Lensboard strategy

[jonreid]

Hi all,

I have a Deardorff 5x7 and have 6 lenses mounted on (mostly homemade) 4x4 lensboards. I'm looking at acquiring a 5x7 SINAR Norma shortly. Whether I keep the Norma in the long term remains to be seen. I wanted to invite the forums wisdom with regards to the best lensboard strategy. I'll only get one lensboard with the camera.

So the choice seems to be to source and acquire 5 more lensboards with the correct shutter holes or to get an adaptor board and put them all on Technika style boards. I can see there'd be considerable space savings in keeping 4inch boards over 140mm squares.

Could the Deardorff boards be used with a SINAR to Technika adaptor board?

Jon

[Oren Grad]

Could the Deardorff boards be used with a SINAR to Technika adaptor board?

Sinar-to-Technika adapters vary in design, but still, the answer is almost certainly not. The problem is that the Technika board is a thin metal board, a bit smaller than 4x4, with a distinctive non-rectangular shape including tapered corners and some notches on the bottom. The retaining hardware on the adaptors is designed accordingly.

[jonreid]

Yeah, I kind of figured that with the rebate on the back of the deardorff boards but though I may as well ask.

Jon

[Oren Grad]

You could have a 4" Deardorff-to-Sinar adapter made, but at a shop like SK Grimes it might cost you a couple of hundred dollars.

[jonreid]

Even the Technika-Sinar adaptors are quite expensive. I think I should probably look into cheap generic technika boards and an adaptor board.

[Oren Grad]

Securely mounting Technika boards to a 4x4" Deardorff front standard may be tricky. I'm not sure there's enough room to make an adapter board, but it might also work with an adapter frame that's retained in a sandwich with the Technika board by the existing front standard hardware - like Keith Canham does with his Technika adapter frame.

[jonreid]

Sorry Oren, I think you misunderstand. I'm looking to use lenses mounted on small boards on a SINAR. If I decide not to keep the Norma I'll go back to the Deardorff boards.

[adam satushek]

Another vote for SK Grimes adaptors. I have a Sinar to KB Canham adaptor made by them and its great. Canham boards are readily available and fairly cheap even new. (and they have cool milling marks on the back which I like). Even though i no longer own a Canham camera I keep all my lenses on his boards for use on my Sinars. My adaptor cost around $160, but that was several years ago, and in my opinion worth every penny. It would be pretty expensive to get 2 adaptors (1 for your Deardorf and 1 for the Sinar) made I imagine, but they are nice, and standardizing on one board is pretty handy in my experience.

Anyways, just my thoughts, best of luck to you!

[cdholden]

Another vote for SK Grimes adaptors. I have a Sinar to KB Canham adaptor made by them and its great. Canham boards are readily available and fairly cheap even new. (and they have cool milling marks on the back which I like). Even though i no longer own a Canham camera I keep all my lenses on his boards for use on my Sinars. My adaptor cost around $160, but that was several years ago, and in my opinion worth every penny. It would be pretty expensive to get 2 adaptors (1 for your Deardorf and 1 for the Sinar) made I imagine, but they are nice, and standardizing on one board is pretty handy in my experience.

Anyways, just my thoughts, best of luck to you!

+1
I adopted the Canham boards for my Sinar system to save space when packing. I also have the SKG Sinar/Canham adapter. I only use Sinar boards for my larger lenses that don't fit on the smaller Canham boards.
Metal to metal is probably a more precise fit than metal to wood, but I don't see why a Sinar to (smaller) Deardorff board couldn't be made if the funds are available.

[jonreid]

Thanks Adam and cdholden,
I'll look into Canham boards and adapter. All of my lenses thus far fit on the 4x4 deardorff boards. The largest of my lenses would be the 300mm f5.6 Sinaron S.


Thanks,

Jon