APO Grandagon 55, Horseman VH, Recessed Boards

[John T]

I have a Chamonix 45 and a Horseman VH. The Technika board is a monster compared to the tiny Horseman board. Back in my crazy days, I made modified a 00 shutter so that all the controls were extended to the front of a recessed Horseman Board. While it worked fine, I will never do it again. A Copal or Compur 0 housing will barely fit inside the well of a custom made recessed board. You would actually need to shave down the diameter of the shutter speed ring, remove the pc jack and change the aperture lever, focus lever and transfer the aperture scale to the lensboard itself.

[Brian Wallen]

I have an older 65mm SA in a #00 shutter and I believe I could make a recessed board for it, possibly with some controls extensions. I'd start with the base unit of my extension tube set which has a rimmed hole nearly as large as the port in the VH front standard. Then I'd find a cylindrical measuring cup of that size and bond them together.

For someone wanting a short lens for 6 x 9 Horsemans, the 47mm SA could work well, since I think it was in a #00 Compur shutter. The 58mm Grandagon that was available for Graflex XLs would also be a candidate and already comes equipped with controls extensions; the only problem here is that many of these Grandagons had adhesive separations.

What is surprising is that no one besides Wista seems to have developed the kind of recessed lens arrangement they use. The idea of a mountable superstructure behind the front standard would seem to work for any camera having removable bellows. It makes the shutter controls very accessible and can create setback that most recessed lensboards can only dream of. Of course, it wouldn't work with the Horseman technicals that did not have removable bellows.

[Archphoto]

This is the best solution I have seen for a folding camera.

Peter

[Brian Wallen]

Incidently, while the idea of mounting a Wista board on a Horseman technical defies one or two physical laws as we know them, going the other way is possible. Horseman made a Horseman 80 => Wista converter and there are after market versions available from Chinese suppliers (~$150/new). These provide at least some help in sharing lens kits.