Any Canham owners having trouble with generic Chinese lensboards?

[senderoaburrido]

I intended to use a 110mm square Chinese generic recessed board on the Canham DLC 45 to mount the 47mm SA XL and the board doesn't quite fit. I don't know whether it's poorly machined, although I assume the camera is not at fault here. It appears that the recess is actually too wide, such that it cannot slide back behind the bellows where they attached to the front standard bellows frame piece.

I also have a 14" lens that will not fit through the Technika>Canham adapter's hole when the flange is attached. The flange is what makes the difference.

A simple solution would be to purchase a 110mm board, however those fresh Canham-produced boards are 50 USD apiece, which is quite expensive. I'd need two of them as well, which is quite a high price in Canadian dollars, easily as much as a cheap lens. I've also looked at using one of the Linhof Copal 0 recessed boards I have, however the components for original assembly for the shutter release are missing. I've been having a hard time replacing them. Nippon Camera didn't have them. Precision Camera Works didn't either.

Cost is not the only concern, either. The Linhof adapter for the Canham is fixed in place by a small screw. If I was to take the 14" lens or the 47mm SA XL and any other lens with me, it would not be ideal to be removing the screw in the field. All my other lenses are already in Linhof boards.

Wondering if anyone has had similar problems, and proposed solutions.

For the 14" lens, I'm thinking perhaps there are slightly thinner mounting flanges out there. If I could get one similar to what I've seen on one of my enlarger lenses before, it would work. Haven't seen one in Copal 3 size, though.

[Luis-F-S]

I intended to use a 110mm square Chinese generic board on the Canham DLC 45 to mount the 47mm SA XL and the board doesn't quite fit.
A simple solution would be to purchase a 110mm board, however those fresh Canham-produced boards are 50 USD apiece, which is quite expensive.

Yes, but I bet those fit! You get what you pay for. L

[Michael Kadillak]

Yes, but I bet those fit! You get what you pay for. L

No it is not the cameras fault. I completely agree with Luis. If the lens board does not fit it is worthless which is precisely why all of my boards are from the camera manufacturers. The reality is that Large Format is not cheap. If you can afford the 47mm SA XL, you surely can afford the proper lens board because it would be absolutely foolish to attempt to get the camera standard to accept the generic Chinese board.

[jose angel]

For sure not the answer the OP is looking for but I agree with those above. I find it to be a nonsense to buy a Porsche and then to save with budget tires.
FWIW, most of my 3rd party boards are badly made. For whatever the reason they fit either too loose or too tight, (or even no fit at all!). Money loose. Same for 3rd party adapters (some of them really expensive and from "reputable" 3rd party manufacturers), usually too loose fitting. What a pain. Anyway, tight or no-fit-at-all boards use to be fixed with a bit of Dremel work.

But it`s also true that for compatibility issues, after some time using my Canham I started to switch to Technika type boards (original and third party). I bet many people think this way. Now, after a long time using them, I can say that I far prefer the original Canhams, specially with UW and longish non-tele lenses. They are extremely well made, with the right size, very consistent with this kind of camera. Technika boards are another great design, perfect for Technika type cameras, but IMHO not the best option with e.g., a DLC type camera amongst others.

At the end, I use different lenses in different cameras, so I usually don`t need to make them compatible at all. E.g., I cannot use a 47XL on my Technika model, nor a 420, so I don`t have them on Technika boards. When I take a DLC is mostly because I want a wider circle lens, or a UW, so usually with bigger sized lenses. Technika boards are the best with smallish, lighter lenses, very consistent with Technika type cameras (a lens in Copal 3 is not the best choice for a Technika!).

So my advice is to go with Canham boards... I think they are 110-Toyo alike so very likely Toyo ones also fit. Maybe others could confirm this.

[senderoaburrido]

The problem here is that as far as I know, Canham does not produce recessed Copal 0 lensboards. The Linhof adapter, I am pretty sure, is 1st party.

[Peter Collins]

On generic lensboards a la Technika--
I purchased from Badger Graphics (Wisconsin) Technika copies labeled on back "Shen Hao China" for my Chamonix 45N-2. They fit just fine. If I need more lens boards, I will buy them from Badger.

[AJ Edmondson]

KEH Camera has a Canham lens board w/65 mm hole for $17 (US). Looks like it may need some touching up. The adapter you have is indeed a KB Canham adapter (not 3rd party) - I bought it directly from Keith.

Joel

[djdister]

My experience - if you are using the stock lens board for the DLC (or MQC), then by all means use an original Canham board. If you use the Canham Technika adapter, you can use a variety of Technika and Technika-knockoff lens boards, to greater or lesser effect.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Canham never made a recessed board. The 110mm recessed boards were designed for Toyo cameras. They fit on my current wooden Canham, but not with the DLC I owned.

[Huub]

How about ordering an original 110mm Toyo recessed lensboard form a company with a good return policy? In my experience the original Toyo boards are pretty well made and when they don't fit, you can always return.

[senderoaburrido]

How about ordering an original 110mm Toyo recessed lensboard form a company with a good return policy? In my experience the original Toyo boards are pretty well made and when they don't fit, you can always return.
Perhaps I could have someone in this thread with one already give me a measurement of the horizontal dimensions of the recess. The issue I'm having with the recessed board is that there is a small lip of bellows material folded on the inside of the front standard's bellow frame endpiece that extends into the hole. There is just not quite enough clearance for the recess itself to pass through. If the Toyo boards have a slightly smaller recess in terms of width/length, regardless of depth, it should work. I've got calipers on hand and will check the dimensions of clearance.

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

Not sure this is what you mean by horizontal, but at its thickest my recessed Toyo measures just under 89mm in one direction and just over 87mm in the other (see attached images).

[jose angel]

The problem here is that as far as I know, Canham does not produce recessed Copal 0 lens boards...
Not the cheapest fix, Canham`s original solution are not recessed boards but a bag bellows. With it, you can fully decenter almost any shortest lens.
A recessed board in the standard bellows (when fitting, as you say the bellows doesn`t leave full clearance) will also impede movements. And if the recessed board is not recessed enough, you may be still fighting against bellows compression (put aside the pain of using shutter controls inside that kind of boards).