tony Karnezis]

Thanks for a very complete and informative answer, Kerry (as usual). I hope to read a complete review of the Shen Hao on your web site in the future.

-Tony (NYC)

[Brian Ellis]

Contrary to the statements made in the first message posted here, there is no correlation between the expense of a camera and its ability to use wide angle lenses, with or without a bag bellows. E.g. the Tachihara costs about $600 and can handle a 65 mm without a bag bellows, a Linhof Master Technika costs around $4,000 and can't be used with a 65 mm lens except by adding a wide angle focusing device. I understand that some or all of the Wisner cameas (cost $1,800 and up) require a bag bellows for a 90 mm or shorter lens. If anything, since the less expensive cameras typically have shorter bellows, they would generally be easier to use with a wide angle lens than the more expensive cameras that have extra long bellows.