Toyo View "Linhof" type lensboard question

[jeannicolas]

Hi there,

I just received a new lens that I bought off ebay recently, and it came on what appears to be a Toyo View lens board, although it is of linhof dimensions. I'd like to install the lens on a different lens board but, for the first time, I am faced with a lens that appears to have a mounting flange (had to google the term) instead of a retaining ring. I'm wondering if it 's still possible to mount this on a different board? Can I safely get it out of this mounting flange and use a regular lens board + retaining ring instead? (I suppose I'll have to acquire a Compur #1 retaining ring).

The fact that there is no retaining ring makes me think that perhaps this mounting flange is threaded? But then if the lens is screwed directly in the flange, it's certainly tight, and I didn't want to try to force it at the risk of breaking anything.

Any help would be appreciated, I've attached 2 pics of the lens + board

[xkaes]

That appears to be a standard Linhof/Wista board, and it appears that the shutter is simply screwed in. Seems odd, but perhaps the shutter has an unusual rear mounting thread. Perhaps it was done that way because it was available. What is the rear thread on the shutter?

[jim_jm]

It looks like the flange is attached to a backing plate via the screws seen in the front. The shutter body should unscrew from the flange in a counter-clockwise motion. I would remove the front lens group from the shutter body first (also unscrew counter-clockwise) then unscrew the shutter body while holding the lens board.
It's probably fairly tight within the flange, but should unscrew without a huge amount of effort. You can then easily access the screws if you wish to remove the flange from the board. If you want to use the flange on a thicker wood lensboard, you may need longer screws if you also use the backing plate, or short wood screws if you don't use the backing plate.

[Greg]

Take a close, I mean a really, really close look at the threads of the lens that are coming through the lens board. If they are the slightest bit worn then the lens may have been screwed into a very slightly smaller hole in the softer metal of the lens board. This happened to me once with a lens I bought. I chose to sacrifice the lens board instead of trying to unscrew the lens out and possibly more damaging the threads. On my lens the threads were only the slightest bit worn (damaged actually). Good, really good, thing was that I was very carefully able to screw into the back of the lens a correctly fitting flange. Good luck...

[jeannicolas]

That appears to be a standard Linhof/Wista board, and it appears that the shutter is simply screwed in.

Yeah it's definitely a linhof-type board, but manufactured by Toyo-View (it's branded on the back but you can't quite see it in the pic).

Thank you all for the help! I was able to unscrew the shutter and the front lens group together without too much effort! Ideally I'd like to get rid of the flange and just use a regular lens board with a copal/compur #1 size hole and a retaining ring.

Worst thing is I'll probably end up putting it in an Intrepid lens board... technically they're the same size, but this particular Toyo View lens board is considerably thicker than the intrepid boards, so I can't quickly change between lens, I need to readjust/loosen up the pieces that hold the lens board in place whenever I switch to that lens and it's a bit annoying :\ In other words, so close to being a perfect fit, but just off enough to be annoying...

[drew.saunders]

Yes, you have a flange, instead of a retaining ring. See https://skgrimes.com/products/mounting-flanges/ for an explanation.

In theory, with one lensboard and a flange, you could have multiple lenses that fit that lensboard/flange, saving some space. I prefer to have a lensboard for each lens.

S.K. Grimes will also sell you a new retaining ring for your lens if you'd prefer to use that instead of the flange.

I'd keep the flange attached to that lensboard, someone might want to buy it. It looks like that flange was professionally installed, so I wouldn't recommend removing it.

I have a couple Toyo Linhof-style lensboards, and they're quite nice. It's too bad they don't fit well with your Intrepid.