Review of the Linhof Technikardan 45s
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The Linhof Technikardan 45s, (aka "TK") is my current large format camera of preference. In achieving this status, it displaced by a fairly significant margin the previous large format camera of preference, a Wisner Technical Field 4x5.
The Technikardan is a camera that seems to be either loved by people or else hated by them. Generally, the hatred centers around the procedure to fold the camera up, or else around the various locks to secure the movements, or else some combination of the two. My opinion of the camera falls well toward the love end of the spectrum.
Things I like about the Technikardan 45s:
it folds up into a relatively compact package, roughly 8" x 10" by perhaps 4" thick, which fits handily into the bag I haul my large format gear around it (the bag is a Lowe-pro Omni-Trekker sized to fit inside a Pelican 1520 case). At one point I did fairly extensive hiking with the Wisner, and the Technikardan is a better camera for this sort of use, partly because it folds up so nicely.
- plenty of bellows extension – the Technikardan runs about 20" fully extended. At full extension it’s not the most rigid thing in the world, but there’s an accessory bar that fits below the camera that can be used to make it extremely rigid. I don’t own one and haven’t felt a need for it.
One of my objections to the bar is that it won’t fit on the camera unless I remove the Arca-Swiss style plate that I have on the bottom of the camera. My other objection is that Linhof want a truly obscene amount of money for this chunk of aluminum. I'm pretty much inured to the expense of high end camera gear, but I blanch at the prices Linhof put on their stuff. I've said it before, but I'll say it again - if I wanted to avoid expense, I'd take up a cheaper hobby, like plating all of the automobiles in existence in 18K gold.
- roomy bellows – the standard bellows is really big, and is tapered at both ends, so that the center is larger than the ends. I find this cuts down on bellows flare considerably. Yes, I use a lens hood (a Lee, in fact) but the roomy bellows is a nice security blanket, and I never worry about bellows droop vignetting the image. To top it off, I find that I can do most of the work I do with a 135mm lens without resorting to the bag bellows.
bag bellows is excellent - The Linhof Technikardan bag bellows comes in a nice plastic bag with the amusing label of ‘Weitwinkelbalgen’. You might be tempted to think that this would translate into ‘wide angle bellows’ but I can tell you for a fact that ‘weitwinkelbalgen’ is German for ‘outrageously expensive bag bellows’. Nevertheless, changing bellows on the Technikardan is a 4 second job, and the bag bellows, unlike some, is a delight to use. It’s lined with some sort of velvet that seems to reflect not at all. It probably falls into that annoying category of ‘expensive but worth it’
- uses Linhof Technika/Wista lensboards – Different people like different lensboard standards. I like the Linhof Technika/Wista standard because it’s small, has an opening large enough for the lenses I like to use, and is in common use among field photographers (so that you can, in a pinch, borrow a lens from another photographer and not swap lens boards). To the enormous dismay of my bank account, the Linhof boards do fit noticeably better than Wista boards do.
- I find it easy and intuitive to use, with all the controls in the right places, very smooth movements.
- The camera can be folded with a lens in place. This can be a time saver.
- Good rigidity – I think the Technikardan is more rigid than the Wisner it replaced. Other people whose opinions I respect disagree with that. It probably falls into the category of ‘items on which reasonable minds can disagree’.
- Smooth handling – There’s a certain sensual smoothness to operating the camera. The telescoping rail sections slide over each other as if they’re oiled (but in fact the rail is meant to be NOT lubricated). Everything is machined ‘just so’. Tilt, swing, shift all are very smooth, despite the fact that the only geared movement is rear focus.
Naturally, there are some things I dislike about the Technikardan:
- It’s not a modular, expandable system like the Arca-Swiss line of cameras.
- When folded, the bellows is not protected, and the folded camera has to be treated with some modicum of care to avoid damaging the bellows.
The ground glass on my Technikardan has been replaced with a BosScreen, which I consider to be a real improvement on the fairly decent stock Linhof groundglass. When I replaced the groundglass, I evaluated other ‘bright’ screens, including the Linhof Super Screen and the Beattie. I thought the Beattie was awful, found that the Linhof Super Screen bowed in the Technika I saw one installed in, and bought the BosScreen based on the recommendation of John Sexton (and against the advice of several other people). I’ve got to say that the BosScreen was more expensive but I’d never work without it now that I have it. It’s not particularly bright but it sure is easy to focus on, primarily because the ‘grain’ is so fine. If mine broke I’d replace it immediately, and if I start traveling with my large format gear extensively I’ll probably buy a spare just in case.
Since some people seem to have trouble folding the camera, I’ll outline my procedure: when unfolding the camera, I stick the tips of my forefingers between the ends of the standards on the left side (as you face the front of the camera) and the 90 degree bends on the right side. Then, as I pivot the two standards to unfold the camera, I let my fingertips sort of buffer the space between the two standards. This has, so far, prevented any pinching of the bellows.
I timed myself unfolding the camera, and found it took me about 18 seconds, including mounting the camera in the Arca-Swiss style QR adaptor using the plate fitted to the camera, but not including mounting a lens. That 18 seconds includes zeroing the camera for all movements.
Folding the camera takes me about the same time, including unlocking the movements that must be unlocked to fold the camera. When the camera is off the tripod, I leave those movements unlocked. This hasn’t seemed to increase the risk of damage, although if I were to subject the camera to lots of vibration, I’d probably lock it all up when folded.
