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Vlad Soare
29-Oct-2008, 01:51
Hi,

I'm trying to help a friend figure out how to use his Technika. Although at first glance the opening in the back seems to be 3x4", I'm not sure if Technikas were ever available in this format. Were they? If not, then it's a 2x3".

First, how can I tell whether it's a III, a IV or a V?

Second, how on Earth do you lower the bed? The side hinges allow me to set the bed in one of two preset positions: either normal, or very slightly lowered. The slightly lowered position doesn't seem to be enough for wide angle lenses. Shouldn't the bed drop completely out of the way when necessary? How can I do that?
On the other hand, if the bed dropped completely you couldn't focus the lens, since there would be no rails for the front standard to slide on. :confused:
In the lower position, the front standard can still slide on the focusing rails, but it's obviously tilted, so one must use backward tilt on the front standard to bring it parallel to the film plane. Is this the usual way of working, or am I missing something? :confused:

The camera has a triple rangefinder cam, matched with three of his lenses. I've checked the serial numbers, they all match. So far, so good. But only one cam is acting on the rangefinder as you focus, so I'm guessing the cams must be manually set to an initial position when you change the lens. Probably with the corresponding cam towards the rangefinder mechanism, right?

Does the camera have front swings? If it does, I can't figure out how to use them.

Front rise was easy to figure out, but how about fall? Is front fall only achievable indirectly, by tilting both standards backwards? I thought about mounting the camera upside down on the tripod and using front rise, but it doesn't seem to have a tripod socket on the top.

Do you guys know where I could find a user's manual?

I used to think large format cameras were just boxes with bellows, and nothing more... :)

Thank you.

Peter K
29-Oct-2008, 03:59
The Technika 2x3" is a camera with view-finder and not a studio camera in the first hand. Of course one can use it with a tripod, ldrop the bed and swing the lens so the standard is parallel to the film again. But in this case the viewfinder cannot be used. Super WA-lenses wheren't aviable in the time the camera was made. So one cannot expect a camera made in the fifties is ready for lenses made in the ninties.

The camera can be used upside down, but you will need an outtrigger arm mounted on the tripod head. This part can sometimes found in online auctions.

The diiference between T III and T IV 2x3" is very small, it's only the lever to remove the ground-glass holder used with the T IV compared with the four sliders at the T III. The T V 2x3" has the viewfinder not on the top of the camera but like the "big sisters" at the right side.

Mark Sampson
29-Oct-2008, 04:38
Vlad, look at cameraquest.com. There are several pages about Technikas there that may help.

David A. Goldfarb
29-Oct-2008, 06:52
First, how can I tell whether it's a III, a IV or a V?

As mentioned above, see cameraquest.com


In the lower position, the front standard can still slide on the focusing rails, but it's obviously tilted, so one must use backward tilt on the front standard to bring it parallel to the film plane.

Yes, that's the way it works. The bed doesn't swing completely out of the way, but it moves enough for just about any lens you would use on the camera. If you wanted to try to rig up a 47mm or wider lens and the bed were in the way for verticals, you could rotate the back and turn the camera sideways.


The camera has a triple rangefinder cam, matched with three of his lenses. I've checked the serial numbers, they all match. So far, so good. But only one cam is acting on the rangefinder as you focus, so I'm guessing the cams must be manually set to an initial position when you change the lens. Probably with the corresponding cam towards the rangefinder mechanism, right?

Just loosen the screw by hand and turn the cam so the cam for the lens you are using faces the red arrow on the right side of the bed when you are looking at the camera from the front. When you pull the standard forward onto the rail, the cam will turn 90 degrees to engage with the rangefinder linkage.

Make sure the standard is set to the appropriate color coded infinity stops for the lens. If the colors match, but the lens doesn't focus to infinity in the infinity position, it may be that the top rail needs to be retracted one or two stops for wide lenses, and the bed may need to be dropped. For long lenses, the top rail may need to be extended one stop.


Does the camera have front swings?

No, but you have rear swings and can turn the camera for indirect front swing, or you can turn the camera on its side, rotate the back, and use front tilt as front swing.


Front rise was easy to figure out, but how about fall? Is front fall only achievable indirectly, by tilting both standards backwards? I thought about mounting the camera upside down on the tripod and using front rise, but it doesn't seem to have a tripod socket on the top.

You can do indirect front fall, drop the bed and raise the front standard, mount the camera upside down with the outrigger arm mentioned above or with a similar device, or turn the camera sideways, rotate the back, and use front shift for rise/fall.


Do you guys know where I could find a user's manual?

They show up on eBay, but why not e-mail Linhof, and maybe they'll send you one.

Vlad Soare
30-Oct-2008, 00:24
Thanks, guys, I think I understand now.
I had visited CameraQuest a lot of times before, looking for Leica and Voigdländer info, but I didn't know it also covered Technikas. Thanks for the suggestion. :)
The camera doesn't have a built-in viewfinder/rangefinder combination. Instead, the rangefinder is on the right side, and the viewfinder is an external piece mounted in the accessory shoe. I guess this makes it a V?

Not being able to use super-wides is no big deal, but a 65mm should work fine, given that a 65mm lens having a matched rangefinder cam was sold with the camera. At first glance, without having done any tests, it seemed to us that the bed, even it its lower position, would get into the picture when the lens were focused at infinity. But who knows, maybe we were wrong. :)

Thank you all.

Peter K
30-Oct-2008, 03:21
It's a Super Technika V 2 1/4 x 3 1/4. This camera has the same case and bed as the Technika 70. Lenses from 53mm up to 270mm can be used with the rangefinder. As David mentioned before, turne the whole camera 90° so the bed doesn't get in the picture.

David A. Goldfarb
30-Oct-2008, 06:35
With my 55/4.5 Apo-Grandagon, which is cammed, I set the standard to the infinity stop, drop the bed one notch, tilt the standard back to compensate for the bed drop, and push the top rail back two stops, and the bed does not appear in the frame with the back set to vertical, even focused at infinity, and the rangefinder is spot on. Checking with the back removed, there is plenty of room to spare, and there is no amount of camera movement I could apply that could cause the bed to enter the frame.

Of course you have to be aware of the lens rising and falling as you focus with the bed dropped and frame with a margin of error when using the viewfinder, but in fact the amount of focus travel with a wide lens is small, so vertical displacement is a relatively small issue, and if you need to frame tightly, you can always compose on the groundglass.

Whether there is an issue with the bed entering the frame will also depend on the lens. Modern wide lenses for LF tend to be slightly retrofocus, so they are actually a bit farther out on the rail than older lenses of the same focal length. For instance, I don't need to drop the bed with a 90/8 Super-Angulon on my 4x5" Tech V, but I do with a 90/6.8 Angulon.