Plaubel Peco vs Cambo SC Lenboards.

[Dr Croubie]

This is quite possibly the stupidest question I've asked, but I'm looking for Cambo SC lensboards, like these.
I've also seen that Plaubel Peco lensboards look mightily similar (but I've never seen one in person so can't measure it).

Are they the same size and interchangeable?

 

[Dan Fromm]

Why did you tell us the wretched things (Cambo and Plaubel lensboards) look alike to you and direct us to an eBay listing for a Cambo board that has no picture and gives no dimensions?

Since there's no picture, the Cambo board looks like whatever you want it to look like. Stupid, and you used the word first.

More seriously, I have 2x3 and 4x5 Cambos. Their boards are similar but different sizes; for measurements and images see http://www.skgrimes.com/products/lens-boards/cambo . Neither size interchanges with Plaubel boards.

Oh, and by the way, sellers who say Cambo/Calumet are often confused and have 4"x4" Calumet CC (as in CC-400, ...) boards. These don't fit Cambos, 2x3 and 4x5 Cambo boards are larger than 4x4 Calumet boards.

 

[Dr Croubie]

Thanks, I meant the 6"(ish) sized boards, I thought that 'SC' meant only 6", but maybe I just learned something new again. The standard is just bigger than my (6") Toyo lensboards, until I get a real Cambo board I'm holding a toyoboard in it with bulldog clips. Not pretty, but just secure and light-tight enough, I'd prefer the real thing though.

I'd seen some lenses on Peco boards and noticed they have the same cutouts at the top, I was hoping they were two brands that used the same boards, in the same way that Technika/Wista/Shenhao are interchangeable, but it appears not.

The confusion between the 4" and 6" (on the part of ebay sellers, although even KEH don't fully describe some of their ones for sale) is part of the problem of finding something that fits (the other half of the problem is the shipping costs from the USA, more than the lensboards in most cases). Annoyingly the Calumet C1 and CC400-style lensboards seem to be cheaper and more available than the SC style (at least, the ones that are described properly and I'm confident that they'll fit).

 

[Dan Fromm]

Um, Peco boards have symmetrical cut outs (equidistant from the midline), Cambo boards' cut outs are asymmetrical.

KEH is so-so on boards. They've sold me a non-Graphic board that was considerably the wrong size as a Graphic board, they've sent me a 4x5 Graphic board when I ordered a 2x3er and once sold me a Cambo 4x5 board milled down to fit a 2x3 Cambo as a real 2x3 Cambo board. Re this last, the board fit but the light trap ridges weren't there.

That said, KEH seems to identify 4x5 Cambo boards correctly and they're usually the low cost vendor. At the moment, though, KEH has low stock. You might want to ask mpex.com what they have on hand.

The Super Cambo ("SC") was sold in four sizes. SC-1 for 2x3, SC-2 for 4x5, SC-3 for 5x7 and SC-4 for 8x10. -2, -3, and -4 all use the same front standard, all sizes use a 1" x 1" square rail; the rail's length varies with the camera's size. Later 4x5 Cambos all accept the 4x5 SC board (6 3/8" square, with rounded corners) and 4x5 SC standards accept later boards. 2x3 SC-1 standards accept 2x3 SF and Ultima boards.

You might want to look for boards on ebay.co.uk and ebay.de but I'm not sure that shipping costs will be lower from the UK or Germany than from the US.