The venerable Linhof Master Technika is a highly respected, highly regarded camera that represents a significant investment for its owners. It seems clear that they were designed and intended for professionals who don’t generally need to be protected from themselves. They are also extraordinarily poorly documented by Linhof, with owner’s manuals that, quite bluntly, contain misinformation and what I might call “errors of omission” — stuff important enough that it should have been mentioned, but wasn’t. That all might have worked fine if we still lived in a time when you bought your film camera from a local dealer, with real human beings there who could demonstrate and explain what (and what not) to do, why, and how. But we don’t live in such a time, and so the buyer of a Linhof Master Technika (or prior Technika models) is left to their own devices, free to screw things up with impunity, then blame the camera and its design. Some of that blame might be justified, but if you’re new to the Technika, let me — as someone who’s made multiple, expensive mistakes — explain how you can (and should) avoid them.
First off, I wasn’t joking about expensive mistakes. My massive screw-ups, all done within the first 45 days of ownership, resulted in several hundred dollars of damage to my camera. All were innocent mistakes. All were done after reading (and re-reading) the owner’s manual before my camera had even arrived. All were done after watching countless videos about the Master Technika. And all were done by someone (me) who’s been using cameras of all types for decades. If I can make these mistakes, so can you, but let me now save you from them.
How to Pull-out and Stow the Front Standard
This particular tip isn’t that hard to find, but I’ll repeat it here. (It’s also one I haven’t gotten wrong, thankfully.) After opening the camera from its closed state, or when preparing to close the camera after having it open, some care is called for. My advice is to move the top bed rail all the way back, just past its wide angle position. (This is just a tad bit farther than the back-most of its four possible positions.) This places the rails directly against the non-moving stub rails that are inside the body (where the front standard is positioned when you close the camera). When you pull the standard out, or go to stow it back in the body, this removes the gap that’s ordinarily between the stub and main rails, and allows the standard to move more easily into position. Once the standard is out, move the the top bed rail to the desired operating position. Then, when you’re done shooting, move it back to the wide angle position again to stow the standard away, and then back to the normal position to close it up.
Why do this? If you don’t, you leave the castings open to inadvertent damage, especially if you’re in a hurry, or careless. The casting of the moving carriage that the front standard is mounted to can bang against the rail castings, because there’s enough vertical and lateral “play” due to the gap between the rails to let them. Over time, this can wear away at the edges of the castings, and especially aggressive contact can chip the castings. Both will reduce the stability and accuracy of the camera.
Do Not Close the Camera Without a Cam Installed
If you have a Technika with a rangefinder, be certain not to close the camera without a cam installed. This is a particularly important tip, because the owner’s manual for the camera says you can do this, but the thing is, you really can’t — at least not without risking damage.
Why do this? I made this mistake just a few hours after I received my camera, and the result was a bent cam follower that rendered the rangefinder completely inaccurate and unusable until the camera was repaired. The problem is that without a rangefinder cam installed, the follower, which is under spring tension, can very easily move laterally and get stuck against part of the bed casting. When you go to open the camera, it won’t open all the way, and any attempt to force it will only damage the camera further. To free it, I had to put the camera on my workbench, and use a plastic tool to try and get the follower unjammed. I eventually succeeded, and put the rangefinder cam back in. But, it was too late; the rangefinder mechanism was already out of alignment, and unusable. It’s unfortunate that the owner’s manual says you can close the camera up with or without the cam; that is demonstrably untrue in my case.
Do Not Drop the Bed with the Rangefinder Cam Installed
More rangefinder cam fun… Don’t drop the bed with the cam installed. Cams for short focal length lenses can often be left in-place without damage at the first notch of drop (15°), but never leave a cam installed with the second notch (30°) of drop. My rule-of-thumb is simply always remove the cam when dropping, then (as per the previous tip) put it back immediately afterward with the bed in the normal, flat position.
Why do this? If you drop the bed with a long focal length cam in-place, or any cam in-place at 30° of drop, you’ll very likely bend the cam itself, and may damage the cam follower too, rendering the rangefinder inoperable or inaccurate.
Be Mindful of the Scale Holder
The Master Technika Classic and earlier conventional Technika models have a plastic scale holder to which focusing scales are attached. Because the camera is intended to allow multiple lenses to be set-up, the scale holders are designed to be field interchangeable. They simply pull out from the camera, and can be swapped as desired. They do snap into a detent in the bed which is how you know they’re in the right position. But unfortunately, the scales can also be pushed into the camera body, as Linhof didn’t apparently choose to prevent that in any mechanical way. I found that it’s actually pretty easy to knock it out of position when handling the camera. So, when closing the camera, check to be certain that the scale holder is in its proper position, and hasn’t been inadvertently been pushed or knocked backward into the body.
Why do this? If you inadvertently push the scale holder back into the body, even slightly, when you close the camera, the scale holder can easily be crunched in the process — which I did with my camera, nearly breaking-off about a one inch chunk of the end of it. The scale holder alone is a US$50 part as I write this article, so a little carelessness can be costly.
The photo above is what TO do… This next photo is what NOT to do…
Use Front Rise with Care
The Master Technika uses a geared rack and a ratcheting mechanism to control the front rise in the camera. It’s a very accurate, smooth, and actually sort of fun way to implement rise, but it does have its drawbacks.
On the back of the front standard is a nylon strip, one on either side; these are the racks. The grooves are diagonal, and there’s a small metal helical pinion gear on either side that seats into and runs against the racks. The pinion gears are operated by a small ratchet, and the direction of travel is dictated by the position of a small knob on the end of the ratchet handle: a white dot means that the standard will ratchet upward; pull that knob out and turn it around, and the green dot that would now face upward means that the standard will ratchet downward.
Never, ever keep cranking on the ratchet handle once the standard reaches its limit of travel — either all the way up, or all the way down. And be certain to actually position yourself in a way that you can see one of the racks and its pinion gear and be mindful of what they’re doing.
Why do this? While some earlier Technika cameras apparently use metal racks, those introduced their own issues as I understand it, and were replaced with the nylon ones on the later models, including the Master. The problem is, there is no slip or stop mechanism built into the ratchet design. That means that once the standard reaches the limit of its direction of travel, nothing stops the ratcheting mechanism, and if the operator (you or me) continues to crank on the ratchet handle, the teeth on the nylon racks will be damaged. The racks are not field-replaceable, and between parts and labor, it can be an expensive mistake to correct.
Conclusions
While Linhof cameras are, in my view, among the best cameras ever manufactured, they’re not perfect, and using them does require one to pay attention and be mindful of how they operate, and what their shortcomings are. I’m sure that this list doesn’t constitute everything there is to know and avoid with these cameras, but it does represent the mistakes I’ve personally made — and work very hard not to make again. And while Linhof could have made some design tweaks to address some of these, I nevertheless don’t blame them, or the camera; every camera seems to have its share of “dos” and “dont’s” to contend with. But given the investment that these cameras represent, it seems smart to give them more than the customary amount of respect and care when using them.
