Hacking a Sinar F1

[davidb]

Tomorrow I will have a Sinar F1 and I am having crazy thoughts.

I want to hack the monorail down so that the longest lens I can put on it would
be a 90, so basically making it a wide angle camera.

Has anyone done this or do that make super short rails?

[Zach In Israel]

I have a Sinar F (Not sure exactly which one) the monorails can be swapped, so all you would have to do is get a shorter rail and maybe bag bellows.

[Greg Lockrey]

Not having access to my F1 right this moment, I would think that using a 6" extension for your main rail would be short enough fo a 90 mm max camera.

[davidb]

Would a 75mm work?

[Greg Lockrey]

I don't know if both standards and the base would fit on just 75mm.

[Gene McCluney]

A 6" rail is about as short as one can go on a Sinar, considering the front and back standards and the tripod mount all have to clamp to the rail. This is not a hack, it is an option.

[Struan Gray]

I agree with others that there is not much point in cutting a 6" rail down any further: you need that much room for two standards and a rail clamp.

One option though would be to remove the screw that allows you to attach other rail pieces to your 6". Getting rid of the red plastic screw head would save you an inch in the pack without losing any of the usable rail surface.

[Jean-Marie Solichon]

Yes a 75mm works well on a Sinar F1/F2 with bag bellows. I never tried with standard bellows but I believe it is not suitable. A fresnel lens is highly recommended with the 75 (I don't own a 90).

[David A. Goldfarb]

If you wanted to try to make the camera more compact on a 6" rail, there is a compact rail clamp that might help, but I don't think it lets you tilt the camera left to right like the standard rail clamp.

[Brian K]

I had SK Grimes hack a 6" rail down to 5" (so it would fit in smaller cases). That is about as small as you can go and would only have the fine focus knobs for adjustment. If you are using an F1, that means that all you have is the rear standard with fine focus. If I were you and wanted to only use the camera as a wide angle camera, i'd go with the 6" rail on and F2 camera(fraont and rear fine focus), buy the sinar end caps, they make ones specifically to terminate extension rails, put on a WA bellows, and stop there.

[Ed Richards]

I use a 65mm on an F2 with the bag bellows and a flat board. Works fine.

[davidb]

thanks guys.

[Frank Petronio]

Glenn Evans in Chicago really hacked the Sinar, see here:

http://www.glennview.com/sinar.htm

Halfway down...

[JW Dewdney]

I would DEFINITELY use a stock rail - since, if you SHORTEN one - it becomes unuseable for mating to other rails (you'd be cutting off the screw mount).

[Armin Seeholzer]

I used a 47 XL on my Sinar F1 with flat board now with a recessed one and still have my 55mm on a flat board!
So what, Armin

[Rob_5419]

This is Jean Phillippe Armande's adaptation:


http://galeries.nikonpassion.com/displayimage.php?album=topn&cat=-1183&pos=0

Note he uses a flat board (so what? :)

For the astute amongst you, you'll notice that he's moved the clamp out of the way and juxtaposed the two standards directly. That's the way it should be done for ultra-wides.

[davidb]

boy, I was thinking about selling the camera. now I've got some other ideas.

[davidb]

I think I have a different Sinar. Which one is this?

[Brian K]

I think I have a different Sinar. Which one is this?

That's an Alpina I think. Not an F1.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I think that's a Sinar A-1, which is a newer upgraded version of the Alpina, and I think they use the same rail. The scales and knobs are of recent vintage. Check the Glennview website and maybe Lens and Repro, and you might be able to find a 6" Alpina or A-1 rail--not a common item, but it exists. You might also look for a guy on eBay who goes by "apogeebee"--he's a NYC studio photographer who has a side business selling and collecting Sinar gear (prices on the high side, but he knows his stuff).

[davidb]

I just did some digging and it looks like an A-1.

Oh well.