Lens Board Compatibilty

[seabee1999]

Currently I have a Calumet CC-400 series 4x5. Potentially, I might be, in the very near future, desiring to purchase a smaller field 4x5 to take out on treks. As much as I like my monorail, it is cumbersome to hike more than half a mile away from my car. Besides the CC-402 (short rail) what other cameras have lens boards that are compatible with my current camera?

My hope is to find a folding camera that has similar lens board compatibility and not have to get another complete set of lens boards. I tried a few searches on Google and here but didn't find much. Maybe I looked in the wrong spot or worded my search incorrectly.

Thanks for your time and assistance.

R/
Dave

[Dan Fromm]

An incomplete listing: http://www.skgrimes.com/products/lens-boards

Your Calumet CC-40x isn't listed. I believe that it is the same 4" x 4" board used by some B&J cameras. As far as I know, no folding 4x5 camera uses these boards but I could be mistaken.

[seabee1999]

An incomplete listing: http://www.skgrimes.com/products/lens-boards

Your Calumet CC-40x isn't listed. I believe that it is the same 4" x 4" board used by some B&J cameras. As far as I know, no folding 4x5 camera uses these boards but I could be mistaken.

Thank you for the link and info Dan. I tried it during another search and it didn't work for me then but does now. Perhaps you are right. I was hoping that I could just plug and play with my current boards. Maybe it is just not feasible.

R/
Dave

[Huub]

Try thinking the other way around. Quite a few of the field camera's take linhof-style lens boards, Toyo being one of the main exceptions. There are adaptor boards between Calumet camera's and Linhof style boards, which would make it possible to put any lens mounted on a Linhof board on the Calumet camera. The down side is that you have to put all your lenses on the smaller Linhof boards, which would leave you with some redundant Calumet boards.

[Bob Salomon]

Try thinking the other way around. Quite a few of the field camera's take linhof-style lens boards, Toyo being one of the main exceptions. There are adaptor boards between Calumet camera's and Linhof style boards, which would make it possible to put any lens mounted on a Linhof board on the Calumet camera. The down side is that you have to put all your lenses on the smaller Linhof boards, which would leave you with some redundant Calumet boards.

You really are not specific enough. Linhof currently makes many different size lens boards.

For the Technika they make 23 boards, 45 boards and 57 boards. Then they make the Linhof Kardan boards and finally they make the M679 lens boards.

In the past they also made boards for the older then the IV series Technikas.

Many companies make or made adapter boards for the current series of Technika 45/Techno/Technikardan boards. Some may only accept flat Technika boards while others may before eased Technika boards.

[seabee1999]

Thank you for the info so far. I am mulling a few things right now. I am just not quite sure which direction to go. More than likely, I'll just get the best folding field camera I can afford and get a couple boards to compliment my current lenses. Like I said before, I was hoping for a plug an play solution, however it might not be practical.

R/
Dave

[Mark Sampson]

The 4x5 Linhof Technika board, and its many copies, is too close in size to the Calumet 4x4 board for an adapter plate to work.

[Jim Jones]

The 4x5 Linhof Technika board, and its many copies, is too close in size to the Calumet 4x4 board for an adapter plate to work.

I think it can be done, but that's one of those many things on my todo list.