Shen Hao and 75mm - bellows or recessed board?

[Daniel_5275]

Hi all,
I'm on the verge of buying a Shen Hao 4x5 but am wondering about using wide-angle. I'm trying to keep costs as low as possible (buying from USA, importing to UK) and don't want to buy anything I may not use, but need to buy all need in one go.

I have a Nikkor 75mm f5.6 which I will probably use a great deal, I doubt I'll want to go wider. The impression I get is that 90mm is about the limit for the Shen Hao's standard bellows (please correct me if I'm wrong). Should I buy the wide-angle bellows, or just a recessed lens board? If anyone has any experience of 75mm on Shen Hao, I'd love to hear what you find the best solution.

Thanks for reading/replying.

[Walter Foscari]

I did use a 75mm on a Shen-Hao. IMO bag bellows is the way to go, I always found recessed lensboards sort of a pain to use. The standard bellows was not flexible enough to get significant amounts of movements with a 90mm, never mind the 75mm. The bag bellows was OK, given what it costs, anyway. Visit the shen-hao user group for further input:
http://www.theplaceforpix.com/SHUG/index.php

[Robert McClure]

Daniel,

This discussion may be useful:

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=006joM.

Searching under "Shen Hao recessed" on Google turned up quite a lot.

Happy Thanksgiving

[Scott Davis]

As a confirmed Shen-Hao aficionado (not as nuts as some folks, but nonetheless a member of the booster club), I would definitely recommend the bag bellows with a 75. I don't know what you'll be shooting with it (architecture, or landscapes), but I found that I could often get away with using the standard bellows with the 75 because I wasn't using much movement with it for landscape or interior work. A little swing or tilt goes a very long way with a 75.

With a 90, I definitely wanted the bag bellows because it does bind up and limit your movements. The bag bellows are sort of a no-brainer as an accessory, since they're only $99 USD, and made of real leather. You'll get lots of use out of them since you can slide the rear standard forward and compress the camera. Also, since the Shen uses Linhof/Wista boards, there's not much room for the recess to fit a shutter inside and still access the controls.

The Shen is a wonderful, economical field camera that you'll be able to wring every penny worth out of in daily use, and not have to worry about if it shows the love you lavish upon it :) .

[Benoit Vollmer]

Hello,

I think the bag bellows is the way to go. I use it with a 90mm on my shen hao, and have never been limited in the movements.

If you are looking for a cheap shen hao, you should contact them directly. The export price is 3800 ren-min-bi, less than 280 GBP. Plus shipping and custom fees, off course.

here is the email of Zhang Fuming, president of shen hao camera company: zhangfmli@vip.sina.com , he speaks english

Benoit

[Dean Tomasula]

The bag bellows for the Shen-Hao will make your life so much easier. And since it is cheap, there's no reason not to get one.