DIY Technika lens board?

I'm expecting my Intrepid 4x5 to arrive in the mail sometime around the end of March.

I have lenses, but they're in the wrong size of lensboard to use on the Intrepid, which takes standard Technika boards. I realize Technika boards can be had online for $30, but it rankles me a bit to spend $30 on what is literally just a square of rigid, light-tight material with a hole drilled in it.

Is there any reason I can't just cut a square of dimensionally stable plywood and drill my own hole in it? Heck, I could stain it and it would look better and be lighter weight than a commercial Technika board anyway. Is there something I'm missing here? (Assuming a standard flat board, not a recessed one)

No reason at all.

I have done it for various lenses over time, just need to get a correct sized hole and in the right position on the board; some are off centre.

I use 3mm plywood and cut it using a sharp knife, making multiple passes until it gets through the plies.

I use a metal file for shaping the top bit that is angled for the retaining slider on my cameras. Then I use a black matte spray can for the inside with a clear polyurethane brush on product for the front.

Purchase a lens removal tool, this really helps. This is the style of what I eventually went to, as opposed to other lens spanners that look a bit like two screwdrivers.

http://www.badgergraphic.com/opencart/index.php?route=product/product&path=2_82_175&product_id=1263

Don't over tighten into the plywood.

Mick.

Excellent, thanks for the tips.

I won't know for sure until I have the camera in hand, but from what I can see the retaining plates that hold the lens boards in don't even have any fancy cutouts; they would function on just a flat piece of any material of the right thickness. Worst case scenario I can file the grooves in without a problem.

Edit: Follow-up question. Is there an easy way to determine if the lens needs to be mounted off-center in the board? I would assume any standard lens would work perfectly if mounted in the exact center.

Well, some do and some don't.

I just looked at the Intrepid site, their quick video at 51 seconds, 52 seconds and 53 seconds, shows three different lenses on three different boards. There is a mixture of off centre and centred on that clip.

The boards are off centre so that when mounted on the cameras they were originally designed for, the lens was centred.

Below are two of my lenses, which I use on various cameras with these boards, which, as you can see, one is plywood and centred, the other is a genuine (recessed) Technika lens board, which is offset.

When I use my plywood board (in this case anyway) I just move the board by 8mm to centre the lens in relation to the camera back.

The lenses you see here are a 210 mm on the plywood, which is in a centred hole, I drop the lens 8mm to centre it, however that lens covers a huge amount over and above the 4x5" image circle, I rarely bother.

The lens on the recessed Technika board is a minimal coverage 90mm lens, that lens just covers the 4x5" image circle, so it is imperative that it is centred. Which in the case of my Shen Hao wooden folder, is correct. However, when I mount it onto my 4x5" Toyo 45G monorail camera, which normally has centred holes in its OEM lens boards. I have to carefully centre it, otherwise I miss part of the image.

Essentially if your lens coverage is minimal and just covering a 4x5" negative, then however you do it, the lens needs to be centred in relation to the actual film at the back.

Other than that, you can have them centred, offset, or even slightly to one side; if you are so inclined that is.

Mick.

BHuij said:

Is there any reason I can't just cut a square of dimensionally stable plywood and drill my own hole in it?

Click to expand...

For actual drilling you need the right tools and depending on tool even a drillstand.
Using a jigsaw would work though in any case...

Another issue would be the thickness of the sheet, at least concerning the clamps at the standard.

I bought some aluminium sheet off ebay and it's ideal for making lens boards, I made my first about 25 years ago and still use it with my Wista and just made some more recently, I spray paint them with primer then satin black. I prefer them to a wooden board.

Ian

It is possible to get away without the rim on the back of a substitute Technika/Wista-style board and just cut the right sized hole. I tend to use wood or black ABS as it is easy to drill with a standard hole saw. I would not try to drill aluminium without a drill press myself - the metal binds. The ideal way to cut metal boards is with a milling machine.

If you do a lot of landscape work, offsetting the lens on the board puts in some built-in drop front, which can be useful when using a tripod. You can sometimes turn the board sideways to get some extra shift (at the expense of having the controls in an odd place and subject to lens coverage). Linhof designed their cameras with offset lens positions - this is not necessarily true of all cameras that can accommodate that size of board.