Linhof Super Tecnika: best wide angle solution?

[foto-r3]

I really don't like to post such an oft-asked question, but perhaps there are new answers out there. (After searching the forum archives, I found Olé's suggestion of taking a hacksaw to the body casing. Has anyone actually done this!? Equally amazing is the number of threads that appear with a search string like "hacksaw".)

I am using a Linhof Super Tecnika IV + 90mm Super-Angulon with electronic shutter, a true beast, which has a kind of mast with aperture settings. The lens has great coverage, in my opinion, but very limited in terms of movements and I don't think this one allows for a recessed board. I am shooting mostly architecture, usually 3- or 4-storey is tops. But I, like another user before me, like to use front rise. Does anyone "get it done" with this combination?

What is the best wide angle solution?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Hacksaw. That's what I have on my 'baby' Linhof special for the 65/8 SA, and the same applies to the 4x5 with the 90.

How far (if at all) can you offset the hole in the shutter, without the rear cell fouling the bellows?

Cheers,

Roger

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Sell it, and get one without an oversized electronic shutter. A 90mm Super-Angulon of any generation (mine is a 90/8, but I've seen the later ones in use on a Technika) should function perfectly normally in a recessed board with no special adaptation on a Technika. The flap on the Master Tech will get you a little extra front rise with the newest ultrawide coverage lenses in the 72-80mm range, but I don't believe it's needed for even a superwide 90mm (and it doesn't help for shorter lenses, because the front standard is too far inside the box).

Shimmed properly, you should be able to use a 90mm in a recessed board with the top rail in the retracted position with the same infinity stops as a 150mm lens on a flat board with the rail in the neutral position. A 75 and 135 should work in the same way.

 

[sjperry]

The thought of taking a hacksaw to any good camera makes me cringe - much less a Linhof Tech IV. I agree with the idea of getting rid of the electronic shutter beast and getting another 90mm lens. I wouldn't use an electronic shutter amyway, as I feel the mechanical ones are more reliable and easier to repair in a vintage item. I also have a Tech IV and am using lenses as wide as a 75mm Rodenstock, and really haven't experienced problems, even with a flat board. But maybe I haven't tried what foto-r3 is.

Steve Perry

 

[Len Middleton]

I have used a 75/f8 S-A on a Technika IV with a recessed board. The only problem I had was that because of the location of the rise knob, I had to do the rise with the focusing rail forward then rack it back into the camera for the focus. Fiddley, but it worked.

My later solution for it was to buy a Linhof Super Color Karden monorail with a Technika adapter board. Problem solved. I later bought a Technika V and did not need to use the monorail (might have been choice of subjects as well), so sold it as well.

Hope that helps,

Len

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

The crank lever rise mechanism on the Tech V and Master Tech solves that problem of the rise knob being in an awkward spot with a 75mm lens on the Tech IV.

 

[foto-r3]

I take it that with a 75mm S-A/8 in recessed board there are movements, with the aforesaid provisos. Does the 75mm S-A/5.6 design change things?

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

I take it that with a 75mm S-A/8 in recessed board there are movements, with the aforesaid provisos. Does the 75mm S-A/5.6 design change things?

I think that might be one of the few lenses that can benefit from the flap on the Master Tech (lenses between 72mm-80mm and maybe one or two 90mm lenses with a really large image circle).

 

[foto-r3]

So with this S-A/5,6 I'd be "back in the box" again, which is not where I want to be...

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

No, it should sit on the regular rail in the retracted position with a recessed lensboard. If the standard is actually in the box, then the flap isn't helpful, because it's too far in. You should only be on the inner rails with lenses 65mm and shorter.