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Thread: lens board adapter prices

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Feb 1999
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    1,094

    lens board adapter prices

    This is a complaint and a question. Why are lens board adaptors so damn expensive!
    I've got three different cameras with three different lens board sizes. I would love to standardize on my small Linhof boards, but I'm reluctant to pay nearly $200 to do so. For that money, I could get a decent used lens, or a backpack or a Poloroid back or any number of other sexier goodies. I guess it comes down to whether it's worth $150- $200 to avoid having to get out the spanner wrench to switch lenses back and forth from my Wista, to my Sinar to my 5x7 Linhof. I'm tempted to try and hire a local retired machinist I know to make me one for me on the cheap, maybe out of wood or something. Are lens board adapters really that complex and hard to make?

  2. #2

    lens board adapter prices

    I'd guess that they're expensive because they aren't a high demand item. They certainly look simple enough.

    You should ask your friend to price the job. A machine shop might charge $40 or $50 an hour plus material. At that rate the manufactured part starts to look pretty good.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Dec 1997
    Location
    Baraboo, Wisconsin
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    7,697

    lens board adapter prices

    Wisner used to make a 5x7 to 4x5 adapter for $100. The one I bought about three years ago was from an Agfa Ansco 5x7 size to a 4x5 Linhof size but I assume they make others sizes.
    Brian Ellis
    Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you do criticize them you'll be
    a mile away and you'll have their shoes.

  4. #4

    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    9,487

    lens board adapter prices

    The Arca-Swiss to Linhof adapter retails for $374 if you find one...

  5. #5

    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    61

    lens board adapter prices

    Try SK Grimes. They might build one for less than $200.

  6. #6
    All metric sizes to 24x30 Ole Tjugen's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2002
    Location
    Norway
    Posts
    3,383

    lens board adapter prices

    I think I paid something like 50 Euro on ebay.de for my Linhof-Linhof adapter board - to use Technika boards on a 5x7" Technika III. Well worth the money.

    But now I'm selling the big Technika, and will end up in the same situation: Three different lensboards...

  7. #7

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Posts
    1,794

    lens board adapter prices

    Shen Hao is nice enough to include an adapter with the 5x7. Makes the price seem even better after looking at some of those prices. My "new" 8x10 came with a metal lensboard. Guess what magnets hold my home made lensboards to the metal lensboard. I just leave the packard shutter in the metal lensboard open. Cost me around $10 for the magnets.

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Kalamazoo
    Posts
    648

    lens board adapter prices

    I've just started to make these things for my personal use. It isn't as simple as it looks. You need to have at least 3 or 4 pieces of wood precisely dimensioned to a small size and with the grain on the 2 side pieces running opposite the grain of the middle piece(s) to help prevent warping of the wood. The pieces then need to be tongue and grooved to form a strong joint. The lip to hold the regular lensboard must be either engineered into this arrangement or routed out later after the boards are glued, joined and clamped. This is made more complex by the minute thickness of the wood used in such a lensboard or adapter. ( These joints are not that hard to cut on thick stock like a 2x4, but imagine trying to cut a precise 1/8" groove in 3/8" thick stock that is maybe 3/4" wide and 6" long. You're getting awfully close to whatever cutter you've powered up to do this job and trying to be safe and precise at the same time.)

    After the wood is joined, then the holes need to be drilled precisely for the metal bars which will be attached and hold the lensboard in place. The lower metal strip needs to be drilled and the upper sliding strip needs to have its left and right edges bent and a series of 45 degree slots milled into it. Then you have to varnish the wood, paint the reverse black and screw the strips in place.

    If you don't care about the appearance, you could probably just get some thin marine plywood and route the center hole out of a dimensioned piece. That eliminates the difficulty of the joined wood pieces but leaves the rest of the operation still needed.

    To get my wood dimensioned, slotted correctly, and joined, I've used a jointer, belt sander, radial arm saw, and table saw with and without a dado blade as well as a tenoning jig and a bunch of clamps but for the jig and the gluing stages. The metal strips need either a drill press or milling machine and a brake, and probably some sort of burr removal tool and sander/polisher. The material costs of the actual adapter are very inconsequential. Its the investment in tooling and the time spent in setup and finishing that are generating the cost of these things. $150 may sound expensive but unless you've got the time, inclination and tools to do this seemingly simple job, that cost may be a bargain.

  9. #9

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
    Location
    Kalamazoo
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    648

    lens board adapter prices

    Oops. Forgot to mention the back lip of the assembled adapter board must also be dadoed around the perimeter prior to painting.

  10. #10

    Join Date
    Feb 1999
    Posts
    1,094

    lens board adapter prices

    Joe,

    I surrender. You're right -- what looks like a simple doodad must in fact be hell to manufacture.

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