Anyone know how to build an 8x10 camera?

[Craig]

Back in the 90's Bender made kits that that buyer assembled. I built a 4x5 version and it worked well for me. Everything needed was supplied, but I made some improvements as I built and used it.

Bender Photographic - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

camera-wiki.org

 

[a100]

Back in the 90's Bender made kits that that buyer assembled. I built a 4x5 version and it worked well for me. Everything needed was supplied, but I made some improvements as I built and used it.

Bender Photographic - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

camera-wiki.org

wow, that would be incredible to have today!!

 

[xkaes]

Lots of ideas over at INSTRUCTABLES:

https://www.instructables.com

 

[a100]

Lots of ideas over at INSTRUCTABLES:

https://www.instructables.com

Thank you!

 

[jimgalli]

I was walking home the other day and found a gas cap. I'd like to build a car for it. Any ideas?

 

[jimgalli]

I was walking home the other day and found a gas cap. I'd like to build a car for it. Any ideas?

Forgive my facetiousness. Here's an idea for you. A reliable seller has listed parts of an Eastman Kodak 8X10 camera for sale here in the classifieds. If you were to buy the film back and the matching rear standard that the film back fits onto, and then simply built a blackened light tight cardboard box that fits the rear standard, closed in front and fitted with a pinhole at perhaps 8 inches from the ground glass area, you would have a very fine 8X10 pinhole camera.

 

[a100]

Forgive my facetiousness. Here's an idea for you. A reliable seller has listed parts of an Eastman Kodak 8X10 camera for sale here in the classifieds. If you were to buy the film back and the matching rear standard that the film back fits onto, and then simply built a blackened light tight cardboard box that fits the rear standard, closed in front and fitted with a pinhole at perhaps 8 inches from the ground glass area, you would have a very fine 8X10 pinhole camera.

Thank you, Jim. I have got myself a film back and matching standard so I'll see how I get on! Thank you!

 

[grat]

I was walking home the other day and found a gas cap. I'd like to build a car for it. Any ideas?

Keep walking the same route, and look for more parts.

Or buy a very large toolbox, and go to work on the Cadillac assembly line. May take some time, but it won't cost you a dime.

 

[jimgalli]

Maybe I could write a song and sell it to Johnny Cash?

 

[MattKing]

Maybe I could write a song and sell it to Johnny Cash?

Don't wait to long to hear back from him

 

[Jimskelton]

Here's how I built my sliding box 8x10 camera. It cost around $10 or so.

​

You'll need: 1/2" plywood, a 2x4, white glue, clamps, and a table saw.​

I made the film holder first, so the box could be built around it. It ended up being 9 1/8" wide (standard is 9 1/4") because of the way I chopped up the 2x4 wood. I used a table saw to cut 1/4" grooves into the wood around 1/16" apart with a 1/2" space between for the film holder body. I cut grooves on both sides of the wood top and bottom, then cut the rail off, then cut that in half to get 2 rails, plus the ones on the other side gave the total of 4 rails. Then, I cut the body of the film holder out of 1/2" plywood (7 1/2" x 11 1/2") and clamped/glued the rails around it, along with some pieces at the film entrance.​

​

I used mat board for the dark slide, then shimmed the paper well with mat board so the film will be spaced precisely at the top of the 2nd groove. Some cloth tape was placed at the opening along with some felt for light sealing, and a pressure plate was installed on top. This was probably the most difficult part of making the camera.​

​

The outer box was cut to fit the film holder (ID 9 1/8" x 10 1/2") and the edges routed to prevent light leaks. The depth of the box is 8 1/2" since it'll be used with a 210mm lens. A 5/8" film holder ridge was glued inside the box at 7" from the front. A retainer was glued to the left side, and retaining levers to the right.​

​

The inside box was made 1" smaller than the outer and 2" less deep. The lens hole was lined with wood stops on both sides, and a lens retainer on top.​

​

A frame was built the same size as the film holder to hold the "ground glass": 400 grit sanded plastic sheet cover backed with glass.​

I made this to take paper negatives and do b&w as well as RA-4 reversals. It's not a versatile camera--no movements, set focal length, doesn't fold down, but it works and gives me the ability to shoot 8x10. Works fine for portraits, though the 210mm lens means the subject needs to be around 3 feet away from the camera.

You don't need a router--you can cut the corners square and seal the edges when assembling. If I had an existing film holder, I would simply build the outer box around the film holder. You don't have to glue it together--screws would work fine.

 

[DREW WILEY]

You could make one out of a fruit crate or black plastic bucket if you had to. But if you want to make something serious, start by taking a real woodworking shop class. And why re-invent the wheel? Well, for the cost of that typical wheel, you can buy enough shop equipment to make not only a camera, but your own furniture, kitchen cabinets etc. Before I retired I was selling equipment to some of the finest woodworkers in the world. One year, a certain individual won the no.2 spot in a worldwide woodworking competition by making a gorgeous big wet plate camera and matching developing booth. The $10,000 Second Place prize probably didn't even cover his expenses; but the new cabinet shop customers he gained through all that free publicity was worth a hundred times as much.

I never had time to make my own cameras. I have made some of my own high-precision enlargers and all kinds of specialty darkroom equipment, plus some side money doing woodworking for others, plus my own cabinets etc. But my primary day job actually importing and selling this kind of equipment and specialty supplies took up a lot of time by itself. One customer who came in several times a week made a multi-decade project of photographing the staff there with his beautiful handheld 8X10 mahogany box camera. We had some interesting people there, including a 350 lb shop foreman who was no. 2 in the world as an arm wrestler, who would pose beside his 440V 3-phase motor table saw with a 22 inch diameter blade - no, you don't need something like that to make a camera!

 

[Terence]

I know you don't want to hear this, but that has never stopped me before! It would be a LOT easier and a lot less work to buy a fixer upper 8x10 camera and rehab it.

Is there a particular reason you want to shoot 8x10? That is an expensive endeavor, not to mention a PITA to lug around. If you've never shot LF, try an old Graflex Crown Graphic 4x5 camera or something like it to see if you are even interested in LF. Or buy a pinhole 8x10 camera on fleabay, those are "reasonably" priced. Unless you plan on shooting paper negatives, 8x10 film is crazy expensive per shot. You will burn through several hundred dollars very quickly just figuring things out. You will also be maxed out at 8x10 prints, you don't even want to know how much an 8x10 enlarger and lens would cost. My blood pressure just shot up simply typing "8x10 enlarger".

Or you could buy a 35mm/MF camera, an enlarger, and a bunch of film, paper and chemicals and be making 11x14 and smaller prints pretty quickly.

I got a Beseler 8x10 enlarger adapter for a 4x5 enlarger for about $750 a couple years ago. It's certainly not ideal, and maxes out at 16x20, but can get the job done. I wish I had space back when everyone was getting rid of enlargers in the early 2000s in NYC. I watched top end 5x7 and 8x10 enlargers go into dumpsters.

 

[Terence]

Forgive my facetiousness. Here's an idea for you. A reliable seller has listed parts of an Eastman Kodak 8X10 camera for sale here in the classifieds. If you were to buy the film back and the matching rear standard that the film back fits onto, and then simply built a blackened light tight cardboard box that fits the rear standard, closed in front and fitted with a pinhole at perhaps 8 inches from the ground glass area, you would have a very fine 8X10 pinhole camera.

After a 10 year break from film, and APUG, I came back recently. Nice to see you still kicking around here, Jim. Back when APUG was new I bought a lot from you, and learned a lot reading your posts. You were (rightly) a promoter of G Clarons, and I bought a couple off you (150mm and 210mm), along with an orphaned 8x10 back. I followed your lead, and slit up 8", 9.5" and 10" aerial film. I even recently busted out a Nikon FM I just realized I bought from you in 2008. I still have a full plate view camera from you, and god knows what else

There was another guy, whose name eludes me, who was making custom groundglass, and I bought a lot from him too. Andrew something. I cobbled together a bunch cameras between the stuff I bought and learned from you guys.

 

[DREW WILEY]

Watch out for Jim Galli. He lives in a town where saloon shoot-outs are probably daily, with even aliens walking in there with ray-guns. I don't know if they also wear cowboy hats or not. I drive through Tonopah as quickly just to avoid them. And as far as his expertise in soft-focus lenses go, that's another of his sneaky secrets - those same lenses focus incredibly sharp in alien landing craft light. I think that's who he got them from in the first place, in that camera store out in Area 51.

 

[Tim Stapp]

Barry Young published a book with 8x10 plans, with a separate book on making a bellows. There was a group out in the Pacific Northwest that had get togethers and built theirs.

 

[Daire Quinlan]

I spent a gainful couple of afternoons more than 10 years ago putting this sliding box camera together

Foamcore, bolts, rubber bands, sheet of lightly sanded perspex as a GG. I did buy the film holders and lens, came into the Sinar shutter pretty cheaply. Got started shooting paper negatives on it, then progressed to x-ray film. The only crucial measurement to get as right as possible is ensuring that your GG and the film are the same distance from the lens, and even that has a bit of wriggle room given the size of the format.
I took some, IMO, nice shots on it.

 

[Jimskelton]

I spent a gainful couple of afternoons more than 10 years ago putting this sliding box camera together

This is excellent. Putting something like this together and using it gets you going with 8x10. I would be still sitting on the sidelines thinking about the daunting task of building a full featured camera of i didn't build mine.

Something like this is great for paper negatives and reversals for portraits. I've been having fun with RA4 reversals. And lith film looks like a good possibility, being around 80 cents per pic.

I also made a 5x7 insert that holds a 5x7 negative and fits in an 8x10 holder, rather than using a reducing back and separate 5x7 holders.

And, your post got my attention because you actually addressed the subject of this thread in a meaningful way.

 

[Daire Quinlan]

This is excellent. Putting something like this together and using it gets you going with 8x10. I would be still sitting on the sidelines thinking about the daunting task of building a full featured camera of i didn't build mine.

Something like this is great for paper negatives and reversals for portraits. I've been having fun with RA4 reversals. And lith film looks like a good possibility, being around 80 cents per pic.

I also made a 5x7 insert that holds a 5x7 negative and fits in an 8x10 holder, rather than using a reducing back and separate 5x7 holders.

And, your post got my attention because you actually addressed the subject of this thread in a meaningful way.

For sure, MVP is the way to go sometimes, get started simply and work your way along. This ended up being partially disassembled and used as a back for an 8x10 monorail that someone gave me the rail and front standard of. I made the bellows myself. I improved the GG by getting actual glass and silicon carbide. Eventually I ended up getting a 4x5 back for the monorail, made another smaller bellows, and mothballed the 8x10 back

 

[DREW WILEY]

I wonder if anyone ever made an edible box camera out of gingerbread? I wouldn't surprise me a bit if it did happen. But where would be the proof? I did just find an actual recipe for exactly that on the web, but the pictures didn't pop up. Maybe it got eaten first.

 

[Don_ih]

I wonder if anyone ever made an edible box camera out of gingerbread? I wouldn't surprise me a bit if it did happen. But where would be the proof? I did just find an actual recipe for exactly that on the web, but the pictures didn't pop up. Maybe it got eaten first.

Well, would you need to paint the inside of the gingerbread flat black? Would it require a candy-glass lens? Could you only use it at Christmas?

 

[DREW WILEY]

Why not, as long as the black paint is edible too? Or just over-bake it to "DMax".

 

[Jimskelton]

I wonder if anyone ever made an edible box camera out of gingerbread? I wouldn't surprise me a bit if it did happen. But where would be the proof? I did just find an actual recipe for exactly that on the web, but the pictures didn't pop up. Maybe it got eaten first.

This is a great Christmas idea! It could simply be a fixed focus portrait box camera with a removable back or top that you load/unload in the darkroom. Great for RA-4 reversals of ugly Christmas sweaters, etc. The proof? A gingerbread selfie with a mirror. It could even double as a house if you put a roof on it. Definitely on my to do list next Christmas!

 

[DREW WILEY]

Yeah, there have been some unfortunate Arctic and Antarctic expeditions, and some Himalayan ones, where having an edible camera might have made the difference between life and starvation. My nephew was on the first expedition ever up the whole
Shasgham Valley between K2 and Broad Peak on the Chinese side - a three months long expedition - along with Kurt Diemberger, who discovered it during his first ascent of Broad Peak. My nephew had two sherpas with him, flown in from Nepal, when they reached the summit of a high divide, and the Sherpas refused to go any further, remarking, "It reminds us of a valley in Nepal where people eat their boots."

 

[Tim Stapp]

IF you really want plans to build an 8 x 10 view camera, reach out to Barry Young via Private Message on the Large Format Photography Forum.

His separate books on camera building plans with and instructions along with his book on making bellows with instructions are really quite inexpensive for what they are and are well worth your money.

I have each. They are bound to lay flat open and are well written based upon his and the experience of others.

Well worth the money.

Now, just to find the time...