Questions about Linhof 13x18 and accessories

[Flynnie]

Aha, thanks Boris, will do that, it's in such good condition I forget it's pretty old. Can you enlighten me on any of the other questions?

[Ole Tjugen]

Another question, it came with some Linhof 13x18 film holders, there's a little lever on the side, is that to ease out the film?

Those are "Universal" holders, for film OR plates. The little lever is an "Auswerfer", meant to help push the plates out. I find it very useful with film too, mostly just giving it a little tap to check that I have actually remembered to LOAD the film!

[Flynnie]

Thanks Ole, those holders are beautiful too, so I just press down on the spring plate when loading film I suppose?

[boris]

"One of the lenses that came with it is a beautiful 300mm Symmar convertible, is there enough bellows draw to focus it in 500mm mode? Apparently, it needs 61cm."

even if you would succeed to focus at infinity, it wouldn't be fun .
if you can, buy a dedicated tele lens. fuji, nikon or schneider made them. i have a tele xenar 500mm and it is still very tricky to shoot outside with 1/8 of a second.

[Ole Tjugen]

It would be fun, I promise you.

The longest converted Symmar you can focus at infinity on a Linhof Technika 13x18 is the 240/420. I used that with good results on mine, when the 360 Tele-Xenar had too little coverage for the movements I needed - almost full front drop!

[Flynnie]

300mm will be plenty long for me anyway so won't bother converting it. Ole, do you reckon those items in posts 2 and 3 are for enlargers and would there be any interest in them?

[Susie Frith]

Hi Flynnie,

I checked with my copy of Linhof Practice of 1958. Yours won't have front tilt You'll need to rotate the whole camera onto it's side and use the front swing as tilt, or mount the camera upside down and use the backwards tilt as a forwards tilt, or tilt the back of the camera (ground glass) using the stalks and tilt the whole camera backwards to keep the ground glass vertical, if all that makes sence!

The back tilt of the lens panel is to re-align the lens panel to the vertical if you drop the bed into the second notch. I think with your 120mm lens, you will have to do this anyway. Drop the bed, tilt the lens panel back so it is now vertical again, depress the catch and slide the upper track back into the body of the camera. The infinity mark (black dot) should now align and the lens should be at infinity focus.

The camera has enough extension for a 300, lens or a 500mm tele. although it is listed as having 560mm extension.

Hope all this helps. I have a Mk5 which solves a lot of these problems!

Best wishes,

Susie

[Ole Tjugen]

I wonder if those "neg holders" are for some kind of "Technika enlarger conversion". I think I've seen something similar, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if I have one of those in a box somewhere!

But I really have no idea what they're for.

And by the way - my little pic here is myself with a hand-held Technika 13x18, with a 300mm f:4.5 Xenar on it. It works, after a fashion - but I can't really recommend that combination for hand held photography!

[Flynnie]

Susie, many thanks for the info, just have to free up that tilt lever and will try out your suggestions.
Ole, all I've found so far on Google is reference to the Linhof Reprocord kit but no pics of my actual neg holders, also found that they did make enlargers.
Can't see your pic but I think I know which one you're talking about, wonder if they ever made a 13x18 with rangefinder.

[Bob Salomon]

..... wonder if they ever made a 13x18 with rangefinder.

Of course they did. The 18x24cm Technika camera didn't have a rangefinder. But that one weighed over 10kg without a lens! The 57 Technika III only weighed 4.8kg.