I have a Linhof Color Kardan that did not come with focus hoot/ground glass protector. I picked up on ebay what I thought was the right back. It has grey mottled metallic paint, has a black border and black tab for opening, does not have a clip for notes, the folding material is coated nylon, there is a small mark in the lower left corner (horizontal format) which could have been where a crest was glued on - BUT - it doesnt fit my camera. When the tab is placed over the little spike to close the back, the two pins are slightly short and the actuall back is a couple of mm. narrow and about 1 mm. too long. I find it hard to believe linhof made two backs almost identical but not interchangeable so wonder if what I have is a Wista back. Can anyone id my focus hood for me? Thanks.

-- George Barr (george.barr@home.com), March 15, 2001

Answers

Are you sure that the clip is for notes and not to hold the dark slide?

-- John H. Henderson (jhende03@harris.com), March 15, 2001.

George,

Ask Bob. He's a Linhof expert. Do you have a pic? A linhof hood (old version which I have) has a DOF chart printed on the back of that metallic piece. You can see it when you open the hood. Mine also has a memo clip.

-- Geoffrey Chen (db45tek@aol.com), March 15, 2001.

Further to the description - the mark that I thought might be glue wiped off too easily - it was just dirt. The whole frame around the lid is black plastic while everything else is metal.. The photo is still up as of 15 March 2001 and the item # is Item #1216341343 on ebay. Thanks again.

-- George Barr (george.barr@home.com), March 15, 2001.

Linhof service is 973 808-9626.

Call them and they have the adapters necessary to adjust the fit if it is a linhof Folding Focusing Hood that was made in the past 45 years.

Should you have one that is not Linhof or from an earlier design it can not fit.

-- Bob Salomon (bobsalomon@mindspring.com), March 16, 2001.

I suspect that this isn't a Linhof hood/protector. I have a Linhof hood with the gray mottled back and it has both a clip (supposed to be for a dark slide but they don't really fit under there very well) and the opening tab isn't black. It also has a Linhof crest. While the crests can fall off, I would think its former location would be pretty obvious. All in all, while I obviously haven't seen every Linhof hood ever made, I've owned five of them and yours doesn't sound like one I've ever seen. As an aside, these things are virtually useless for focusing. You can't keep them open without holding them open with one hand (which leaves you with only one hand for holding a loupe, tilting, etc. and that's at least one too few hands) and they collapse if you try to press your forehead against them so they don't keep out enough light. So if you're interested in using it for focusing, I'd forget about it. They do make very nice, but very expensive, ground glass protectors. You can buy ground glass protectors from Canham or Calument for a lot less money. If you nevertheless want to be a purist and still wish to find a Linhof version, contact me by e mail.

-- Brian Ellis (bellis60@earthlink.net), March 16, 2001.

I am looking for an old style wista back for my Wista Rangefinder. There new style backs are not backward compatible.

The hood attaches to the camera on the left site and can be rotated out of the way. The kind I am looking for has a male pin that slips into a hole where the head of the pin slides between two vertical metal wires which trap the head of the pin.

If you hood works this way, I would like to buy it from you and you can use the money to buy the a new linhof hood.

If the arrangement looks sound right let me know and we can exchange photos and measurements of the parts.

-- Roger Hawkins (r.b.hawkins@cox.net), April 03, 2002.