Newbie help: 4x5 lens boards (for Ebony)

[Martin Aislabie]

I have an Ebony Lens Board about 4 years old

Its base is a plastic substrate but with an Ebony wood veneer on the front (outer) surface.

Sounds like mine is rather like yours

Martin

[Sal Santamaura]

A follow up question about Technika-type lens boards for the Ebony SV45Ti and its variants. I own Ebony SV57 and SV Wholeplate cameras. Both of them have two vertical rise alignment dots on their front standards, separated by around 7mm. The lower one (green) is to be used for lenses mounted on lens boards with holes drilled centered in their light traps. The upper dot (red) is for lenses mounted on lens boards with holes drilled offset down in their light traps, like the Copal 0 and Copal 1 Ebony brand boards shown in post #2 above.

Pictures of the Ebony SV45Ti show a single, red alignment dot on the front standard. That, combined with the downward-offset holes in Ebony's own lens boards, leads me to conclude that one cannot center a lens vertically on the film if it's mounted on a center-drilled lens board. The only workaround I can imagine would be to crank in 7mm of rear rise. Not an easily repeatable procedure, unless one adds reference marks back there too.

Would anyone who owns a folding 4x5 Ebony camera please confirm or refute my analysis? Thanks in advance.

[Steve Barber]

A follow up question about Technika-type lens boards for the Ebony SV45Ti and its variants. I own Ebony SV57 and SV Wholeplate cameras. Both of them have two vertical rise alignment dots on their front standards, separated by around 7mm. The lower one (green) is to be used for lenses mounted on lens boards with holes drilled centered in their light traps. The upper dot (red) is for lenses mounted on lens boards with holes drilled offset down in their light traps, like the Copal 0 and Copal 1 Ebony brand boards shown in post #2 above.

Pictures of the Ebony SV45Ti show a single, red alignment dot on the front standard. That, combined with the downward-offset holes in Ebony's own lens boards, leads me to conclude that one cannot center a lens vertically on the film if it's mounted on a center-drilled lens board. The only workaround I can imagine would be to crank in 7mm of rear rise. Not an easily repeatable procedure, unless one adds reference marks back there too.

Would anyone who owns a folding 4x5 Ebony camera please confirm or refute my analysis? Thanks in advance.

On mine, the red mark centers the holes drilled offset down on the lensboard. If you want to center a lensboard with the hole drilled in the center of the light trap, you just move the standard down, away from the red mark, the necessary amount.

[Sal Santamaura]

On mine, the red mark centers the holes drilled offset down on the lensboard. If you want to center a lensboard with the hole drilled in the center of the light trap, you just move the standard down, away from the red mark, the necessary amount.

Thanks very much. I seem to have assumed that, since there was only the single red dot, no further front fall would be available. Like a Technika or Wista VX/SP. Otherwise, why leave off the green dot? Yet another example of why one ought never assume.