Mounting a Pentax 6x7 on a 4x5 Camera

[Chris Engholm]

Has anyone tried to mount a Pentax 6x7 on a 4x5 camera body in order to achieve shifts and tilt? If so, could you please describe how you did it, what was invo lved, what lenses worked or did not work, etc. Thanks in advance,

Chris

[Ellis Vener]

You'd probably need an adapter made by why would you want to? You'll be limited to short normal (for a 4x5) and long focal length lenses as you'll have to take into consideration the depth of the mirror box on the camera. The deep mirror box will also impinge on how much shift and probably swing and tilt you'll be able to use before you get cutoff. If you want view camera movements on roll film you will be far better off using a roll film back on a 4x5 camera like those made by Horseman, Sinar, Calumet, Linhof or Toyo

[Jim Galli]

Me again. Take a look at the Mamiya Universal lenses. Already in Seikosha 0 shutters and ready to do what you've described. J

[Nigel Turner]

Ellis, you forgot to mention Arca Swiss!

[Doug Paramore]

There used to me, and maybe still are, adapter plates for such purposes. I have seen pictures of Hassys and Nikons mounted on adapter plates. Never owned one, and don't want one. I would think it wouldn't be too difficult to construct such an adapter.Don't know what you would call the combination...perhaps Pentadorf or Lintax?

[Ellis Vener]

Did I? That is because of my poor grammar. I was referring to the roll film backs not the cameras.

[Ellis Vener]

I guess if you mounted the Pentax on a Sinar you'd get a SinTax. And of course any bad photos could be attributed to a Sintax error.

[Jim Bancroft]

Hi Chris -

You can have someone like Steve Grimes mount an extension ring for your Pentax onto a flat plate which will mount the graphloc back for your camera. The extension ring has the bayonet mount for the Pentax. The shoter the ring the better and you will need some provision to handle the wieght of your camera "dangling" off the rear of your camera. All in all you're probably better off using a roll film adapter.

jim

[Paul Schilliger]

Have a look at this:

http://www.zoerk.com/pages/p_pshift.htm

[Rob Tucher]

Years ago I mounted a Pentax 6x7 body to my 4x5 in order to achieve through-the-lens/bellows metering in extreme close-ups. I drilled out a Sinar lens board to a size just smaller than the diameter of the shortest extension tube, drilled three pilot holes through the board into the forward edge of the tube, attached the tube to the board with machine screws, made it light-tight with black silicon goop, and mounted the camera to the combination (effectively ruining the tube for any other purpose). This was put on the back of my Sinar. It doesn't work with short lenses because of the non-compressible film plane to lens mount distance of the Pentax body. So you can't get an architectural camera out of it. I did it purely as an occasional ultra-closeup camera with built-in bellows extension compensation. All in all its better just to use a roll back and figure bellows extension, as mentioned above. Someone else mentioned Zoerk, or is it Zork with an umlaut over the o. They make wacky adapters. I had a shift adapter for awhile so I could use my Pentax 6x7 lenses on my Nikon, and it had shift in any direction. They make lots of "adapt this to that" sorts of things.

[Chris Engholm]

Thanks everyone, for the help. I feel confident now in creating my new LinTax...

Chris

[Richard Reddy]

Hi Chris,
Pardon my reply 11 years late! In case anyone is interested, I have the adaptation Chris is after. For a Sinar F (Horseman, etc) my adapter consists of a lensboard mounted in place of the camera back. In the center of the board, an exension tube is firmly attached to the lensboard. It is an OUTER MOUNT extension tube, which will support the weight of the camera without undue stress. To those who may be confused, Pentax 67 has both inner and outer lens mounts. The latter is designed to support the weight of the camera with long lenses that have a tripod socket. With this arrangement and Adapter 645 (which accomodates outer mounts on the outside surface) you can also mount the 645 bodies. Visualize the resulting rig: it's a monster! Better have a good tripod for such a heavy rig, but it works perfectly well.

There are limitations. I can't focus at infiinity with anything shorter than a 150 mm (Fuji "W" lens), but for close shooting--with increased bellows extension--you would be okay. Bag bellows and recessed lens board would help here because the film plane is set back from the focus plane Sinar intended. In any case, a 90mm lens would not work (but might focus at infinity using a recessed board). You get full shifts and tilts. This is not a big deal for me because rise/fall/shift is what I need, and I also have the Pentax 75mm f/4.5 Shift lens. If I've got to have a WA image with shifts and tilts, my Linhoff 67 roll film holder is a better choice because it sits in the plane of the ground glass.

This is a great rig for photographing paintings in their frames, on the wall. The photographer I bought it from worked in the Yale museum doing just that, but has retired. It's also suitable for some kinds of sculpture, architectural details, and images that seem to possess immense depth of field (tilts). I differ with others, who think 6x7cm and large format are not a good combination due optimal working apertures and such. My Fujinon lenses are very sharp. They are essentially the same optical design found in Fuji 6x7, 6x9 and 6x17 panoramic cameras. Obviously, if a big mural is planned, you're better off with a large format negative, in which case 67II makes a great meter. With filter factors, bellows factors and so on, exposures will vary in accuracy. With the 67II you can do TTL metering and the distance will be exactly the same when you remove the camera and focus on ground glass.

View camera lenses have leaf-shutters, which is an improvement over 1/30th flash synch. Subject viewing is right side up and laterally unrevered, and the 67II has a particularly bright viewing system to fine tune focus. If you've got enough bellows draw, it is possible to build a remarkable rig in the telephoto department. If I had the money, I would love to attach a Nikkor or Schneider long lens, say 1200mm in length. In 6x7 format, that's a 12X magnification.

It is big and heavy, and not as practical as it might first appear, but I wouldn't wave anyone off because it's inexpensive to make the adapter, and it is a viable solution to a number of problems. In particular, tilt is very useful in general photography--but you might also want a donkey!

[Gem Singer]

Hi Richard,

The last time Chris posted on this forum was 3 Feb 2002. He hasn't been here since then.

BTW, wouldn't it be simpler to use a 6x7 roll film adapter on an LF camera?

[WayneStevenson]

http://www.flickr.com/groups/67/discuss/72157624866519160/