I just acquired an ansco 5x7. I'm having two problems which I believe may be related. Here's the two problems:

The first problem I'm having is the bellows getting in the way of movements. I'm using a 180mm lens, so just slightly wider than normal. When I focus at infinity the front and rear standard are only 1" apart, so when I go to use front rise the very stiff bellows don't allow very much front rise at all. I'm thinking my only solution may be bag bellows. Distance from film plane to middle of lens board is about 4 3/4". For a 7" lens this cannot be right.

Second problem, I cannot seem to get a sharp image on the GG. It's so close to being sharp but just not quite. I even tried focussing my loupe at different distances and nothing worked. I had a Wista 4x5 in the past and the GG and fresnel was crisp and sharp. If the GG on my ansco is original could it just be not up to par with modern GG with a fresnel?

Btw.. I'm using a Rodenstock 180/5.6 Sironar-N and a Rodenstock 4x loupe.