Building a 4x5

[Keytarjunkie]

Well, I've been at this for a few weeks now, gotten some help from Dean (Razzle) and Nate (option8) and Daniel (Byron) and many others. Yes, yet another Polaroid Pathfinder 4x5 conversion. I'm using a 160 with the rangefinder from a 900. built my own lensboard using parts from the 160 and now I'm moving onto the back, I snatched up an Olympus 4x5 microscope back from ebay that I'm going to hopefully slim down a bit. Since I'd like to keep this camera as small and simple as possible (no movements and certainly no graflok back), the lens plane is close to the body which results in cutting off a few millimeters of the film, adding a black border since the bellows are so tiny. Byron gets his own bellows and can make the film plane as close to the camera as he wants, but the rest of us have to either move it back or live with the borders. I don't really care, it is what it is. I'm also planning on building a cable release in through the big empty cavity below the eyepiece, which will make it more like a camera anyway here's what I've got so far:

Any comments or suggestions are appreciated. I had to suffer through getting the 160's near-bulletproof leather off, had to rip the whole thing apart and build myself a lens board, had to paint the camera black (and will have to do it again), but...the hardest part is going to be calibrating the rangefinder! I'm not looking forward to that.

 

[ic-racer]

That is great. Thanks for sharing. It makes me want to get a viewfinder for my Horseman FA and try some hand-held 4x5 shooting.

 

[Keytarjunkie]

Thanks. I compared it next to a speed graphic today, they're both big but this guy is noticeably smaller and lighter. My goal is to make it as portable as possible, which means no movements and no graflok or any other kind of back. I'm designing my own. I glued on the back and applied some leather today, it's coming along: