Lensboards, Arca or Linhof?

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I am purchasing an Arca Swiss 4x5 F-Classic. I want to use smaller lensboards so I am buying a lensboard adapter to go with the camera. My question is which lensboard adapter? I have a choice of going with the smaller Arca boards or Linhof lensboards.

Do the mechanisms on the two adapters work equally well? Are there any other pros and cons to be considered before making the final purchase? I wanted to ask the advise of Arca Swiss owners who have used the lensboard adapters and either type of lensboard.

I will be using wide angle lenses at times. Do I need to purchase a recessed lensboard for a 75mm lens when the adapter itself is recessed a bit?

Thanks for your help.

Ward

-- Ward Williams (wardwilliams@interaccess.com), August 08, 2000

Answers

> recessed lensboard

This may be the decision-maker.

Technika-type recessed lensboards can be pretty hard to find and expensive, and the recessed area is _small_. I've used a 75 f4.5 Grandagon in one and it required a right-angle adaptor for the cable release plus often it seemed that there was room for the shutter or fingers but not both at once.

-- John Hicks (jbh@magicnet.net), August 08, 2000.


Since the base design of the Arca is recessed, you really don't need a further recessed lensboard in most cases. I can easily use a 47mm lens on the Arca with a flat Linhof style lensboards. The 75mm will be no problem at all. You will need a bag bellows. I'm not sure at what point a recessed board is required.

I chose to go with the Linhof adapter on the Arca for several reasons. The boards are small and available from multiple sources (Wista, Linhof, Walker and probably others). If your using more than one camera, the Linhof style board is as close to an industry standards as you can get. Almost everyone makes an adapter from their board style to a Linhof. As previously mentioned, the BIG downside to these boards is when you must use a recessed board. Years ago when the Linhof recessed board was designed, the Linhof engineers must have had fingers about 1/2 the thickness of current day humans. If I need to use a recessed board, I'll use a pen or something like that to move the controls on the shutter. Not only can shutter release hookup be tricky (Linhof & Pro Cable have solutions to this), but flash terminal connections can be nearly impossible with some lenses unless you leave a short extension cord on the lens.

-- Larry Huppert (Larry.Huppert@mail.com), August 09, 2000.


When I purchased my Arca-Swiss used, it had a Graphic press front (for the 4" Graphic press lensboards) fitted into an older style, 1" recessed Arca-Swiss lensboard. With this arrangement, I'm getting about a 3/4" net recess. I have the leather, wide-angle bellows, and this works fine for a 65mm SA lens. (With movements.) But, I question that it would work very effectively for lenses smaller than 65mm. 58mm perhaps, but no smaller.

For a brief period, I had the synthetic bellows. Having fewer folds, I believe that the synthetic bellows would work better for very small lenses (e.g. 47mm) than the leather wide-angle bellows.

By the way, I think the leather wide-angle bellows is excellent. I use it as my standard bellows for lenses up to 180mm lenses. (Even w/the 3/4" recess.)

-- neil poulsen (neil.fg@att.net), August 09, 2000.


I have that camera and I use an older A/S (flat) to Technika adapter board; I've had no problems in the four or five years I've owned the adapter. I regularly use a 65mm f/4.5 Grandagon and have no problems but I do use the synthetic wide-angle bellows. Arca-Swiss claims that you can use the 45mm APO-Grandagon (at infinity focus) with the synthetic bellows and the standard 13mm recessed board. Using that combination of board and bellows, the shortest lens I've had the opportunity to use was a 47mm f/5.6 XL Super Angulon and had plenty of room left btween the standards and had no binding problems even with a large rise movement.

-- Ellis Vener (evphoto@insync.net), August 09, 2000.

I have that camera and I use an older A/S (flat) to Technika adapter board; I've had no problems in the four or five years I've owned the adapter. I regularly use a 65mm f/4.5 Grandagon and have no problems but I do use the synthetic wide-angle bellows. Arca-Swiss claims that you can use the 45mm APO-Grandagon (at infinity focus) with the synthetic bellows and the standard 13mm recessed board. Using that combination of board and bellows, the shortest lens I've had the opportunity to use was a 47mm f/5.6 XL Super Angulon and had plenty of room left between the standards and had no binding problems even with a large rise movement.

-- Ellis Vener (evphoto@insync.net), August 09, 2000.


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