The Polaroid 405 film holder only fits some 4x5 cameras?

[Bob Salomon]

Well, i'll throw a different problem into the mix.
On the Linhof Kardan B cameras the "U" standard on the back, when any holder was inserted horizontally and some center tilt was employed, the holder, or the dark slide, would hit the upright of the standard and prevent it from being properly inserted (Polaroid back). This did not happen when base tilts were used on the back standard. The simple workaround was to add what Linhof called the Polaroid Adapter 002583 which moved the camera back away from the camera body so the holder cleared the U standard.

[ghostcount]

Yes, There is, The centered holder places the sensitive emulsion in the center of the 4x5 opening.

The off-centered holder places the sensitive emulsion to the right of the 4x5 opening.

Both holders do indeed expose the entire 3 1/4" X 4 1/4" image of the instant film, no cut-off.

I see, so it impacts where you place your image on the ground glass - noted when making a 3.25" x 4.25" mask for the 4x5. Thank you!

[pierre506]

It's the scanned mask for 4x5 GG.

[FryingPan]

Hey all. I just stumbled upon this thread after googling some info to see if my (coincidentally purchased from alpenhause on eBay a few days ago) 405 would give me any trouble in my soon-to-be delivered Speed Graphic with the Graphic back. It seems that the jury is split on whether it'll fit or not, so I'll just have to wait to see if I'll have to do any modifications to the camera.

I have, however, used the alpenhause 405 back on my Sinar X with good results. As mentioned, the lip on the 405 back does hit the frame of the rear standard and prevents it from fully inserting, but there's enough "meat" on the back and on the holder to give a good-enough light seal. As a result, the captured portion of the image is pushed more to the right versus being in the dead center of the ground glass.

It does work, however. Hopefully it'll work on the Speed as well- I guess we'll find out next week.

[pierre506]

Hey all. I just stumbled upon this thread after googling some info to see if my (coincidentally purchased from alpenhause on eBay a few days ago) 405 would give me any trouble in my soon-to-be delivered Speed Graphic with the Graphic back. It seems that the jury is split on whether it'll fit or not, so I'll just have to wait to see if I'll have to do any modifications to the camera.

I have, however, used the alpenhause 405 back on my Sinar X with good results. As mentioned, the lip on the 405 back does hit the frame of the rear standard and prevents it from fully inserting, but there's enough "meat" on the back and on the holder to give a good-enough light seal. As a result, the captured portion of the image is pushed more to the right versus being in the dead center of the ground glass.

It does work, however. Hopefully it'll work on the Speed as well- I guess we'll find out next week.

I also met the problem when using 405 and 550 backs on Sinar because the backs hit the frame.
The solution is that you have to dismantle the side of the frame for attaching accessories. You can find two small screws on it.
That's all.

[FryingPan]

I also met the problem when using 405 and 550 backs on Sinar because the backs hit the frame.
The solution is that you have to dismantle the side of the frame for attaching accessories. You can find two small screws on it.
That's all.

This works reasonably well. It's still not a 100% fit, but it's much better than before and places the image area much closer to the center of the ground glass.

[FryingPan]

So here's a thought. Because there still isn't *quite* enough clearance around the lip of the holder, the locking ridge isn't able to fully reach the appropriate groove. As such, it's pushing the back away ever so slightly on one side.





Under-inserting the back will keep it flush, however It looks like you're going to lose a millimeter or two of the recorded image since it doesn't quite clear the edge of the Graflok.

[Michael Cienfuegos]

Hey all. I just stumbled upon this thread after googling some info to see if my (coincidentally purchased from alpenhause on eBay a few days ago) 405 would give me any trouble in my soon-to-be delivered Speed Graphic with the Graphic back. It seems that the jury is split on whether it'll fit or not, so I'll just have to wait to see if I'll have to do any modifications to the camera.

I have, however, used the alpenhause 405 back on my Sinar X with good results. As mentioned, the lip on the 405 back does hit the frame of the rear standard and prevents it from fully inserting, but there's enough "meat" on the back and on the holder to give a good-enough light seal. As a result, the captured portion of the image is pushed more to the right versus being in the dead center of the ground glass.

It does work, however. Hopefully it'll work on the Speed as well- I guess we'll find out next week.

If you are going to use this back on a Speed with a Graphic back you might want to put a washer under the springs on the back so that you have a bit more space. I did that on mine, following a hint from someone on graflex.org and it gave me the added space to use the back without stressing the springs. You can also exchange your graphic back for a graflok back, if you can find one. That will give you plenty of room for your back.


m

[FryingPan]

If you are going to use this back on a Speed with a Graphic back you might want to put a washer under the springs on the back so that you have a bit more space. I did that on mine, following a hint from someone on graflex.org and it gave me the added space to use the back without stressing the springs. You can also exchange your graphic back for a graflok back, if you can find one. That will give you plenty of room for your back.


m

I received the camera last night and immediately shimmed the springs with a couple of washers and some longer screws. The back fits just fine this way, but I'll likely pick up a Graflok back in a little bit- the springs are just a little flimsy for my liking and with the shims don't grip a standard film holder as solidly as I'd want.

As far as the 405 fitment, it's the same story as my Sinar- the lip on the holder hits the frame of the camera and prevents full insertion and lock. The locking ridge also causes the back to not sit completely flush in the back as illustrated in my previous photo. Perhaps alpenhause could offer a version of the back without this ridge? If not, I'm likely going to grind it off as I just get the sneaking suspicion that the slight variance is going to prevent me from reaching absolutely critical focus.

[Corran]

I had this same issue with my first 405. I bought it from eBay. It turned out to be one of the odd ones. Funny thing is that I didn't notice for a while because I bought it for use with an Alpenhaus Polaroid, with which it worked perfectly, which makes sense now if Steve used that as a basis for his conversions. I noticed this especially when I bought two more 405s of the normal variety, and sold the old one, so that they all worked in my various cameras, but now the Alpenhaus is hard to frame with because the opening is way off to one side (shooting handheld, of course).