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I am shooting 4x5 and recently got a 90mm lens. I quickly found out that to focus the lens at ANY focal length with a flat lens board I had to have both standards on the same side of the center block.
Is it normal for a 90mm to only have about 1/2" of usable focusing adjustment???
If I got a recessed lens board would the usable focal distance get longer?
I may not even be asking the right question but this is where I will start.
The answer to your questions will depend upon the camera you have.
I have a Cambo SC 4x5...
Barry, you really have to learn the language. The lens' focal length is what it is. I think that what you meant is "to focus the lens at any distance ..."Quote:
I quickly found out that to focus the lens at ANY focal length with a flat lens board I had to have both standards on the same side of the center block.
That's the SC. They're somewhat hostile to short lenses.
Does the lens focus to infinity on your SC?
A recessed board reduces the camera's minimum flange-to-film distance. A "top hat" or "extension" board increases it. You may need a recessed board to use a shorter lens. May because not all lenses of the same focal length have the same flange focal distance. Compare, for example, Super Angulons and Angulons, the information is here: https://www.schneideroptics.com/info...nses/index.htm
This raises another question. Which 90 do you have?
Why can you get only 1/2" of focus travel? Is the front standard hitting the center block? Can you focus at infinity?Quote:
Originally Posted by stradibarrius
Thanks Dan! you are exactly right, I meant to say the distance it takes to focus the lens. Yes it will focus to infinity as well as focusing on things very close. Why would Cambos be any more hostile to shot focal length lens? Are not all LF cameras just bellows with a front standard and rear standard???? That is not a challenge to your statement just asking for and explanation and an opportunity to learn something.
I know if i want to have any movement to speak of I will need a bag bellows but that is a different issue than the distance to focus.
The answers to your questions are - Yes, it is necessary to have the front and rear standards on the front side of the tripod block, and yes, a recessed board is almost a necessity with this lens/camera combination. You are also correct that you need a bag bellows to get any appreciable movement with the combination.
Jim those are the things that I already know. My question is why do I only get 1/2" of travel when focusing? Is that normal for a Fujinon W 90 mm with a Cambo sc? The standards are not hitting the tripod block.
Yes, that's what you have to do with an SCII. The Cambo recessed lens board makes the 90 a little more generous.
As to why the Cambo is hostile, one has to consider what lenses were available at the time the camera design was conceived. The original Super Cambo came out maybe in the late 50's, when using lenses wider than 90 would be pretty uncommon for most purposes. At that time, lenses were available in 75 and 65mm that barely covered 4x5, and these could be used with the Cambo using a recessed board, bag bellows, and double-lock standards. You could originally get them with a "double-lock" standard that offset the u-frame towards the center from the carrier. These are not particularly common, however--I've seen it only in the old catalog. And in those days, it was not common for people to uses lenses that short with 4x5.
With the common single-lock standards, you need to move the standards to one side or the other with short lenses. This was considered a reasonable accommodation for the rare use of really short lenses. The design of the camera made such reconfigurations easy, and for the day, that was a strong feature.
When I was using a Cambo as my main camera, 90 was my shortest lens and I used that with a recessed board. With the standard bellows, I was limited on shift, but was able to achieve most all the tilts and swings I needed. With the bag bellows, I had no such limitations.
The common rail cameras available at the time the Cambo came out included the original Calumet (which is a version of the Kodak Master View--a very old design), the Sinar Norma, the Linhof Kardan Color, and maybe one of the early Arcas. Of these, only the Norma design followed the trend to shorter lenses successfully, even though Sinar still replaced the Norma with two other models in 1971, though providing considerable interchangeability with the older camera components. Other cameras of the day transformed into different designs to do so. With the Calumet, using a lens of 90 or shorter required a different camera, though a really tiny 90 could be mounted in a recessed board. Designs were really transformed starting in the late 60's through the early 70's, when Schneider's f/5.6 Super Angulons came out. Cambo came out with the Cambo Wide for lenses shorter than 90mm in 1969.
If you want to see the roots of your camera, go to the Camera Eccentric web page: http://www.cameraeccentric.com/info.html
Click on the Super Cambo link to see the first iteration of the design of your camera. Note that the Super Angulon shown in the picture with the bag bellows is a late-50's through mid-60's vintage.
Rick "trends are slow in the LF world" Denney
Barry, there are many ways to make a standard. Not all view cameras do it the same way.
If you look at your 4x5 SC, you'll see that the rail riders are roughly 60 mm in diameter. With the camera set up as Cambo recommends -- carrier frames behind the uprights -- the minimum distance between front of lensboard and film plane is on the order of 90 mm (60 mm for two rail rider half diameters and 26 mm for two carrier frames' thicknesses).
But the SC is completely modular. You can take the rear standard off the rail and put it on backwards, with the carrier frame in front of the uprights. Set up this way, the two carrier frames will nearly touch each other. They won't come quite as close with a bag bellows in place. Unfortunately for me, this isn't possible with my 2x3 SC, whose standards aren't simply smaller 4x5 standards.