How to add front shift to Deardorff?

[WarEaglemtn]

Having front shift on the 8x10 Deardorff would make life easier. Has anyone added this to their camera? How to do it?

 

[Dave Parker]

I would contact Richard Ritter to see if he has come up with a modification of this nature as the Deardorffs are pretty spendy cameras, I would check with an expert before I made any serious modifications to my own camera to see the best way to do it.

Good Luck.

R.

 

[Donald Miller]

Dan,

I am assuming here that you already have a front shift model camera. I haven't made a front shift conversion on either of mine but this is what I would probably do to convert them.

First the front standard supports will need to be notched to allow them to bypass the front swing knobs. Next, I would replace the front standard hinge with a different hinge. It looks like a 3/4 inch hinge width would be better. This hinge replacement will require drilling out the eight rivets that hold the existing hinge in place.

Using a sheet metal shear, I would cut one side of the 3/4 inch hinge down to the dimension of the previous hinge. (This cut down portion will be reaffixed to the front standard support.)

Next on the remaining 3/4 web of the hinge will need to be notched (to allow it to slide on the new front shift lock fasteners. The two notches in the hinge web would need to be approximately 1 1/2 inch X 1/4 inch.

The front standard shift lock fasteners would need to be installed on or through the front (inner rail). These would be 3/16 inch X 1 inch countersunk bolts inserted from the bottom and equidistance from each side of the rail, if you decided to go through the rail. In lieu of that you could have 3/16 inch X 1/2 inch studs shot down onto the front swing bracket metal (where the previous hinge was afixed). Shooting down studs onto this metal would be better if you have a metal shop with the equipment that can do this. The installation of the studs would retain the integrity of the front rail. Although I don't think that drilling 2 of the 3/16 inch holes would be a problem...especially if you epoxy the bolts into the drilled holes.

The installation would be completed with the installation of the hinge over these shift lock fasteners. This would be followed by the installation of two washers and knurled knobs.

A stainless steel hinge should be available at most complete hardware stores. A sheet metal fab shop should be able to shear the one side of the hinge. The shift notches in the other web of the hinge could be done by a machine shop or by using a drill and dremel.

I hope that this answers one way to approach this. I agree front shift is really nice especially when you get involved with compensating for the effects of swings.

 

[Jeremy]

I think there is a discussion about this on the LF Forum where someone contacted Ritter and he said it wasn't worth it. If you do end up doing it to yours, Dan, please share how and some pictures because I have an 8x10 and a 5x7 that would love to shift on occassion.

 

[Claire Senft]

Do you want a manual or automatic shifting? What kind of transmission do you get with your lenses?

 

[df cardwell]

Are we talking Shift or Swing ?

The Deardorff is designed to accomplish Shift by Swinging the front and rear standards in opposite directions. It was thought Shift was the least useful movement, and the one most likely to diminish stability.

 

[WarEaglemtn]

What I want is front shift. I already have front swing and I do know how to compensate for no front shift by offsetting the front & rear standards with swing. At times this is not enough and I would like to have 1-3 inches of front shift to work with.

If I do something about it and make it work I will post info on it.

 

[df cardwell]

If you've got an emergency, you can rotate the camera 90 degrees and use the rising lens plate.

You ought to be able to add a little side-to-side movement by modifying a 6x6 board.