Constructing a 4x5 for Linhof Technorama lenses

[Carl_Berg]

So, I've had this crazy idea for a long time now. My father owns a Linhof Technorama 6x12 and two lenses (58 mm super-wide angle and the 135mm normal-ish). Both lenses has built in leaf shutters and focusing.

I do like this camera a lot; the craftmanship and quality is simply amazing. However, I would really like to get in to large format-photography. I first thought of buying the shen hao-system, but I really can't justify buying gear worth well over 1000€, being a poor student and all. Also, I would like some sort of project for this winter.

Long story short: I want to construct a 4x5 view camera with the Technorama lens mount. Since the lenses has built in focusing, I'm guessing I won't need bellows or any parts that move. Of course that means I'll be sacrificing the movements most people sees as the main point of shooting LF.

Basically, what I want is to build a wooden box with two openings, one for the lens and one for the film holder. However, I have no idea how to calculate the distance between the rear lens element and the film. From what i know, this distance is differene for different lens/camera-companys. I could find most of the flange-film distances on Wikipedia, but not for the high end companys like Linhof.

Any ideas would be appriciated! Has anyone built something like this before? I have no idea what film holders to use either.

 

[John Koehrer]

You could measure any given point on the lens to the film plane and be close, add aground glass to make final adjustments. It sounds as though you're going to need a GG for focus anyway.

 

[ic-racer]

A 58 is pretty wide on 4x5, you may find yourself needing to crop off the top and bottom of the frame to get rid of extraneous picture elements I'd just use the Technorama for that lens. Without a machine shop at your disposal, I don't think you'll be able to build a mount or camera body to keep the 58mm lens parallel the film holder.

An appropriate viewfinder can be expensive (unless the Linhof viewfinder comes off). Making a 4x5 film back from scratch with the appropriate T-distance can be challenging.

In terms of the 135mm you can likely get a whole 4x5 monorail camera and 135mm lens package for very cheap if you look.