Joseph Kashi
13-Feb-2020, 01:48
While the 4x5 Gowland Pocket View ( also sold under the Calumet brand) is among the smallest and lightest 4x5 monorails of which I'm aware, my stock camera came new from Calumet with mostly Allen-head socket set screws to lock the rails and movements in use. It was "fiddly" to say the least and very awkward to try to set and lock down movements with an Allen wrench, particularly the front and back combined shift and swing movements that shifted and swung using a single Allen screw and a slot in the standard as both pivot and lock.
Luckily, virtually all of the movements and fiddly Allen set screws on my Gowland, bought in the early 1980s, use an M5 x .8 metric size. I purchased a $15 box of M5 clamping knobs on bolts of various lengths and another box of small M5 clamping levers. The clamping levers work well as pivots/locks for the tilts in place of the Allen hex head screws and various length clamping knobs substituted on the monorail block and front and rear swing/shift movements.
The front swing/shift Allen screw fit rather tightly and inaccessibly because of the Calumet name plate immediately in front of the OEM set screw but a longer 32-35mm clamping knob with a 25mm aluminum bushing from a local hardware store provided the offset needed to clear the name plate while still locking the front movement tightly.
For about $23 in various size M5 metric hardware from Amazon, my Gowland Pocket View is no longer so fiddly and loose as to be awkward to use in the field.
Some of these cameras apparently used different SAE and metric threads, so be measure and be sure of which size fits your camera before ordering.
Luckily, virtually all of the movements and fiddly Allen set screws on my Gowland, bought in the early 1980s, use an M5 x .8 metric size. I purchased a $15 box of M5 clamping knobs on bolts of various lengths and another box of small M5 clamping levers. The clamping levers work well as pivots/locks for the tilts in place of the Allen hex head screws and various length clamping knobs substituted on the monorail block and front and rear swing/shift movements.
The front swing/shift Allen screw fit rather tightly and inaccessibly because of the Calumet name plate immediately in front of the OEM set screw but a longer 32-35mm clamping knob with a 25mm aluminum bushing from a local hardware store provided the offset needed to clear the name plate while still locking the front movement tightly.
For about $23 in various size M5 metric hardware from Amazon, my Gowland Pocket View is no longer so fiddly and loose as to be awkward to use in the field.
Some of these cameras apparently used different SAE and metric threads, so be measure and be sure of which size fits your camera before ordering.