Arca-Swiss recessed 171mm lensboards question

[wiggywag]

Hi!

It looks like people are using recessed lensboards for Arca-Swiss most of the time, even with normal lenses. What is the reason for this?

Thanks :-)

[evan clarke]

Stiff standard bellows...

[jb7]

No smiley there evan, so nobody will know you're having a bit of fun...

Arca standard bellows are anything but stiff; I wish I could make bellows as thin.

The lens boards are recessed (12mm) in order to place the back of the shutter on the same axis as the swing axis of the function carrier. The rear nodal point of most lenses is usually placed close to this plane. Some earlier models featured axis tilt, and the 12mm recessed boards placed the lens coincident on the tilt axis also.