Do you use the rear movements on your Technika?

[Bill_1856]

Do you use the rear movements on your Technika, or rely mostly on the extensive front movements?

[Brian Ellis]

I mostly relied on the extensive front movements with my Tech V and Master Tech rather than using back movements. All the loosening, adjusting, tightening, more loosening, and more tightening of up to four knobs potentially involved when using back movements (16 possible steps) made it kind of a PITA and generally unnecessary for me given all the front movements. About the only time I routinely used back movements was to avoid converging verticals when aiming a camera up (e.g. to get the top of a tall building in the photograph) when front rise alone wasn't sufficient.

[evan clarke]

I always keep the back square to eliminate distortions and only use rear shift. I do tilts and swings on the front and use rear focus...EC

[Gudmundur Ingolfsson]

I would like to know how to do a rear shift on a Technika, please tell me !

[Frank Petronio]

I will do either back tilt or swing by loosening all four knobs and pulling the back out, then sliding one side in and re-locking the two corresponding knobs. Properly adjusted, it is very solid. Still, I prefer the full moves of a monorail.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I occasionally use the rear movements, mainly for things like getting additional rear rise/front fall without turning the camera upside down. If I'm shooting a still life, where I really plan to use rear movements, I use the Sinar P.

How to do rear rise on a Technika? Tilt back and front standards in parallel and tilt the camera down on the tripod head so that the back is plumb to the ground. Opposite way for rear fall. You can measure the tilt angle with a clinometer or an app like "Handy Level" on an iPhone, if you have one.

Rear shift likewise. Swing back and front in parallel and turn the camera so it is square with the subject. You can use a compass to measure swing angles. I use a Suunto clinometer-compass or my iPhone for this.