Should I build a LF TLR? What would it take?

[Oren Grad]

Alignment is always the biggest challenge with a TLR. Even assuming the viewing and taking lenses are very close together in actual (not just marked!) focal length, it doesn't take much misalignment between the viewing and taking lenses for there to be trouble. The most robust solution is having both lenses on a single rigid panel. Stacking monorails is a neat idea, but the standards would have to be awfully rigid to avoid having some variable, hard-to-detect slop between the two lenses. I doubt that my Sinar P would be up to the task.

[stawastawa]

Very cool, thanks for the info - I had been thinking to cannibalize my linhof color kardan for something else, but maybe it will end up in something like this! neato neato!

...
If you want to make a 45 TLR you could buy 2 old Linhof monorail cameras from the B or later, except for the ones with a telescoping rail or a fixed bellows.

Take one and unscrew the caps on top of the 4 posts, 2 for the back standard and 2 for the front. Buy 2 sets of the Linhof standard extenders and attach one to each of the 4 posts, they just screw in. Take the bellows off the second camera, it just unsnapped. Unscrew the caps on top of each post. Loosen the rise control on each side of the front and rear standards. Lift the back standard off the rear posts and slide it on to the extended posts on the first camera. Repeat with the front standard. Screw one set of rail caps on to each post. Reattach the bellows and now you have a 45 TLR. You can do this much faster then reading this.
...
The Sinar Norma also was able to do this the same way but while the Linhof post extensions are still made you would have quite a job finding 4 of them for the Norma.

[Qeb]

Hello Everyone,

Has anyone made any progress in building a LF tlr?

Could you take 4x5 gowlandflex and scale up to 8x10?
Is there much difference between the two?

Thank so much!
Be well.

Cheers,
Kevin H.

[Dan Fromm]

Could you take 4x5 gowlandflex and scale up to 8x10?
Is there much difference between the two?

Hmm. Take two big heavy cameras and make one big, heavy clumsy camera out of them.

But yes, what you want to do is indeed physically possible and might even make sense for a portrait camera to be used in a studio. Is that what you have in mind?

[Oren Grad]

Could you take 4x5 gowlandflex and scale up to 8x10?

Peter built TLRs in larger formats too - some 5x7's and even a few 8x10's.

Is there much difference between the two?

Compared to the 4x5, the 5x7 is big and the 8x10 is really big.

[Qeb]

Thanks Dan and Oren.

I knew about the 4x5 but I only found out about the 8x10 earlier today.

I'm so excited by the possibilities!

Yep Dan, studio portraiture!

Thanks for the replies!

[Tin Can]

I believe seven 8X10 Gowlandflex were made, all custom order

There used to be a lot more Gowland data online, websites fell

There is another way Twin Lens 4x5 Sinar

Even the 8X10 Gowlandflex was used handheld

[Tin Can]

https://www.petergowland.com/gowlandflex-cameras

[joelio]

https://www.petergowland.com/gowlandflex-cameras

Or https://web.archive.org/web/*/petergowland.com for another view at materials no longer available directly on the source website. If that link doesn't work you can simply copy and paste from post #38 in this thread to access more of the site within the Wayback Machine. During my Gowlandflex odyssey I used this resource extensively.

[Tin Can]

Thanks I find 'wayback machine' very clumsy

I did use the original websites often, the options and price list scanned typed was very informative

I wish I had downloaded them