Odd image shift question

[Moopheus]

I recently purchased a 4x5 Shen-Hao field camera, and have been wasting a little film getting used to it. Up to now I've been using a Speed Graphic, so obviously the Shen Hao has a much wider range of movements. Anyway, I think I've started to get focusing and exposure under control, and I've noticed an odd problem: the images are horizontally shifted from where I was expecting them.

I thought I had this one centered:



The house shouldn't be cut off here:



And I actually used front shift on this, but not this much:



Now, since I'm a relative noob with this sort of thing, I suppose it could be operator error. But the same error in several different places? I was using a Grafmatic at the time, and I've checked to make sure it is seated properly. And I've never noticed this problem with the Speed.

Is there an optical or mechanical cause for this, or is it something I'm doing wrong?

[Jon Shiu]

Take the ground glass back off and insert your film holder without the slide. Look at the film area from the inside the back. Then take the film holder out and look at the ground glass from inside. How do they compare.

Jon

[Doremus Scudder]

Take the ground glass back off and insert your film holder without the slide. Look at the film area from the inside the back. Then take the film holder out and look at the ground glass from inside. How do they compare.

Jon

... and make sure your camera isn't moving when you insert the filmholder and pull the darkslide (that's happened to me a time or two).

It could be that your Grafmatic back simply doesn't seat where a normal filmholder would, or that you are mounting it off-center somehow. If you are using the Graflok back to mount your Grafmatic (i.e., removing the ground glass and using the two sliding rails to mount the Grafmatic), you can simply take the back off the camera with the Grafmatic attached and see how the opening aligns.

Best,

Doremus

[Moopheus]

On closer examination, it does appear that the frame that holds the glass is slightly off-center relative to the image area, but only by a couple of millimeters at most. It doesn't look like enough to cause what I'm seeing. When I put in a film holder or Grafmatic, and look down the front of the camera, the film window appears properly centered in the image area.

[Ari]

Is everything on your camera locked down tight?
Any creep of the front standard?

[Leigh]

Are the standards square with the rail?

A very slight rotation of the front standard about the vertical axis could cause this.

It would probably not be noticeable under casual examination.

- Leigh

[Leonard Evens]

Are the standards square with the rail?

A very slight rotation of the front standard about the vertical axis could cause this.

It would probably not be noticeable under casual examination.

- Leigh

I agree that if the standards are not parallel, that would cause a shift in the image, but you should see it on the ground glass.

What you are describing most likely is caused by the film not being in the same position relative to the lens that the ground glass is.

[Graham Patterson]

It could be that the camera is twisting on the tripod mount when the film holder is inserted. Unless you check the framing on the ground glass after removing the holder, you might not notice.