building camera questions..

[praspekt]

hi, i'm new to the forum, and somewhat new to photography. i'm a fine wood worker and thought it would be an interesting project to build a camera for use with tin type photography. i would like to build two camera's, one that could fit 4"x5", and another that would take an 11"x17". i realize the size of the camera for the 11x17 will be quite large. i'm looking for someone that i could chat with about building camera's either on the telephone or via e-mail. i'm also looking for any advice, or pointers to documents on the internet.

thanks!

 

[trythis]

Welcome to APUG, why not have the discussion right here so everyone can learn and multiple people can contribute to the discussion?

 

[wildbill]

I've built one based on photos on the web. Check out my signature.
There are seversl threads here and the lf forum you should check out.

 

[Dan Fromm]

Dead Link Removed

 

[pdeeh]

That's a good link Dan.

OP could also acquaint himself with Alan Greene's book "Primitive Photography" as well.

 

[smieglitz]

There are a few wetplate camera How-To books out there. The simplest would be Otto Dippold's on eBay and then Ty Guillory has a couple books that illustrate building a finer camera.

I can probably help if you are considering making your own bellows. Tedious, but worth it to say it was DIY (at least the first time around).

IIRC, this was a pretty decent page on building an 8x20 from scratch.