Will 3rd party "Linhof" lens boards work OK in a 4x5" Chamonix?

[AtlantaTerry]

Yes, the folks at Chamonix make some very nice carbon fiber Linhof-style lens boards but at $75 they are kinda expensive.

So I was looking around FleaBay and noticed some metal Linhof-compatible lens boards for about 1/4th the cost of the carbon fiber ones.

I'm not sure if all the sellers on FleaBay are selling boards from the same manufacturer or if there are a several makers.

Does anyone here have experience with these 3rd party boards? Would any or all of them work properly in my new Chamonix F1?

Do they need any modification to work properly? Such as sanding down some of paint or edges? (I read somewhere that a photographer had to do that.)

Thanks,
Terry

[richardman]

If they are linhof compatible, then it will almost certainly work. I have at least 6-8 lensboard, and may be one is from Chamonix. They all work fine. Not CF though, if you care about that, but the lens and camera far outweighs the lensboard

[Eric Leppanen]

Based on my samples, Linhof and Wista brand lens boards are slightly thicker, have better flatness and are manufactured to tighter tolerances than third party boards, so they are easier to install and remove from the camera. Some years ago I bought a bunch of third party boards which worked adequately on my Ebony wood cameras, but a significant number of them would not work at all on my Arca monorail. I currently own a Chamonix 057Fs-1 (which appears to have the same lens board mounting mechanism as your F1), and while all of my lens boards fit on this camera, the third party ones (including a couple Toyo-branded boards) require slightly (admittedly not a lot) more effort to lock down and remove than my Linhof and Wista boards. However, all of these boards previously fit my Arca (I had previously sold off the boards that didn't), so it is possible there are third-party boards that might be more problematic on the Chamonix, I really don't know.

[richardman]

To be clear, mine is a Chamonix F1 as well. It is possible that a lensboard or two are tighter than others, but none really gives me any problem per se.

[Lightbender]

They should all work. But one thing to note is that on my Shen-Hao, I cannot use a linhof recessed lens board. The doughnut that is recessed is just a hair wider than my Shen Hao will accept.
I dont know if the Chamonix is like that or not.

[richardman]

They should all work. But one thing to note is that on my Shen-Hao, I cannot use a linhof recessed lens board. The doughnut that is recessed is just a hair wider than my Shen Hao will accept.
I dont know if the Chamonix is like that or not.

I have a linhof recessed board and it works fine on my Chamonix F1

[AtlantaTerry]

Update:
I just ordered two Nikon brand Linhof-compatible boards from Kumar (Copal #0 and Copal #1).

I also purchased a Copal #3 from a FleaBay vendor. The board is marked "TYGER RJ / China".

I will test fit and finish then report back here how well they compare to the Chamonix boards.

Thanks,
Terry

[dave_whatever]

All the lensboards I have work fine in the Chamonix - Linhof, Wista, Ebony, ShenHao and non-brand eBay chinese cheapo ones. The thickest and therefore tightest are the wood-faced Ebony ones, but that's the price you pay for vanity.

[Drew Wiley]

True Linhof boards are also expensive, and some of them have the hole off-center, so you need to be specific about not only the shutter size, but where the hole
is positioned. Generic boards are a crap shoot. I use Bromwell ones, and they're just fine. But I've tried other ones coming in from China which fit poorly, or were
otherwise so rough and badly finished as to be functionally worthless.

[Bob Salomon]

True Linhof boards are also expensive, and some of them have the hole off-center, so you need to be specific about not only the shutter size, but where the hole
is positioned. Generic boards are a crap shoot. I use Bromwell ones, and they're just fine. But I've tried other ones coming in from China which fit poorly, or were
otherwise so rough and badly finished as to be functionally worthless.
All Linhof boards have the hole in the same place except for a couple of 3 size Zpezial boards who have a Z after the catalog number.

[Corran]

I personally have had only one "Linhof" type board fail to work on my Chamonix 45n1 - a Wista brand board which was oversized very slightly. It still worked if I pushed it firmly into place. When I ordered a bunch of boards on eBay many years ago from one of the Chinese sellers, what I received were Shen-Hao marked boards and very nicely made.

Speaking of Shen-Hao, Linhof recessed boards work fine on my Shen-Hao 6x17, as do all my Linhof-type boards that I have used.

Just some anecdotal data points to add.

[seezee]

I've bought & used 3 of the Chinese Linhof/Wista boards on a Wista 45DX with no issues. 1 was pre-milled for a No. 0 Copal; the other 2 were un-milled so I could have custom-sized holes milled for "in barrel" lenses. The biggest drawback was the long wait time for delivery.

YMMV.

[Michael Graves]

My experience has been the same as Drew's. I purchased 3 of the Chinese generics. One was so thick it wouldn't fit at all, one was so thin it flopped around in the front standard and joy of joys, the third one worked fine.

I honed down the thick one, put a piece of light seal on the thin one and now they work okay, too. But you get what you pay for.