Rittreck View 5x7: Ultra-Wide on 4x5 Large Format

The Rittreck View 5x7 is one of the few folding metal field large format analog film cameras that can work with lenses as short as 65mm without attachments or dropping the bed. This Fujinon NSWD 65mm f5.6 lens is mounted onto a recessed Linhof lens board which in turn is mounted on a Linhof-to-Rittreck adaptor. Note that most Linhof boards are cut with the shutter mounting hole 5mm below the centre of the board, because that's the geometry that Linhof chose for the Technika 45 camera. When used on cameras that centre the board on the front standard (almost every other camera except the Technika) the lens needs to be raised 5mm centre the optical axis on the film plane. With most lenses this 5mm drop is not significant, however with short focal length lenses (or lenses the only just cover the film format) this drop is significant: with ultra-wide lenses it can cause the front bed of the camera to appear in the frame particularly when the back is in portrait/vertical orientation.

Rittreck View 5x7 with 4x5 back and Fujinon NSWD 65mm f5.6 lens which offers a full-frame equivalent of 20mm. This is the shortest practical focal length for 4x5, there are shorter lenses that cover the format, like the Schneider 47mm and 58mm lenses, but few folding wood or metal field cameras can compress their bellows enough to use them even with recessed lens boards.

The widest lens that comfortably covers 5x7 is a wide-angle 90mm, but some wide-angle 75mm lenses also cover the format if some vignetting in the extreme corners can be tolerated. The Rittreck View 5x7 also works with a 75mm lens on a flat board, making the camera a good choice for ultra-wide large format photography.