Linhof Weitwinkel-Technikon aka Grandagon 58/5.6 - keep or dump?

[eumenius]

Hello friends,

today for $300 I've got a nice specimen of Linhof-selected Rodenstock Grandagon 58/5.6 in a well working special 00 Compur shutter. Yes, the lens has a tiny silvery separation ring in the rear element, running around some edge, masked by aperture already at f/8 and invisible in direct light, otherwise the glass is fine. The question is, does this lens deserve to be kept as a wide-angle for my Century Graphic 2x3, or maybe I should return it back and procure something like Super-Angulon 65/8 in the same damned 00 Compur? I can understand that it's relatively rare due to separation issues, but are there completely healthy specimens of 58/5.6? And what can you say about the picture it gives?

I'm asking about the picture because the 00 sized lensboard for Century is a hard to find item, so I'm unable to test it directly by myself I have two days to decide if I should keep it or to return it back to seller.

Regards from Moscow,
Zhenya

 

[Dan Fromm]

Zhenya, if you're that unsure about it, send it back.

I have an ex-Graflex XL 58/5.6 Separagon. Silver spot in the middle of the rear cell, silver rim around the periphery of the front cell. Since it is in a shutter with no cable release socket it is very hard to use, but as far as I can tell it is usable. At the very least it passes light and forms an image.

At the moment it is at skgrimes to have the cells extracted from the XL superstructure and a #00 with cable release socket that I had lying around scaled for it. The big difference between mine and yours is that I spent $26 for mine, regard it as a nice gift.

I also have a 65/8 Ilex (functional equivalent of the 65/8 SA) and a 47/5.6 SA and an 80 WF Ektar. FWIW, I use the 80 and the 47 much more than the 65. They're all fine lenses.

skgrimes will be happy to sell you a 2x3 Pacemaker Graphic board drilled #00. If you have a shop that can drill boards ready to hand, mpex will be happy to sell you a blank board for your Century.

 

[Ole]

Two days is a little short - a little too short for me to check if the 2x3" Graphic lens board I have at home is a 00 size. I do remember that the hole is quite small, though...

 

[eumenius]

Dear Ole,

don't hurry please - I have decided to keep the lens Please, please, let me know if you find the board - even if it's not 00 but 0 size, I would be very obliged to you, and will buy it immediately. The lack of any lensboard on my camera makes me VERY sad - imagine yourself, I can't shoot a single frame!

Cheers from Moscow,
Zhenya

Two days is a little short - a little too short for me to check if the 2x3" Graphic lens board I have at home is a 00 size. I do remember that the hole is quite small, though...

 

[Bandicoot]

Dear Ole,

don't hurry please - I have decided to keep the lens Please, please, let me know if you find the board - even if it's not 00 but 0 size

If Ole, or anyone, gets you a board that isn't size 00, it isn't too hard to mount a 00 sized shutter in a 0 or even 1 sized board for a Century. This is because the aluminium boards are so thin - this technique wouldn't work with thicker lenboards.

All you need to do is get some thin aluminium sheet and cut it to a square that's a little smaller than the throat of the camera. Then drill this, centraly, for the 00 shutter, deburr it and paint one side the mattest black you can. Put this in the back of the lensboard, inside the recess. The 00 shutter will go in front of the board, and the lock nut pulls this flat plate up against the back of it: keep it square to the board so it leaves an even gap between the square plate and the inside of the lip on the lensboard. This works because the back of the 00 shutter doesn't have moving parts that would be jammed against the board by doing it this way.

If you just want to try out your lens, you can even make this technique work if you use thin but really stiff card to make the plate for the inside of a size 0 lensboard. I haven't tried plastic, but if it is easier to obtain than aluminium sheet you could probably use some stiff but thin plastic sheet.

In fact I have pieces of card like that inside the boards for a number of the lenses I use on my Century, even on 'right-size' boards: they are easy to change and when the 'mattness' of the paint on them declines due to fingerprints or whatever I can just swap one in instead of having to repaint the back of the lensboard.



Peter