I'm still getting used to my Tachihara Hope 4x5; not enough time to practice or shoot with it. Anyway, on a couple of field trips recently, I began to wonder if anyone uses front axis tilt rather than base. Perusing comments on the web, I came across one referring specifically to the same camera, saying that one can use front axis tilt by "tak[ing] out the tabs." Tabs? My lens board "locks" to vertical height position with the upper thumbscrews, but nothing prevents some manual tilting of it in either direction. While this adustment doesn't truly lock as the base tilt does, it seems secure with moderate bellows draw, providing one is not out in the wind, although cocking the shutter could move it, I guess.

In any case, in setting up the camera, normalizing the front is really by feel -- the detents in the base-tilt arms are used, of course, but there are no detents, stops (tabs?), or locks on the lens board's axial verticality. Am I (or my camera) missing something?

Thanks.