recessed lens board adn wide angle focus

[paul schuster]

I am new to LF. I have bought an old calumet with an assortment of accessories. It came with a scneider angulon 90mm mounted to a flat board. The camera came with several other boards, many undrilled. I have had good success with the 90m m, indoors at close focusing distances. Today I went out in the cold but found that I could not focus to infinity. I am assuming I need to use the recessed le ns board for this. Could somebody confirm my supicions please.

What reason would the previous owner have had for mounting a wide angle lens on a flat board? if this is indeed the source of my problem. (or was my head/vision/lens frosted by the well below frezzing temps! ha ha)

thanks, paul schuster www.schusterphoto.com

[Doug Paramore]

Paul: Chances are that you may need to use the recessed lens board on the Calumet. It depends on how close the lens and back standards are to each other with the camera as close as they will get. Also, how much the bellows will compact. Recessed boards are a pain to use with some lenses. It is difficult to mount the cable release and set the aperature and speeds. Some of the old photographers used to mount the cable release to the board and mount an arm to the release to trip the shutter, but I haven't seen one in years. Maybe they are still being made. Calumet made a wide angle version of the early cameras which solved a lot of problems. Good luck with large format. You are gonna love it once you get over the learning curve. Doug

[Daniel Taylor]

Paul,

get out your ruler and measure.