Burke and James Extension Rail

Mosijah

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Hi everyone. Just bought a BJ 8x10 camera and after talking to a friend of mine, he told me that i will need to get the extension rail if I want to do portraits. Now if this is absolutely correct, does anyone know where I can find one.
 

JBrunner

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Mosijah said:
Hi everyone. Just bought a BJ 8x10 camera and after talking to a friend of mine, he told me that i will need to get the extension rail if I want to do portraits. Now if this is absolutely correct, does anyone know where I can find one.
Click to expand...

You will need the extension rail to use any lens at infinity longer than the length the camera will currently extend to, or as is typical in the case of portraits, focus much closer than infinity on a longish lens. For most 8x10 portrait lengths, your friend is essentially correct.

One might turn up on that auction place, and you can also google yourself blue. You may find a parts camera that has it, or you could make/have one made. The hardest part of making one will be obtaining or machining the rack and attachment hardware, other than that, it's basic woodworking, or maybe Gustavo has one.

BTW welcome to APUG. Drop by the introductions thread if you care to.
 
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David A. Goldfarb

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Rear extension tracks like that for various cameras are hard to find. Who knows where they all go? In the city try Lens and Repro and PhotoGizzmo.

Welcome to APUG! We met at a restaurant one evening on the Upper West Side with Sanders, Guillaume and Vic. I was the one with the baby.

Others--check out Mosijah's website at http://www.royephotography.com/
 
OP
OP

Mosijah

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Hi David, thanks ya'll for your responses.
How is the baby? wow its been a minute. Mosijah is like a man at 2 and a half. I am just going to use it with a 12" lens until I can find an extension.
Thanks
 

David A. Goldfarb

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Melchi's doing fine--almost one year. Getting harder to photograph, as he'd rather look through daddy's camera.
 

John Bartley

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Mosijah said:
Hi everyone. Just bought a BJ 8x10 camera and after talking to a friend of mine, he told me that i will need to get the extension rail if I want to do portraits. Now if this is absolutely correct, does anyone know where I can find one.
Click to expand...

This not really an answer to your request for an bed extension, but if you can't find one, then as others have suggested, a cabinet maker should be able to make the wood parts and here are three possible sources for hardware::

http://www.smallparts.com/

http://www.mcmaster.com/

http://www.bostgear.com/

The last one, "Boston Gear" is likely where you'll get track and pinion parts.

cheers eh?
 

JBrunner

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Just thought of Richard Ritter:

http://www.lg4mat.net/

I'll bet he can make you one better than the real one.
 

smieglitz

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I had the same problem with my 11x14 B&J. I bought a junker 5x7 B&J Rembrandt portrait camera and scavenged the Packard shutter and tailboard bed from it. The dimensions and gearing were the same. There is one currently on Ebay (#120188251349) if you want to see what they look like.
 

PHOTOTONE

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Just a thought. You "can" make an extension rail without the rack, just cut a groove where the teeth of the pinion will run. Cut it deep enough in your extension rail so that the teeth don't touch anything. Then you can manually move your camera standard back to the position you want, and then clamp it down someway. (Spring clamp?) As long as you have one standard (front or back, your choice) running on the rack and pinion, you can do the fine focusing.
 
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