My Tachi 4x5 has lens axial tilt (Front shift, too!)

[Heroique]

What a pleasant surprise – my Tachihara 4x5 out-performs its own spec sheet!

Recently, I was in the field wishing for some convenient lens axial tilt (instead of the camera’s less-convenient lens base tilt), when I turned my camera 90 degrees on a sturdy tripod, and got my wish! Of course, the camera’s front swing may have disappeared for the moment, but I got the perfect axial tilt I needed...

Then I realized the camera’s sideways position also gave me instant front shift (at the expense front rise/fall).

Heck, I even won back axial tilt (at the expense of back swing)!

Alas, I wish I had known about these improvisations long ago.

Has your camera “exceeded” its specifications? Would like to hear your stories...

[Kuzano]

It's always interested me why LF cameras don't have a side tripod mount. It seems like that would have been an easier solution to various movements, as well as the portrait vs landscape mode. Granted, changing the back allows the use of conventional movements in either landscape or portrait.

I used the Mamiya Press cameras, and one of the rare pieces I used often was the side tripod mount... hard to find.

Good catch!

[Jon Shiu]

Hi, I'm wondering what advantage you find in axis tilt over base tilt? By the way, you can leave the tabs out of the front standard and get axis tilts.

Jon

[Heroique]

Hi, I'm wondering what advantage you find in axis tilt over base tilt? By the way, you can leave the tabs out of the front standard and get axis tilts.

Jon

I've found that lens axial tilt (compared to lens base tilt) will not disturb my focus as much. For example, when I use the Tachi's base tilt, I usually have to re-focus as a second step. (It's a minor inconvenience.)

Also, this may be more subtle, but lens axial tilt, while changing the plane of focus, doesn't change the perspective you may have worked hard to establish. Base tilt, on the other hand, moves the center of the lens in relation to the film plane, which does change your perspective. This may prove inconvenient, depending on my subject.

BTW, that's interesting about the tabs, another work-around I hadn't noticed...

[Ivan J. Eberle]

I recently sought out and found a Meridian 45B (circa 1948 metal technical field camera), as these are often held up to be among the most wide-angle friendly of cameras ever built.

While the bed has a nice standard drop, it didn't look to me that the bed would be out of the shot for a 65mm lens or wider. Not found in any of the literature how to do this, but a fellow from S. Africa had alluded to the bed dropping a full 90˚ in an old thread, I forget where but it came up in my deep Googling of the marque, once I'd decided the camera was a keeper.

So I emailed this guy halfway around the world a dozen years after the original post, and got a response back in half a day(!) detailing with the moves for quickly doing this simply by pushing down on the spring latches and manipulating the struts out of the track. Instant 90˚ bed drop.

(This flopping-the-camera thread reminded me that this bed drop feature wouldn't work quite so well in portrait orientation were it not for the Meridian's revolving back. Only gravity keeps the bed dropped out of the way).

The best unsung feature of my 60-year old Meridian might just be the Internet.