PDA

View Full Version : Toyo to Technika adapter?



Darin Boville
21-Jul-2010, 13:08
Any here use a Toyo to Technika adapter?

I just bought a Toyo 45AX and all my lenses are on Technika boards. Even moreso, I'm thinking I'll leave them on the Technika boards, even after I sell my other view camera, since those are smaller.

But looking at picts of the adapter, I'm wondering if using it is a pain in the butt. The locking lever for the technika board seems awfully tight up against the locking lever for the Toyo. But I've never seen one in person nor could I find anything here on the board...

Should I get one or just change the boards?

--Darin

Darin Boville
21-Jul-2010, 20:33
Just to be clear, I'm interesting in learning first-hand experiences with the Toyo field camera to Technika adapter, not the Toyo monorail series...thanks!

--Darin

Victor Loverro
21-Jul-2010, 21:07
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/61106-REG/Toyo_View_180_635_Flat_Lensboard_Adapter_Technika_type.html

This is actually one of the better Linhof adapter boards. I have adapted these to non-Toyo cameras as well. They show up on the auction site periodically.

Oren Grad
21-Jul-2010, 21:10
FWIW, when I owned a Canham which accepted Toyo field boards, I had the Canham "Linhof Adapter Frame". This doesn't even have an independent retaining slider for the Technika board - it's just a frame that sits in the front standard opening, filling it just enough so that the Technika board has something to sit on and is held securely by the camera's own retaining slider.

You'd need to check with Keith Canham to verify that this would work on a Toyo - conceivably its function depends on some peculiarity of the front standard opening or of the retaining slider on the Canhams.

Darin Boville
21-Jul-2010, 21:10
Victor, are they easy to use--they aren't sort of tight with both rails being so close together?

--Darin

jeroldharter
21-Jul-2010, 23:03
The Canham lens boards are the same size as Toyo but slightly thicker and cheaper. I standardized to Canham boards which are ~$35 each and still available new. I have SK Grimes make any adapter boards that are needed. So if you have an Arca 8x10, you could make an Arca to Canham adapter board and I think use Canham boards on the Toyo also. Overall, that might be the cheapest option. Just some thoughts.

I use a Wehman to Canham adapter and an Arca to Canham adapter with good results.

Darin Boville
21-Jul-2010, 23:20
FWIW, when I owned a Canham which accepted Toyo field boards, I had the Canham "Linhof Adapter Frame". This doesn't even have an independent retaining slider for the Technika board - it's just a frame that sits in the front standard opening, filling it just enough so that the Technika board has something to sit on and is held securely by the camera's own retaining slider.

You'd need to check with Keith Canham to verify that this would work on a Toyo - conceivably its function depends on some peculiarity of the front standard opening or of the retaining slider on the Canhams.

Good lead--and sounds like a good design idea. Thanks!

--Darin

Darin Boville
21-Jul-2010, 23:26
The Canham lens boards are the same size as Toyo but slightly thicker and cheaper. I standardized to Canham boards which are ~$35 each and still available new. I have SK Grimes make any adapter boards that are needed. So if you have an Arca 8x10, you could make an Arca to Canham adapter board and I think use Canham boards on the Toyo also. Overall, that might be the cheapest option. Just some thoughts.

As it turns out--you must have ESP!--I *do* have an Arca 8x10 sitting here (actually, set up and shooting in my bedroom--not what you think!). I didn't realize before this thread that the Canham boards fit the Toyo.

Now I see that I have two broad options:

1) Standardize on Technika (smaller, already have them) and buy an adapter for the Toyo (already have one for the Arca).

2) Move to Canham boards (slightly larger, don't already have them) and use them natively on the Toyo and use another adapter on the Arca (I think I already have this adapter--a new-ish looking one from SK Grimes--you tell me!).

Is there any real advantage to #2 given its larger size and the fact that I'd have to buy all new boards?

--Darin

Darin Boville
21-Jul-2010, 23:39
Oh, one more thing I was thinking about--not sure if it is possible. If I used Technika boards I wondered whether I could take a recessed Toyo board and have SK Grimes attach an adapter to it reversed--so the board will stick *out* and I can mount my lenses there. Would be good for my 300 to focus it closer than fifteen feet...

--Darin

Barry Wilkinson
22-Jul-2010, 00:38
I have a Toyo 45AII and a Canham 5x12. My experience is that Toyo boards fit the Canham but the Canham boards are too thick to fit the Toyo. I use all Toyo boards for that reason. They may fit if forced but I don't want to do that.

BradS
22-Jul-2010, 10:24
When I had a Canham 5x7 wood field , I bought a Toyo brand adapter to allow use of Linhof Tech style board on the Canham. The Toyo adapter was very well made and was easy to use. I wouldn't bother with anything else. The trick is finding one at a reasonable price.

(as an aside for Canham owners: I had to have the groves in the Toyo adapter machined slightly to allow room for the humps on the Canham lens board retaining slider thingies.)

Darin Boville
22-Jul-2010, 11:11
Well, forget my fantasy about using a reversed recessed Toyo board with Technika adapter--SK Grimes just quoted me a price of $400 to make one.

Not sure why attaching a technika adapter to a recessed board is so much more than doing so on a regular board--or maybe this was just one of those f-you, I don't want to do it sorts of thing?

--Darin

BradS
22-Jul-2010, 12:31
My experience is that Toyo boards fit the Canham but the Canham boards are too thick to fit the Toyo.

This exactly mirrors my experience. I chose to standardize on Linhof Tech style boards for 4x5 and get adapters where necessary.

Oren Grad
22-Jul-2010, 13:08
Well, forget my fantasy about using a reversed recessed Toyo board with Technika adapter--SK Grimes just quoted me a price of $400 to make one.

Not sure why attaching a technika adapter to a recessed board is so much more than doing so on a regular board--or maybe this was just one of those f-you, I don't want to do it sorts of thing?

You can't just flip a factory-issue recessed board around - it won't fit in the camera's front standard that way. You'd need something pretty complicated machined from scratch. I wouldn't be surprised if the price SKG quoted is for precisely that.

Darin Boville
22-Jul-2010, 18:01
O.K., posted an ad for a Toyo-Technika adapter. We'll see how that goes.

Thanks,

--Darin

Darin Boville
22-Jul-2010, 18:27
You can't just flip a factory-issue recessed board around - it won't fit in the camera's front standard that way. You'd need something pretty complicated machined from scratch. I wouldn't be surprised if the price SKG quoted is for precisely that.

Are you saying that there wouldn't be enough room to mount the Technika stuff on the inside of the recessed Toyo board once it was reversed--that is what I was worried about in my earlier post.

As a general rule, at least on the cameras I'm familiar with, it is trivial to mount a recessed lensboard reversed to gain close focus--I did it just now with my Arca and used to do it all of the time with my Calumet. Pretty sure I did it with a Toyo 45AII when I last had one.

I'm not sure the words "lens board" and "complicated" are supposed to go together :)

(Edit: Just tried a Sinar. No luck reversing the lens board du to the baffle. Bad Sinar, bad.)

--Darin

Oren Grad
22-Jul-2010, 19:13
How easy a lensboard is to reverse depends on how large the more-or-less flat area around the edges is, whether there are complex grooves or other features, and how closely the opening in the camera's front standard is designed to fit any such special features.

Anyway, I've just been rummaging around in my lensboard drawer; I still have some Toyo/Canham-type hardware. I have a Toyo-brand recessed Horseman field-to-Toyo field adapter; the edges on that one are flat enough and just deep enough that I can imagine it would indeed fit some cameras when reversed.

As it happens, I also still have a Toyo-brand Technika-to-Toyo field adapter. Having just had a good look at it for the first time in a while, now I can answer your original question directly. No, it shouldn't be a nuisance to use. It's thicker than you'd imagine just looking at a straight-on picture. There's plenty of clearance for the retaining slider on the camera to fit into the matching groove on the adapter, without interfering with the slider that holds the Technika board to the adapter.

FWIW, the Technika-to-Toyo field adapter won't fit just anything labeled Toyo/Canham. I can't nest it into my SK Grimes Canham-to-Sinar adapter, for example, because that adapter has its retaining sliders on the side, and the Technika-to-Toyo field adapter has no grooves on the side for those to engage. Nor can I fit it to my WP Century, which was remodeled to take plain Toyo or Canham boards - the grooves aren't deep enough to let it seat in the opening on that camera. But that won't be an issue for your 45AX.

Hope that helps...

Darin Boville
22-Jul-2010, 19:18
As it happens, I also still have a Toyo-brand Technika-to-Toyo field adapter. Having just had a good look at it for the first time in a while, now I can answer your original question directly. No, it shouldn't be a nuisance to use. It's thicker than you'd imagine just looking at a straight-on picture. There's plenty of clearance for the retaining slider on the camera to fit into the matching groove on the adapter, without interfering with the slider that holds the Technika board to the adapter.
Hope that helps...

Ahhh, thanks. I'm flying blind here a little bit, as you can see...

--Darin

Oren Grad
22-Jul-2010, 19:28
Ahhh, thanks. I'm flying blind here a little bit, as you can see...

No sweat. Whodathunk lensboards could be so complicated? :)

Darin Boville
23-Jul-2010, 11:10
O.K., just bought a Toyo-Technika adapter. Thanks!

--Darin

Darin Boville
26-Jul-2010, 15:14
Just to add one detail to the LF board, this great (and I mean it) repository of all information on Large Format: I received the adapter today--looks and works great. No problem with having the two sliders so close together--the rear one just disappears.

However, it does not seem that the camera will close properly with the adapter in place, so it must be removed each time.

--Darin

SocalAstro
26-Jul-2010, 15:56
Darin

Glad to see that the adapter arrived so quickly. Enjoy.

-Leon