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Thread: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

  1. #11

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    Re: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

    Sean, that makes sense to me, but clearly was not the design in these cameras, as countless photos of them, and users, attest. My only guess is that unlocking might have been considered a bit too jarring, or a low position of the small cam lever inconvenient.

    Maris, you certainly know the cameras better than I. Mine has no serial number -- anywhere -- for whatever reason, as attested also by the repairman. I have seen photos of some that did not have toggle cams, some with apparently fewer movements.

    In any case, the maximum room I have for washers is about two 0.5 and perhaps one 0.1, before I'm no longer able to align the horizontal holding screw with the hole in the vertical post. As I said above, I've tried various combinations. for a while until recently, two 0.2-mm washers on each side seemed to be the ticket; now just one seems to be best, lowering the camera lever position at closed as shown immediately above. These thin washers do indeed get bent. The internal diameter is 5 mm, outer is 7, though in my pack of 0.1, 0.2, and 0.5 from Japan (called stainless steel shims) there appears to be some slight variation in the width of the band. The contact surface of cam to washer is indeed quite small, and both surfaces are polished quite smooth.

    The only other thing I can think to note, is that the thinner, outer part of the steel guide rail, not being screwed down to the bed like the inner length, bends just slightly up if slight forward pressure is applied to the front standard, making a faint click when it comes back down on the bed, even when the cam is closed. This simply allows a tiny bit of play in the front standard, though it has not effect on operation normally (i.e., without aiming the camera severely down as I did recently).

    Probably there isn't much else to explore here. These are hardly calibrated Sinar P mechanisms (which would not make my photography any better), and wear and tear by inexperienced or rough users, which my camera seems to have experienced long before arriving in my hands at an unusually low price, may have been enough to push several factors minimally out of original spec, just enough to make the difference.

    Again, I am grateful for all the help.
    Philip Ulanowsky

    Sine scientia ars nihil est. (Without science/knowledge, art is nothing.)
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  2. #12
    Maris Rusis's Avatar
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    Re: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

    It is a surprise that a Tachihara camera has no serial number. Usually it is hand written at the back of the bed of the camera. Unlock the rear standard and push it forward, advance the focussing rack, look down, and the S/N should be visible. I think Michio Tachihara himself checked each camera before it went out.

    The Tachihara Mfg. Co. Ltd. had an alter ego as the Professional Camera Company which made "blank" cameras of the same design for any enterprise that wanted a house brand camera. The Calumet Wood-Field 4x5 is an example.
    There were many design variations since Masao Tachihara founded the company in 1934 but by the 1970s the physical design stayed essentially the same with variations in the colour of the wood, bellows, and metal work.

    There should be a label under the carry strap with the words "Fiel Stand" on it. I'm told that "Tachihara" translates literally as "man stands in the field" hence the (deliberately) mis-spelled label.
    Photography:first utterance. Sir John Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society. "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..".

  3. #13

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    Re: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

    Okay, Maris, you put me to the task again, and again I discovered something -- enjoying which is always better than feeling embarrassed. While there is no Fiel Stand, or label at all under the strap -- the one label is "Hope Tachihara" along with the full company name, on the back, like the one grabbed from the web shown below-- there is, after all, a number, overlooked till now. Pressed into the wood at the back under the varnish is the single number "5". Does that tell one (i.e., you) when it was made? I'd be interested. Thanks for your help, Maris.

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Philip Ulanowsky

    Sine scientia ars nihil est. (Without science/knowledge, art is nothing.)
    www.imagesinsilver.art
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/156933346@N07/

  4. #14
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    Re: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

    Those cam handles can break if excessive force is used. One of the reasons these cameras were not successful as loaners to students where I worked.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  5. #15

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    Re: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

    Fortunately, Vaughn, I am a moderate person (at least, physically), and I like my equipment and do my best to treat it well so that it will reciprocate in its own way.

    That would be quite a bit of force to break the cam handles, I should think. Though I do remember the frustration of the poor gents who signed out equipment at the insane-asylum-disguised-as-a-leading-art-college I attended for a 2.5 years c.1971 before making for the exit. The equipment surely suffered at the hands of uncaring students.
    Philip Ulanowsky

    Sine scientia ars nihil est. (Without science/knowledge, art is nothing.)
    www.imagesinsilver.art
    https://www.flickr.com/photos/156933346@N07/

  6. #16
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    Re: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

    Great cameras for the individual -- but it is not as solidly built as a Deardorf or other heavier wood field cameras. The issues I had with the cams made me consider the cams to be unneeded weak points in the design.

    I had much better luck with the Horseman WoodFields -- not as pretty (beautiful) as the Tachihara, but simpler and a stronger build without adding weight. I remember a student or two who would not check out the Tachihara -- they thought it was too good-looking and they were afraid of scratching it or otherwise damaging it.
    "Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China

  7. #17

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    Re: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ulophot View Post
    Fortunately, Vaughn, I am a moderate person (at least, physically), and I like my equipment and do my best to treat it well so that it will reciprocate in its own way.

    That would be quite a bit of force to break the cam handles, I should think. Though I do remember the frustration of the poor gents who signed out equipment at the insane-asylum-disguised-as-a-leading-art-college I attended for a 2.5 years c.1971 before making for the exit. The equipment surely suffered at the hands of uncaring students.
    You don't have to have superhuman strength to wreck some stuff, it's built into the (poor) design... And not "overused"...

    In my stint in education gear service, saw many items (even new out of the box) that the factory adjustment range was so narrow (due to poor design/construction) that function barely worked in the real world... 4X5 camera backs that the holder slot was so narrow that when a thick holder (like a Polaroid) was used would slightly bend outward from every insertion that the GG panel would barely close with proper pressure, or even fall right off eventually, leg locks on popular tripods would slightly stretch causing legs to not lock firmly, new popular 4 blade easels that were misaligned so prints were always crooked on paper with slots not big enough to hold flat DWFB fiber based paper, and on and on... Proves the old saying "just because it's an idea, not necessarily a good one"...

    Don't know your locking mechanism, but thin fibres washer from Ace hardware might fit in that give you some added locking pressure (if loose)...

    Good luck!!!

    Steve K

  8. #18
    Maris Rusis's Avatar
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    Re: One more time: Tachihara 4x5 front cam loosens up. Solution?

    Quote Originally Posted by Ulophot View Post
    Okay, Maris, you put me to the task again, and again I discovered something -- enjoying which is always better than feeling embarrassed. While there is no Fiel Stand, or label at all under the strap -- the one label is "Hope Tachihara" along with the full company name, on the back, like the one grabbed from the web shown below-- there is, after all, a number, overlooked till now. Pressed into the wood at the back under the varnish is the single number "5". Does that tell one (i.e., you) when it was made? I'd be interested. Thanks for your help, Maris.Click image for larger version. 

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    I'm pretty sure that Tachihara shut their business in 2013 as no family successors were enthusiastic in continuing. The 300 year old Hidaka Shuri Cherry Blossom wood was also getting rare and really expensive and arguably better and cheaper cameras were coming from China.

    A visitor to the Tachihara factory commented that the place was smaller than expected, only five workers, and crammed with cartons of semi-complete cameras, jars of metal components, and included a few small islands of space for the machine tools. Apparently 4x5 cameras were made in batches of a hundred and 8x10s were made in batches of seventy. The workers claimed ( Japanese perfectionism?) no two were exactly the same. A 4x5 was scheduled to take four months from raw wood to final completion while a 8x10 took eight months. A "pride of work" specification was that camera bodies should last 50 years in normal use and the bellows 30 years.

    The number "5" pressed into the wood (none of my Tachis have it) is probably a component identification number to guide correct assembly; no date information there.

    Tachihara like many small Japanese companies had no one who could write or speak English so they used a export agent to handle English language brochures, instruction sheets, export paperwork, and spare parts requests.
    Hence the entity "Hope Tachihara - Tachihara Professional Technical Camera Co. Inc." became the interface between the factory and the world outside Japan. All my Tachiharas 4x5s and 8x10s have this sticker.
    If you are in Tokyo you could visit where they were: Tachihara Camera Mfg. Co., Ltd. 3-17-8 Toshima, Kita-ku, Tokyo 114-003.
    Photography:first utterance. Sir John Herschel, 14 March 1839 at the Royal Society. "...Photography or the application of the Chemical rays of light to the purpose of pictorial representation,..".

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