Linhof style boards

[TheDeardorffGuy]

OK Linhof and Linhof style board users..........What is going on with the dimensions and light trap? I make adapter boards for Deardorff. Deardorff to Linhof etc. The outer dimensions of Linhof board now vari as much as .030 thou. The other off brand boards do to. The circular light trap dimension seems pretty constant but its location goes up and down on different boards. I just started seeing this in the past couple of years and was wondering if you see it too. Anymore I have to have the customer send me the board to build the adapter to. I recently made a 4x5 Special Deardorff sliding front to only fit Linhof and my customer had to buy and sort through 5 boards to find another one that fit. Of course the Linhof board he sent me fit perfectly. But another Linhof brand did not. Whats going on?

[RichardRitter]

Yep seem it.
And the thickness changes too.
If you buy a Linhof board that is made to the Linhof standard you should be ok.

The people knocking off the Linhof board don't care. Buy Linhof boards if you want it right.

[TheDeardorffGuy]

Yep seem it.
And the thickness changes too.
If you buy a Linhof board that is made to the Linhof standard you should be ok.

The people knocking off the Linhof board don't care. Buy Linhof boards if you want it right.

Even they vary. I was very surprised at that. I found if I stripped the crinkle paint and powdercoated them it was thinner. Then I sprayed flat black and it was still thinner.
No standards at all.

[Bob Salomon]

Even they vary. I was very surprised at that. I found if I stripped the crinkle paint and powdercoated them it was thinner. Then I sprayed flat black and it was still thinner.
No standards at all.

No they don't. Current boards from Linhof are made to tighter dimensions then older boards after they installed the new CNC milling equipment. If you check boards more then 5 years old against current boards from Linhof you will find variations between them. We can not speak for copy boards. The light trap on Linhof made boards is always in the same place.

[TheDeardorffGuy]

Thanks Bob/ I agree that the CNC method guarantees a clone of the drawing each time. My issue is I have no idea how old a board is when it is sent to me and the customer does not either. I have recently asked my customers to be consistant as to the type of board they buy. The knock offs are very bad.



No they don't. Current boards from Linhof are made to tighter dimensions then older boards after they installed the new CNC milling equipment. If you check boards more then 5 years old against current boards from Linhof you will find variations between them. We can not speak for copy boards. The light trap on Linhof made boards is always in the same place.

[Ari]

After about twelve lensboards, I've had no problem with generic, after-market boards.
They fit my Wista camera and Toyo-to-Linhof adapter equally well.

[Bob Salomon]

Thanks Bob/ I agree that the CNC method guarantees a clone of the drawing each time. My issue is I have no idea how old a board is when it is sent to me and the customer does not either. I have recently asked my customers to be consistant as to the type of board they buy. The knock offs are very bad.

All new boards are black. That would be the first identifier. But not all black boards are the latest CNC version. There is no visual way to tell an older one from the later ones.