Fold chamonix with lens inside?

[sethlatimer]

Does anybody know if a small lens will fold up inside a chamonix 45n-2? Mine are all too big. I imagine with a small lens (say a 135) mounted backward it may be possible. What lens would you recommend?
Seth

[Ulrich Drolshagen]

I think this will be technically impossible, no matter what size the lens is. Folded, the front is lying flat on the base board without any space between.

Ulrich

[Preston]

Ulrich is correct. It can't be done.

--P

[sully75]

I have an old, very small Fuji 150mm. I'm not sure what style it is, but it's much smaller than any of the other fuji lenses I have. It's in a seiko shutter.

Anyway, it fits in between the bellows and the groundglass. I have to find something to wrap it in so it doesn't scratch or break the glass.

It's kind of a pre-modern lens, I think, but I must admit, it takes pretty nice pictures.

It looks something like this:
http://www.subclub.org/fujinon/150w63.jpg

but I think that's a different shutter.

[sully75]

I'm always super impressed with this little lens. It looks like it's going to be a dog but never seems to fail:

Sasha Hsuczyk by Paul McEvoy, on Flickr

[Kuzano]

I'm always super impressed with this little lens. It looks like it's going to be a dog but never seems to fail:

Sasha Hsuczyk by Paul McEvoy, on Flickr

That looks like a Copal 0 Shutter.

I have two of the Fujinar 150 lenses... very small, and one is in a Seiko and one in a Copal ). The Seiko shutter is about a quarter inch thicker.

Love the picture, and nice to see that Fuji glass does for you what it's always done for me. Lovely draw of the lens.

[sully75]

Yeah that lens just seems to work. It seems to have everything stacked against it. It even seems to have pretty good coverage. Never tested it. Gets a little soft in the corners if you make big movements but I generally don't.

I also tried it backwards in the front standard. It has very little behind the lensboard. It sort of works with the camera folded up, but the back of the lens hits against the base of the camera. So...it's pretty cruel to the camera and lens.

I wonder though if you had a lensboard that had a little extension on it, it would probably fit in reversed in the front standard.

[D. Bryant]

Does anybody know if a small lens will fold up inside a chamonix 45n-2? Mine are all too big. I imagine with a small lens (say a 135) mounted backward it may be possible. What lens would you recommend?
Seth

Choose your lenses on how they perform, not if they can be stored in the camera when folded, which won't work anyway.

[sully75]

Choose your lenses on how they perform, not if they can be stored in the camera when folded, which won't work anyway.

Actually this lens can 100% be stored inside the camera (between the bellows and the ground glass), no problem. And it's a great lens. So don't poop on my party, ok?

[Ken Lee]

If you're looking for a camera which will let you do this, I know that the Linhof Technika will do it, and so will a Tachihara, with several lenses.

John Sexton mentions the Technika it on his web site, with a 200mm Nikkor M.

You can see photos of the Tachihara with a 200mm Nikkor M here. The Tachihara will also close with a 150mm Rodenstock APO Sironar S - and others I am sure. You just need to put the lens-board in backwards. You don't need a lens cap, but I put it on just in case.

It makes things very handy when you can do this. If only I could figure out a way to keep the cable release on too

Another option is to use a non-folding model that lets you leave a lens on all the time. Any monorail will do, as will a hybrid monorail-folder like a Kodak 2D.