Linhof 5x7 - which version ?

BlueLemon · Mar 14, 2008

Hey

I´m new to this great site, and hope you can help me.

I am offered this Linhof 5x7 with a Symmar 210/5.6 lens mounted on original Linhof lensboard. Lens is recently serviced, and seller announces that camera is in perfect shape. It takes 5x7 international film inserts

Can you tell me which version this is - i have no serialnumber for the camera.

And my second question - which lensboards will fit this 5x7. Will normal lensboards of the 4x5 do it..... I fear they won´t.

And thirdly - is there any adapter for mounting 4x5 lensboards on a 5x7 adapter ?

How much is a fair price for this ?

Cee

Ole · Mar 14, 2008

"Fair price" is up to you and the seller - but once upon a time I paid NOK 4500 for the one in my avatar picture (with 300mm f:4.5 Xenar lens).

5x7" Technika lensboards will fit. Nothing else, although there are adapter lensboards out there. the problem is that the're even rarer than the cameras!

The good news is that the lens boards are fairly simple, and having one made isn't going to ruin you. Check with Sk Grimes...

And then...

That is possibly the best of all 5x7" cameras. I currently use a Gandolfi Traditional 7x5" instead of the Technika, but those two are the only two 5x7" cameras that I've ever seen that even come close to being 100% reliable and stable.

snallan · Mar 14, 2008

This could well be a MkIV 5x7 Technika, it looks very similar to mine. My reasons. The front standard has the three red lines on each side, and it has a release lever for front tilt (backward only), and the positioning of the release knobs for the rear movements (upper ones on top of the camera, the lower ones on the sides).

The lensboards are larger than those of the MkIV 4x5 Technikas, but I think are the same size as the MkIII 4x5 Technikas (about 129 mm square). I don't think Linhof ever produced an adapter board to take the MkIV 4x5 boards, but I had mine converted by Linhof & Studio in the UK (they also did a Kardan lensboard for me, so all of my lenses are now on 4x5 boards).

Oh, and I was lucky. I got mine in a house clearance auction for about £400 (about 3800 DKK).

BlueLemon · Mar 14, 2008

Thanks guys.

Ole - you state that you paid 4500 NOK for your 5x7/3 Technika - so given Steve´s comment that this may well be a 5x7/4 - what would a fair price be. I offered him 700 Euro´s.

Is this fair or a bargain ?

Well maybe i will just visit a blacksmith to have him cut out som nice replica-lensboards.

BlueLemon · Mar 14, 2008

// Ole

I just found a post of 16. april 2004 where you state this :

Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Norway
Posts: 2,302 Linhof 5x7 Technika Lensboard Questions

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have bouhgt several lensboards on ebay.de, and finally found a Linhof/Linhof adapter which allows me to use the "small Technika boards" on the big Technika. It's a lot easier, so keep looking!

Can you please post a picture of that adapter ?

Claus Stensgaard

snallan · Mar 14, 2008

Based on the prices Ole and I paid for our Technikas, I reckon 700 Euro is very fair. And if Ole doesn't have a photo of the adapter board, I will photograph mine and post it (I have to borrow one of those damn-fangled d*****l imaging computer sort of thingies ).

Ole · Mar 14, 2008

The adapter board looks like this:

Dead Link Removed

Just remember that I no longer own it (or the camera), so I can't post more views from different angles.

€700 seems - fair. For both parts of the trade, so it's no a bargain. It's just - a fair price,

BlueLemon · Mar 14, 2008

Hey Steve

A true analogue user.... imagining you on a horse and carriage with your largeformat ;-) Making masterpieces

snallan · Mar 14, 2008

BlueLemon said:
Hey Steve

A true analogue user.... imagining you on a horse and carriage with your largeformat ;-) Making masterpieces

Arrrrr, that I be! I just wish I had been able to think of Ole's tag line first, I love the thought of being a "Luddite Elitist".

And me a software developer as well!

BlueLemon · Mar 14, 2008

Yes - It´s the stride of our times...... but i´m sure that both Hoffa and other Luddite elitist´s dissapeared in the wink of an eye.....

Let´s join this Niépce battle

BlueLemon · Mar 14, 2008

Ole, please stay with us ;-)

We´ll watch your back...... btw did you attend a boy baptism in Aarhus, Denmark in 2007 ??? I spoke with a guy from Norway who owned a couple of Gandolfi´s - just curious if it was you.

Boy named Kian

CS

snallan · Mar 14, 2008

Ahhh, Aarhus! A few years ago I worked for the British office of a company based in Aarhus, and I spent several happy months working at the headquarters in Aarhus (just down from the microbrewery on Kannikegade )

BlueLemon · Mar 14, 2008

My hometown..... Now live in Vraa

yes we probably drank beer the same place....World is small

snallan · Mar 14, 2008

BlueLemon said:
My hometown..... Now live in Vraa

yes we probably drank beer the same place....World is small

I was very fond of their Rød Lager when it came up as their monthly special.

BlueLemon · Mar 14, 2008

Nice and sturdy....but they had a special Ginger ale.....boy oh boy, did that do the trick in the hot summernights in Aarhus..... craving for old times, not only in photography ;-)

Waiter, Bring on a nicely chilled Polaroid 55 for everyone in this bar considered my friend !

Curt · Mar 14, 2008

A hand held 5x7, now that's some camera; in this day and age of limiting tripod use that would be very nice indeed.

snallan · Mar 15, 2008

BlueLemon said:
Nice and sturdy....but they had a special Ginger ale.....boy oh boy, did that do the trick in the hot summernights in Aarhus..... craving for old times, not only in photography ;-)

Waiter, Bring on a nicely chilled Polaroid 55 for everyone in this bar considered my friend !

Oooooh! I'm getting hankerings for a long weekend away! Good food and beer at the Sct Clements brewery, then meet up with some friends for a night of tinkerbox (not sure on the spelling here ) in the Ferry Boat! I never did photograph the theatre or the cathedral!

Ole · Mar 15, 2008

BlueLemon said:
Ole, please stay with us ;-)

We´ll watch your back...... btw did you attend a boy baptism in Aarhus, Denmark in 2007 ??? I spoke with a guy from Norway who owned a couple of Gandolfi´s - just curious if it was you.

Boy named Kian

CS

I'm here to stay - and it wasn't me in Århus!

And snallan - it wasn't me who came up with the "luddite elitist" either. I just adopted it.

BlueLemon · Mar 15, 2008

So i purchased a 5x7 Linhof ;-)

Got him down to 650 euro

snallan · Mar 15, 2008

BlueLemon said:
So i purchased a 5x7 Linhof ;-)

Got him down to 650 euro

Ooooh! You lucky guy.

Do enjoy.

BlueLemon · Mar 16, 2008

However I still need seller to supply me the serial number. Only buying if its a tech 4

Have at Tech 3 - 9x12, also a beauty.

But my triggerfinger is on the loose ;-)

Ole · Mar 16, 2008

Why? The difference between 3 and 4 is much less with 13x18 than in the 9x12 cameras. I'm not really sure what the difference is, to be honest - and in practical use I don't think there is any.

snallan · Mar 16, 2008

I would agree with Ole on the tech 3 vs tech 4. The change in features with the 5x7/13x18 was a gentle evolution, rather than anything revolutionary.

If you compare the picture you have with the photos I uploaded of my tech 4 (there was a url link here which no longer exists), you will see that, even if the Technika for sale is technically a 3 (from its serial number), it is almost identical to my 4.

BlueLemon · Mar 16, 2008

Point taken.

Steve - from the pictures, it looks exactly like your 5x7 tech.

CS

BlueLemon · Mar 16, 2008

Believe i worried a little of the bellows of the Tech 3 - the one I got is spattered with holes - but i fixed that with black gaffertape.

Went out to take the first pictures, and it worked like a charm. Soon she will have a younger sister ;-)

Linhof 5x7 - which version ?

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Linhof 5x7 - which version ?

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