'financially challenged' mans shift?....

[scootermm]

Alright so one of the things Ive noticed most in my limited but enthusiastic history of Large format shooting is that I would love a small amount of shift. just that minute amount in order to fine tune and tweak the composition on the GG. as opposed to picking up and moving the tripod one inch, re focus, setup, level, blah blah.
one of my thoughts was to get someone like Richard Ritter to make modifications on my F&S 7x17 to add shift to the front standard. Then being fairly cheap and know the modification would likely not be the cheapest I wondered it there were any tripod heads and/or plates that accomodated a slight bit of shift. know its not the same spacially when the front standard shifts in relation the back standard staying stationary but it could presumably accomodate the slight bit of shift I find I desire when making small compositional adjustments.
any ideas on this?

 

[avandesande]

I don't know if expense is a consideration, but look at the russian view cameras on ebay. It is just a panel dovetailed into the front piece. This would give you a modest amount of shift and probably wouldnt cost very much at all.

 

[wfwhitaker]

Seems like lateral shift on a banquet camera would tax the covering power of a lot of lenses...

 

[rbarker]

There are focussing stages used in macro work to make fine adjustments to the camera position without having to move the tripod. While I wouldn't suggest using one of the commercially-available models under your 7x17, the basic concept, rotated 90°, could be employed to accomplish what you describe. Essentially, it would be just two interlocked wooden plates with a threaded rod to adjust relative position.

That said, getting Mr. Ritter to add front shift may not be all that expensive. I'd call him and get a quote.

 

[Poco]

Scooter,

For some reason I doubt physical shifting of the whole camera an inch or so would have anywhere near the effect of even the smallest shift of the lens or back. Lens shift is leveraged, in effect, to the small size of the sheet of film while physical camera movement would have to be relative to the actual size of the scene being photographed ...if that makes sense. I dunno, I just have this feeling you wouldn't get what you want with a shiftable head.

 

[Donald Miller]

I don't know if you have front and rear swings but if you do you can get the effect of a shift by using swings.

 

[jimgalli]

Easiest and cheapest is to make a new lensboard and drill the hole an inch off center. Better still would be to have a shifting panel within the front board. Sort of like the Deardorff front panel but go all directions withing a 2 or 3 inch space.

 

[avandesande]

Here are some pictures of the FKD

http://www.pauck.de/marco/photo/stuff/fk/fk.html

Easiest and cheapest is to make a new lensboard and drill the hole an inch off center. Better still would be to have a shifting panel within the front board. Sort of like the Deardorff front panel but go all directions withing a 2 or 3 inch space.

 

[Brook]

Richard Ritter added some rear swings to my ancient 11x14 for what was a very reasonable price, far less than the cost of a router and bits to do the job myself and possibably screw it up. Worth a call.

 

[scootermm]

Scooter,

For some reason I doubt physical shifting of the whole camera an inch or so would have anywhere near the effect of even the smallest shift of the lens or back. Lens shift is leveraged, in effect, to the small size of the sheet of film while physical camera movement would have to be relative to the actual size of the scene being photographed ...if that makes sense. I dunno, I just have this feeling you wouldn't get what you want with a shiftable head.

Im fearing you may be correct poco... hence the putting out the feelers for opinions from my fellow LFers.

I sent an email to Richard Ritter about this yesterday so I hope to hear back from his about it and what the cost/time etc would be.

all good ideas. I like the idea of the lens panel. but am afraid the copal #3 shutter size limits this a great deal.

 

[scootermm]

sadly just spoke with Richard. Not something he does due to the amount of weakness it adds to the front standard. c'est la vie. Ive lived with "up and moving the tripod" for this long and I can continue, until of course that day when I hit the jackpot and can buy a canham or the like

 

[Ole]

... I like the idea of the lens panel. but am afraid the copal #3 shutter size limits this a great deal.

The iris lens mount on this camera opens to 90mm. It would have no problem with a lens mounted in a Compound #5. So the available shift is only limited by the size of the lensboard mount.

BTW this is not an FKD, but an "original" antique German 13x18cm plate camera. Easy to see where the design of the FKD's came from!

 

[papagene]

Matt, I agree with Donald Miller... if you have both front and rear swing movements, you can get an effective shift using those. If you don't have those swings - start at square one again.

gene