Setting up Front Standard on a Tachihara 4x5

[velviamax]

I started using a Tachihara 4x5 camera recently and use BW/C41/E6 film.

From what I read in an old post, sliding the front standard with the lens on the focus board with the markings "1,2,3,..." (see Photo below) will get me to my infinity mark (my 150mm lens = ~ Position "3.5"). Then I try to fasten the front standard in that position.

Is there a technique to allign it on the Position "3.5" so that left and right are parallel ?
It seems to me that because there are no hard stops that it creates a slightly shifted lensboard each time I set it.
Please correct me if I am doing anything wrong, I would like to know more on how to set it up properly.

Apologies if this seems like gibberish, I find it somewhat hard to write about. Any help is much appreciated!

 

[Doremus Scudder]

The front standard should slide evenly in the rails without too much play. If there is so much play in the mechanism that it is easy to set the front standard with too much accidental swing, then you should look for a way to tighten up the mechanism a bit. Maybe just partially tightening the lock levers when sliding the front standard will help.

And, you can always replicate the numbered scale on the other side of the camera. Get a long, self-adhesive label and copy by hand or print. If the scale is in centimeters, there are lots of downloadable rules in pdf format available online. Simply print one of these onto an appropriately sized label. You can likely get one without numbers so that you can mark your own later. In any case, if you have the same scale on both sides of the camera bed, aligning the front standard should be easy.

Best,

Doremus

 

[shutterfinger]

Square it up with a caliper then make an alignment gauge from hardwood or acrylic.

 

[Maris]

I've used Tachiharas, 4x5 and 8x10, for more than 40 years and have adopted a way of working with them that ensures parallel alignment of front and rear standards.

The 4x5 Tachiharas, model 45GF and colour variants, are all front focussing double extension cameras.

For lenses 180mm or longer the rear standard is pulled back to its stops and locked off. The front standard is pushed all the way forward and locked off. Racking the geared focussing mechanism forward brings lenses 180mm to 300mm into focus.

For lenses from about 135mm to about 180mm the rear standard is pushed forward to its stops and locked off. The front standard is kept all the way forward and focussing is done by rack and pinion as before.

For lenses 65mm to about 135mm the rear standard is kept fully forward and the front standard is pushed fully back to its stops and locked off. The focussing travel in this configuration is reduced but short focus lenses don't need a lot focus travel to go from infinity to close up.

The scales on the bed of the Tachihara 4x5 are in centimetres with minor divisions every 2.5 millimetres. I've never figured out a use for these scales and I would not trust them as a guide for getting front and rear standards of the camera precisely parallel.

 

[velviamax]

Thanks everybody. So good of you of helping me with this.

@Maris: Thank you for that information I am using a 15 cm f 4,5 Voigtländer Heliar in a Synchro-Compur Shutter, so I moved the rear standard forward (so that the last readable numbers are 14,15,16). Will probably try it out the next couple of days.