Arca Swiss 4X5 conversion to 6X9

I am thinking my Discovery is getting to heavy for my backpack, and wonder if any apuggers have have tested how modular A/S is so that one can carry the smaller 6X9 version ? Cost?

Good question. I love my Sinar, but I think I might be better served by a 6x9 view camera. Besides weight and size, the aspect ratio is lovely, the print can be enlarged to as big as I tend to ever need and clients don't care about film size. As it is I use 4x5 and RFHs and it allows me to cut my lens needs in half. If I switched to 6x9 I'd need to get some wider lenses, but the trade offs might be worth it.

Hi,
I have 5 Arcas, 6x9, 2-4x5s,5x7 and 8x10. All are configured to take the 100mm lensboards. Reconfiguring the camera is a snap but the 6x9 must have the 110mm lensboards, so to interchange the lenses between camera setups you would need the 171 to 110 format reducer. The format kits are really expensive and by the time you pick up the frames and bellows you may be able to find a whole camera on eBay for less money and then have both your formats available without doing any changes. F-line 6x9s have come up about 10 times in the last year. I use 6x9 backs which gives a similar aspect ratio to 5x7..pretty cool and a large neg...Evan Clarke

Modularity: almost total. Cost: high, if buying new.

As long as your lenses are on the 110mm (or older 109mm) boards you will be able to swap between the 4x5 and 6x9 setups easily. To use them on 4x5 either use the adapter lensboard or use a 6x9 front standard and tapered bellows (rather expensive) to turn your 4x5 discovery into (sort of) an F-Field.

I have almost all my lenses on the 110mm boards and use them on 6x9, 4x5, 5x7 and 10x8. I'm often interchanging components to make a camera that is just right for a particular job: this is easy with Arca.


Peter