Calumet CC-400 lens board question?

[stradibarrius]

I have recently acquired my first LF camera. A Calumet CC-400. Are there specific lens boards that fit this camera or are lens boards generic?

Do you have a lens board for each lens or do you use the same lens board and change the lenses?

[James E Galvin]

There are boards that fit that camera, available from Calumet and Ebay.
It is best to have a board for each lens. Makes changing lenses much faster, and saves wear and damage to the lens threads.

[lenser]

Also, there are flat boards for longer focal lengths and recessed boards for wide angle lenses so you don't compress the bellows so much as to be unable to effectively use the camera movements. Both show up on ebay almost constantly. Also, KEH.com may have some in their large format department.

Changing just lenses is seldom practical because different shutter sizes require different mounting holes.

[Jim Jones]

I believe the Calumet CC-400, like my 4x5 Calumet, takes the 4" square boards like Speed Graphic Anniversary, many B&J, Kodak View, and other cameras of the time. These boards can easily be milled from 1/4" or built up from 1/8" MDF hardboard, or plywood.

[Old_Time_Photography]

I have the same Calumet CC-400 it takes a 4X4 Lens board hope this helps you

[Mike Anderson]

I have recently acquired my first LF camera. A Calumet CC-400. Are there specific lens boards that fit this camera or are lens boards generic?

Do you have a lens board for each lens or do you use the same lens board and change the lenses?

Lensboards are not generic. Your camera (and mine, I have an old Calumet too) takes 4"x4" lensboards. And the lensboard hole size (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/lensboard_hole_sizes.html) must match your lens (or shutter).

Those 4"x4" Calumet lensboards are often overpriced on ebay, I think a fair price for one is $20. And it's not hard to make one out of wood or metal. You just have to make sure the lens attaches firmly to the board and the board is the right thickness and attaches firmly to the camera without light leaks.

...Mike

[Mike Anderson]

And if you buy one, I strongly recommend you don't get a recessed 4x4 lensboard (unless you really have to for focal length reasons) because it makes operating the controls of the lens really hard.

...Mike

[Lynn Jones]

The Calumet lens board was created by Kodak (it was originally the Master View) and the light trapping is achieved by "tongue and groove" not by felt cloth so unless you like fogged film get the correct board, CC420. The also make the super recessed lens board CC428.

I spent several years with Calumet when these cameras and Caltar lenses were made.

Lynn

[E S]

Lynn, thank you for that information! It has been very helpful and perhaps kept me from making a grave error.

Elizabeth

[MIke Sherck]

On the "tongue and grove" light trap, my experience is that a flat lens board will work. I had one "original" lens board for my Calumet 400 and additional ones for my other lenses were too expensive, so I experimented with thin plywood from a hobby shop (model airplane builders use it.) If the lensboard is a good fit into the camera's opening and if the lens isn't so heavy that it bends the lensboard then a flat lensboard works fine with no light leaks. A layer of thin felt or similar black fuzzy material from a fabric store glued to the rear of the lensboard also works to create the light trap. For large, heavy lenses, though, I'd look for a "real" metal Calumet 400 lensboard.

And, most of us try to have a lensboard for each lens, if at all possible. Fortunately, lensboards are easy to make with simple hand tools and since I had my CC-400, the price on lensboards has come down a bit.

Mike

[rdenney]

And if you buy one, I strongly recommend you don't get a recessed 4x4 lensboard (unless you really have to for focal length reasons) because it makes operating the controls of the lens really hard.

The CC400 recessed boards were made for the 90mm WA Raptar/Optar, or the 90mm Angulon. These are tiny lenses, especially the Wolly, and using them in this board is no more difficult than using a lens in a Compur 00 in something like a Sinar recessed board. 90mm was about as short as it got in those days.

Rick "who has used recessed boards on a CC400, a 45NX, and a Sinar F, and found the CC400 not worse than the others" Denney

[Mike Anderson]

The CC400 recessed boards were made for the 90mm WA Raptar/Optar, or the 90mm Angulon. These are tiny lenses, especially the Wolly, and using them in this board is no more difficult than using a lens in a Compur 00 in something like a Sinar recessed board. 90mm was about as short as it got in those days.

Rick "who has used recessed boards on a CC400, a 45NX, and a Sinar F, and found the CC400 not worse than the others" Denney

There are various depths of recess. I have a 90mm SA (67mm filter size) that is close to unusable in a recessed (maybe 5/8") board. Very hard to see and adjust the shutter. I had to get a get a 3" flexible extension for the cable release and bend it to a hard angle and was worried it was stressing the old Compur shutter. There are 1" recessed boards for the CC-400 series that would be even worse.

So it depends on the lens, depends on the depth of recess, and the size of your fingers.

But definitely avoid a recessed Calumet 4x4 board unless you really need it. (I didn't need a recessed board because I have the short rail version, but it came with the camera.)

...Mike