Mounting an older lens...

[jpoutasse]

Hi All,

I have a 19" Goerz Artar lens (see pic) that I'd like to mount for use on an older model 8x10 Arca Swiss monorail camera. The lens board holder that I have uses Linhof style metal boards. Should I try to find a similar style lens board or possibly make my own? I think even most thin woods would be too thick to use with the lens board holder.

The lens does not have a shutter and I plan on using it without one.

Any ideas/thoughts would be appreciated.

Jackie

[Jim Noel]

Obtain a piece of aluminum of the correct thickness and make your on lensboard I have done so many times over the years.

[jpoutasse]

Thanks Jim. I'll give that a try.

Would I be correct in assuming I would need to use small bolts in lieu of screws to hold the lens on?

Jackie

[IanG]

I'd buy a Linhof style board they are inexpensive, a lot less work, you'd need to cut the correct sized hole, the boards file out easily as well. And yes get son=me small countersunk nuts and bolts.

Ian

[Alan Gales]

While your lens is in the flange, take a pencil and put a mark top dead center. After you drill your hole in the lens board put the flange in it and turn the flange until your pencil mark is top dead center. Then take your pencil and mark where you want your holes to be drilled for the bolts. By doing this your lens will end up mounted on the lens board the way you want it.

It may not matter to you since your lens is in barrel but it's pretty important to most of us with shutter mounted lenses.

[Michael E]

My Tachihara uses Technika boards, but without need for the lower cut-outs.

I use 2mm plywood (the high grade, 5-ply kind) and have it cut to size at the store. One cheap sheet of plywood makes quite a few lens boards. I cut the holes with a simple jigsaw to the size of the rear thread. I put the barrel in the hole and fasten the flange from the other side. No screws needed. You can even screw the barrel into the soft wood without a flange.

[Peter Yeti]

Jackie, I'd buy a Linhof Techinca style lens board (Linhof, Wisner, Shen Hao, Toyo, Tachihara etc) rather than making my own (have done that, too). You can't easily make the profile yourself that keeps stray light out and they are readily available anyway. Check the size of the flange. If the outer diameter is less than 80mm, it's comparably easy. Then you "only" need to drill the hole and can use the flange as retaining ring. If it is bigger, this won't work on a Technika board. If the thread diameter of the lens is 75mm or less you can mount it by using a retaining ring, which probably needs to be custom made. You'd need a metal workshop with a lathe to do that. I'm currently working on mounting a big old Petzval on a Technika board and it's quite a lot of work...

Good luck,

Peter

[jpoutasse]

Thank you All for the great suggestions.

I was going to go with Ian and Peters advice of buying a pre made board but the width of the flange is 84mm so that wouldn't work. Since the flange can be removed I could drill a hole and get a custom made retaining ring to hold it onto the board.

I'm considering sending it off to SK Grimes for proper mounting if it is within my budget.

It's not a horribly valuable lens but it is clean and fungus and scratch free and I think it would be fun to play with as I'm thinking of starting out using photographic paper for my 8x10 negative material.

Thanks again.

Jackie

[Andrew]

sounds like making extra work and expense if you're talking about having new components made... much easier to just get a cheap generic metal board [they're not flat so it's hard to replicate it at home], cut/file an appropriate size hole [doesn't have to be a very exact size] and then use a few cheap/small brass nuts and bolts from the hardware store to fix the mounting ring you already have. That's what it's there for! And the ring can be taken off easily enough if you want to remount the lens on something else later... KISS Principle usually works out fine.

[Peter Yeti]

Andrew, your idea is nice in theory but won't work in practice if the lens flange is too big (like most probably in this case). This would work only, if the flange diameter is small enough so that the nuts fall inside a circle of less than 80mm. What could be done is to trim the outer diameter of the flange on the lathe to use it as a retaining ring. This wouldn't be my choice because the orignal flanges are much sought after, but it'd be an option.

Peter