cambo users knowledgeable about the 90mm angulon?

[affen_kot]

greets everyone. this is concerning the flat vs. recessed lensboard

dilemma.

 

i recently purchased a 1975 calumet super cambo. accordion bellows,

rounded standard/rail connections, revolving 4x5 back, no sepcial

modifications. i'd like to mount a schneider angulon (not

the 'super') 90mm with it's linhof synchro compur shutter to the

flat lensboard that came with the camera, but i have questions as to

whether or not the lens will be able to focus to infinity with this

proposed setup.

 

this sort of question has been, from what it looks like, asked more

than its share of times on p.net; but after reading some of the very

adamant - and very conflicting - opinions on other threads about the

ability of the SUPER angulon lens to focus to infinity on a flat

lensboard (from many that appear to not even have used the equipment

in question), i thought that it might be safer to check with my

specific gear before i commit to mounting with the wrong board and

the aftercost of fixing my possible error.

 

i need the setup to be functional for an upcoming weekend on the

lake of zürich for some landscape/biergarten shots that won't really

call for movements, but will call for good depth of field; so

restriction of movements is not going to bother me.

 

can someone familiar with the cambo and the normal angulon 90mm give

me some thoughts on their experience with this rig?

 

thanks for the thoughts in advance. cheers! ...affen

[vick_vickery]

You'll probably need a recessed board...rack your camera to its shortest bellows draw and measure from the approximate film plane to the lensboard...if more than 90mm then you have to have the recessed board to focus at infinity, and that leaves you no room for any movements; of course, with the 90mm Angulon your movements will be very limited anyway with 4 x 5 coverage, even when stopped way down.

[eric rose]

I had to use the recessed lensboard on my Cambo.

[paul_e._cassidy]

Hello Affen,

 

I use a flat board with a bag bellows and mount booth standards on the same side of the tripod clamp my 90mm Angulon works fine. If you do not have a bag bellows then you will need a recess board because the standard 18" bellows is way to thick when it is racked tight.

 

Problem I had with the recess board setup is my lens is so small and I mount a 40.5mm to 52mm stepup and use all my Nikon filters and a HN-2 metal lenshood. After stacking this on it is EXTREMELY hard to read the aperature settings in the deep dish!

 

That is my experience good luck,

Paul

[affen_kot]

thanks a lot for the thoughts, guys. incidentally, i just finished measuring the distance from the ground glass to the front lensboard plane - with the rail clamp removed (a lᠰaul), and both standards geared up against each other - and it appears to be...exactly 90mm (+/- 2mm).

 

the fact that this measurement is right on the above-mentioned breakpoint brings up another question: exactly how recessed are these aptly-named lensboards? i ask, because if one could help me to reclaim 40 millimeters of room (+/- 2mm), i might be able to keep the clamp in between the standards for better balance and still come in just at 90mm total distance between lens and film surfaces. if not, it means upgrading my light berlebach to something a little more able to take the imbalance caused by two standards on one side of center.

 

thanks again in advance. cheers...affen

[ronald_moravec1]

Recessed boards are recessed about 1" It`s difficult to get to lens contrls and attach a cable release as the lens is sitting in a square hole.

 

90mm angulon will not cover more than 4x5 so movement is not an issue. The Super Angulon has much better color saturation and coverage for movement.

[paul_e._cassidy]

Hello Affen, since you took some measurements, I decided to also here is what I found.

 

 

focal plane to lensplane = 43mm

 

(groundglass{inside} to Flat Lensboard{front}

 

Considerably different results;

Here is my configuration;

 

Cambo SC -

Flat lensboard -

Lever Handle SpringBack (I removed the rotating graflok back)-

Bag Bellows -

Standards turned towards each other -

 

Just an interesting experiment and I really enjoy the modularity of the Calumet/Cambo system.

Enjoy and hope this helps folks. . .Paul