Originally Posted by Ed Vatza
I made a Sinar to CAMBO adapter, 3D printed, it resulted very rigid, reinforced and light tight, perfect alignment. The lock part was made of stainless steel, it can be made with laser or waterjet.
If sombody wants the files... just PM.
Just to add to some of the prior responses, I too have standardised on a small lens board (Linhof Technika) and a big lens board (Deardorff 6x6 rounded corner), as they were the cameras I was using. Anything Copal 3 or smaller or that will fit onto the Technika lens boards go onto them, and anything that requires more lens board "real estate" (e.g. big barrel lenses) goes onto the 6x6RC lens boards.
The one issue I have found however is the "stack-up" issue when having multiple lens board adaptors (6x6RC to Sinar, then back) with wide angle lenses on the 8x10 field camera when combined with a Sinar Copal behind the lens shutter system.
However, this should not be a surprise as the field camera needs to get into major contortions in focusing a wide angle lens (165 Angulon in a Compur 3 shutter) at infinity, and bellows compression resulting lack of bellows flexibility becomes an issue...
My bias is that I'm uncomfortable about constantly unmounting and remounting lenses that weren't designed for such use. I'll do it once in a while if I have a special need, but in general I'd just as soon avoid the wear-and-tear or risk of greater damage to the mounting threads, losing shims (if any), misalignment etc.
So the "solutions" are to not have cameras with different lensboards, or to have lenses dedicated to the cameras. If you're just talking about the most common focal lengths, the latter isn't that expensive these days. The lenses that come with Graphics tend to be pretty cheap, but modern lenses in the 90 / 135 / 150 / 210 focal lengths just aren't that expensive either. But I don't mean to be in any way dismissive if you are on a very tight budget - in that case, you'll have to decide what's most important to you.
FWIW, for my purposes a Graphic is a press camera and the point of having one is to use the rangefinder*, which means having a single lens dedicated to the camera, which is in turn calibrated for it. (Yes, you could assemble a set of lenses with matching cams for one of the late-model top-RF Graphics.) Otherwise I use cameras with reversing backs, a greater range of view camera controls and readily interchangeable boards. So I do have a 4x5 Pacemaker Crown Graphic with a dedicated lens, but turn to other cameras for general-purpose 4x5 work.
* Well, the other point of having a Speed Graphic in particular is to have a convenient way of using barrel-mount lenses. And for that, a lensboard with iris clamp is ideal.
Possibly you have too many cameras.
(Mind you, I speak from experience.)
The adapter I use on my MPP VII to mount Wista boards is actually a shim - it fits behind the board, as the MPP mount is deeper. The real issue with the MPP is that the front standard opening is small and square. Some lenses that fit the Wista circular opening will not pass through the MPP.
If you have more than one large format camera, try to have at least one general purpose lens for each one. There's only one thing worse than forgetting (at least one) lens is forgetting the film!
A lens either has the coverage for the format or it doesn't.
159 Wolly and 14" Artar seem cramped on an 8x10, but have generous amounts of wiggle room on a 5x7!
On press cameras, it has to be small enough to fit when the camera if folded, so a 203 Ektar rides aboard the 5x7 Speeder
---not much wiggle room but shooting hand held, I'm not playing with movements...errr...movement as all she's got is front rise.
The 215 Acuton covers 5x7 nicely, btw. I should probably hunt up an extra "C" board for that one!
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White
I have a Graphic View that had an adapter to attach a lens mounted on a Speed/Crown Graphic lensboard onto a board for the Graphic View. Basically the Speed Graphic lens board is clamped (light-tight) onto the front of a lens board that fits the Graphic View (a 100mmx100mm, or just shy of 4"sq board). Until I was given the camera, I had not seen this particular adapter before.
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
There is no single correct answer to your question. Only an observation that the person with multiple cameras in a given format will eventually have multiple lenses in a given focal length. Don't resist, you can't stop it...
So will a person with a single camera in a single format. Don't ask how I know this.
As you well know, Dan, that's another nice thing about large format. You can own several different lenses in the same focal length and they can all give a different "look".
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