Michael E. Gordon
26-Oct-2003, 13:27
I do lots of bed tilting in my landscape work, and was tired of eye-balling and/or guessing at which point my standards were vertically nuetral. The bullet level on the Shen-Hao back is not very accurate, as bullet levels tend to 'snap-to' when you get just close enough.
I have a retired friend who can make nearly anything, so he was more than willing to take on the task of building levels for both standards on my Shen-Hao. We agreed upon the appearance and measurements. The front standard on the Shen-Hao 4x5 is pretty thin, so it would be interesting getting a level mounted on the standard while still being able to close the camera without difficulty.
Dale bought some teak, added two level vials (very accurate; one for horizontal, one for vertical), and finally we affixed them with some thin but serious two-sided tape. I've been using these for a couple of months now, and I can say that they work fantastically! I've also added some markings on the back of the front standard (facing me as I'm composing) so that I can quickly set the front rise/fall to neutral without having to look at the front of the camera. Adding these levels and markings have really helped me compose much more quickly.
I thought I would share this information here so that others might be inspired to do the same with their Shen-Hao's or other similarly inadequate cameras.
Three images of these details are here:
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.rockclimbing.org/images/MEG/front_back.jpg">
Complete View</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.rockclimbing.org/images/MEG/front.jpg">
Front Standard</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.rockclimbing.org/images/MEG/back.jpg">
Back Standard</a>
Michael
www.mgordonphotography.com
I have a retired friend who can make nearly anything, so he was more than willing to take on the task of building levels for both standards on my Shen-Hao. We agreed upon the appearance and measurements. The front standard on the Shen-Hao 4x5 is pretty thin, so it would be interesting getting a level mounted on the standard while still being able to close the camera without difficulty.
Dale bought some teak, added two level vials (very accurate; one for horizontal, one for vertical), and finally we affixed them with some thin but serious two-sided tape. I've been using these for a couple of months now, and I can say that they work fantastically! I've also added some markings on the back of the front standard (facing me as I'm composing) so that I can quickly set the front rise/fall to neutral without having to look at the front of the camera. Adding these levels and markings have really helped me compose much more quickly.
I thought I would share this information here so that others might be inspired to do the same with their Shen-Hao's or other similarly inadequate cameras.
Three images of these details are here:
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.rockclimbing.org/images/MEG/front_back.jpg">
Complete View</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.rockclimbing.org/images/MEG/front.jpg">
Front Standard</a>
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.rockclimbing.org/images/MEG/back.jpg">
Back Standard</a>
Michael
www.mgordonphotography.com