Couple of questions for experienced Meridian 45B

Experienced in LF I'm not-- the 45B is my first LF camera in 30 years of outdoor photography. I did hold off buying just any old technical camera while looking for one of these "wide-angle friendly" beasts. Largely waited til I found one due to the presence of the inner focusing rails, 90˚ drop bed, and the articulating back.

Now that I've just gotten a Nikon SW 90mm f/8 (shoehorned it in there on a flat board and it closes up with a generic thin lens cap), I'm quickly finding out about the compromises. Perhaps compromises are inherent with most any field/technical camera, but specific to the Meridian 45B, the 90mm focal length seems to fall right into the gap between the end of one rail and the start of another at infinity focus.

The prospect of back focusing seemed to be one way around this 90mm dilemma and for a few minutes an intriguing one at that. Surely I could make some kind of fixture or jig to zero it out each time, or maybe even devise an internal focusing stage of some sort. Or so I was thinking until I realized that racking out the back takes away from being able to access the rise and tilt knobs as the 90mm would be contained back within the camera body at infinity.

Removed the wire hoop framing slider & assembly to gain rise. Contemplated relocating the bed catch to a corner to buy even more rise, til I noted that the bellows/body obstruction is really the limiting factor, from getting any further rise.

Well, if anyone else has workarounds to share re: using W/A's on the 45B (or, what works great as originally intended!), you've got my rapt attention.

Congrats on finding one of the lost treasures in affordable 4x5 cameras.

I had one for a long time and wished I'd never sold it.

OK, I know just what you are talking about.

First, I had my 90m lens permanently mounted on a lens board that was intentionally drilled off center to automatically have a built in rise.

the only other way to ensure the lens not fall forward is to pull the rear standard back an equal amount on 4 sides and then draw the lens inward to focus.

Lastly, you can tilt the entire camera up on the tripod, then pull out the bottom of the back standard so that it is again plum with the ground, then tip the lens forward so that it to is parallel with the rear standard. Drawback, you need a 90mm that has a big image circle so lens does not suffer from light fall off at the corners.

There really is no other drawback to this camera then the problem you've spoke of here.

Cheers!

Thanks! Yeah,

I'm sure delighted to have found a Meridian that's light tight and working well. I've only seen a couple of others on eBay in a year of searching for one.

Happy though I be, there is another issue I found re: specific focal lengths. Any 135mm lens on the 45B is limited in lateral shift because of interference with the knobs and the bed struts, at least at infinity. My Meridian came bundled with a Wollensak Raptar 135mm f/4.7 (perhaps yet part of the original kit purchased back in '48, who knows?) that has a modest IC and is therefore movement-restricted itself so there wasn't much to wring my hands about in that case. A 150mm or longer would be more convenient length for movements-- unfortunately, there are supposed to be some really wonderfully light and miniscule modern 135's. (Speaking of which, comparing the results I was getting with the Raptar to the other two new lenses I just picked up and ran film through the camera to test for the first time this morning-- nothing shabby about the Wolly, not at all.

If you are thinking about a tiny and light 150mm, consider a 150mm f/6.3 Fujinon W or a Schneider 150mm f/5.x Xenar. Both small, light, single coated and nice lenses.

Have to say I was sufficiently pleased with the earlier results from the 135mm Raptar that I went with a 210mm Caltar II-N instead of another lens in a close focal length equivalent. (The Raptar is also single coated, sharp and light-- it's a Tessar so the corners do require f/22 to get them sharp). No qualms about the Rapax shutter it came in, either. Very consistent and accurate once I gave it a Ronsonol bath and lubed it.

For using a modern 90mm wide angle lens on the Meridian 45B, I would suggest a do-it-yourself modification to the flat 4x4 inch lens board to turn it into a top hat extension lens board. That way the front standard fits better on the inner focusing tracks when the lens is focused at infinity.

Unfortunately a top hat screws up swings and tilts, and would necessitate removing the lens from the camera in order to fold it closed.

Easier to use a flat board for a wide angle like the 90mm Nikkor SW, and to make a little jig for extending the back posts an equal amount on the Meridian 45B.

I found a really nice solution to the problem when I bought a Meridian 45CE that handles a 90mm vastly better than the 45B (which was what I was talking about in this old thread, now 6 years dead).
But thanks for the input.

hi Ivan -

agreed, this is an ancient thread, but what about the CE is better specifically? I recall we had talked about this in the past but I think the only differences are the front standard somewhat, so how does the CE focus @ infinity better with the 90? I haven't yet spent much time tinkering with my CE to find out...

GLWS on your CE too of course.

thanks
-Ed