Question for Toho (not Toyo) owners

[leonard_evens]

The detents for zeroing the tilts on the front and rear standards for

my Toho FC-45X are not quite consistent with one another. There is a

slight amount of play in the detent positions and also in the rest of

the system, so I can sometimes manage to get them fairly well lined

up. And of course by ignoring the detent positions I can get them as

well aligned as I would like. I don't see any similar problem for the

swing default positions.

 

If I stop down enough, this probably doesn't make much difference, but

it is surprising how often a small misalignment can produce a

detectable result. Also, it bothers my compulsive soul.

 

Is there some way to adjust the detent positions without remachining

the camera? There is a screw on the face of the knob used for

locking the tilt, but I'm not sure what its function is. I loosened

it a bit, but that seemed to have no effect.

 

I wonder if any other Toho owners out there have noticed this problem

and come up with a solution. Kerry Thalmann, are you listening?

 

On a related matter, I've often found with the Toho, using my 90 mm

lens that I want to shift more than seems feasible. That same

locking knob on the front standard hits the bellows, which makes

focusing difficult and also might in time damage the bellows. I found

that I can do a little better by shifting both standards all the way

to one side. That way the bellows is moved almost out of the way of

the knob. It doesn't seem to have much effect on rigidity. This is

one fairly poor design feature of the Toho, since they could have put

the knob on the other side where it would not have been in the way.

 

Minor problems like these aside, I am still very happy with my Toho.

[stefan_dalibor]

As far as I can see (and this is from dismantling the base-tilt joint), the detents are given by the form of the parts, i.e. the block sitting in the rise/fall clamp and the one that clamps the standard. The little Phillips screw you mention is only to prevent that the joints don't slip apart if the locking knobs aren't tightened.

This means you can't change the detents w/o some machining...<br>

I'm also a bit obsessed by »detent parallelitis« (in fact so much I considered buying a zig-align device) - I check the standards with a spirit level quite frequently, but up to now, my Toho seems to be at least as parallel as my Arca (confirmed also by the pictures I took, but I don't use very wide lenses).<br>

If you look closer at the machined surfaces that form the detent mechanism, you can see that the resp. »fixed« parts have chamfered edges, meaning the moving part is forced into the detented position stronger (i.e. with less possibility for play) if pushed into the direction of the fixed part (this is for swing and tilt). So to get play-free alignment, I press the resp. standard down (to align swing) and left before tightening the locking knobs.<p>

Regarding the position of the front tilt locking knob, I have the same problems (and neither can't understand why the knob isn't positioned on the front side) - I've bought another screw with a smaller locking knob for this reason ($1 in a local shop specialized on screws), but this is unsatisfying (too hard to my fingers). I'm contemplating about a screw with a pivoting locking bolt (not sure about the word, in german it would be »Knebel«) instead of the fixed knob, but it hasn't been annoying enough until now.<br>

More often a problem are IMO the weak springs on the camera back - I use a Horseman direct bino viewer, and if I shoot upwards, I have to remove the viewer for shooting because otherwise the film holder is not positioned firmly enough, as the combined weight of the holder and viewer is too much for the springs to compensate. My machinist tells me that it would be a major and risky work to replace the springs, as the bolts holding them are riveted to the groundglass frame.

[leonard_evens]

Stefan,

 

Thanks for the information.

 

You might consider the solution I outlined to the position of the locking knob. If you shift 3 units to the right in both front and rear you get more clearance. It seems to work better in portrait orientation than in landscape orientation. I am also tempted just to turn the camera on its side by rotating the tripod head 90 degrees, but I'm a bit worried about stability.

 

I just use regular film holders and so far at least I haven't had any problem with the springs.