LF box

pdeeh · Apr 25, 2014

In my quest to pursue lo-tech very-lo-cost LF photography, I've started with a foamcore 10x8 pinhole camera, but unfortunately the whole thing has taken hold of me like crack ...

So, when I saw two Agfa Repromaster lenses on eBay - a 213/9.25 and a 150/9 - I threw in a "lowball" bid and to my surprise nabbed them (plus a working Agfa densitometer) for under a fiver apiece. The 150 seems to have some coating "issues", but the 213 is clean as a whistle. Well, it's a bit dusty and has a tiny bit of haze but otherwise hasn't a scratch on the external elements.

Once I worked out that you unscrewed the flange to mount it, I looked around for a quick way of making it take a picture. Fortunately, the box in which it was sent to me was about as deep as the fl ... so obviously, 5 minutes later I'd come up with this ...

10x8 Film holder slides into the back through a slot in the top at the back. Not light tight so has to be loaded in darkroom and covered up with a t-shirt before taking photo.
No shutter. Made a lens cap out of a circle and strip of cardboard and some duct tape.

b20140425-1 on Flickr

and a bit later I came up with this. There's something horrid going on with my paper negs at the moment hence the nasty spotty mess. Yuk.

b20140425-1 on Flickr

snapguy · Apr 25, 2014

great

Hey, great stuff. I'm trying to work up the nerve to build a low cost 8x10 inch camera. I literally have two 4x5 inch cameras -- at least I think I have all the necessary parts for them now.
But my ultimate goal is to be able make 8x10 original prints. You are an inspiration.

gone · Apr 25, 2014

You'll need to get a nice soft case for it.

I like the idea. Where there's a will, there's a way.

jp80874 · Apr 25, 2014

"There's something horrid going on with my paper negs at the moment hence the nasty spotty mess. Yuk."

I don't see this on my laptop. The pictures look great to me. Congratulations
John Powers, Guy with an expensive 8x10. I admire what you are doing.

NedL · Apr 25, 2014

Go! That's awesome

My camera ideas often start out looking like that... if you want to change something, just recycle it and make another! Have fun on Sunday!

pdeeh · Apr 26, 2014

Wow, I'd just hoped to raise a smile but thanks for all the encouragement and nice words

I was slightly amazed that anything was in focus, to be honest.

The plan is really to make another foamcore camera, this time lensed, but when I looked at my foamcore stock I didn't think I had quite enough, and my budget for playing cameras is rather exhausted at the moment so it'll have to wait.

I found threads about these lenses at LFF. The 213 will apparently cover 11x14, while there seems a bit of mystery about the 150 as to how badly it might vignette on 10x8. The 213 only stops down to f/45 which even with paper negatives means anything much brighter than yesterday (the image above was a 5s exposure) will make managing exposure a bit tricky. But then again I'm sure I can rig up a way of using an ND.

I'd eventually like to try for a "sliding box" using the 213mm, with a ground glass; and the 150mm ought to make a nice plain LF fixed-focus "box brownie", vignette and all.

For the latter, I thought (glibly) "Oh, you just set it up for hyperfocal distance and away you go", but of course once I started to think, and it is making me wince a bit, is working out the lens-to-film-plane distance for hyperfocal focusing, and then of course how I measure and build accurately enough using my lo-tech lo-cost tools and materials.

TareqPhoto · Apr 26, 2014

Now you made a pinhole from a box, so it made me thinking if i will pay little more and made that box but from wood, will it be any better then?

I can easily buy 5 faces of the wooden board to produce the cube box, but then what else i should made? a hole in one side for the lens so then the other side will be for film? Can't i place a bellow so i can have little movement at least?

jp80874 · Apr 26, 2014

pdeeh said:
I found threads about these lenses at LFF. The 213 will apparently cover 11x14, while there seems a bit of mystery about the 150 as to how badly it might vignette on 10x8. The 213 only stops down to f/45 which even with paper negatives means anything much brighter than yesterday (the image above was a 5s exposure) will make managing exposure a bit tricky. But then again I'm sure I can rig up a way of using an ND.

As you have probably noticed the 213 is quite heavy. Be sure you have support for it in your connection to the camera or it will tear that end of the camera off. I tried to make it a very inexpensive wide angle for my 7x17. It did not have enough coverage. My guess is that it may offer little movement on an 11x14. It should be fine on your 8x10, especially since you have no movement to eat up image circle.

"I'd eventually like to try for a "sliding box" using the 213mm, with a ground glass; and the 150mm ought to make a nice plain LF fixed-focus "box brownie", vignette and all."

Years ago I made a pin hole camera out of a 12 quart oil carton. It was for a Photo 1 class. We used 8x10 paper negatives. I made a sliding base within the box, moving the paper front to rear to change from wide angle to long. I was doing this in my retirement at a local college. I had set up shooting some curved brick work at the front entrance to the Art School. A very pretty girl walked up and said, "That is the Porsche of pin hole cameras. Nice." I knew I had arrived.

John Powers

j-dogg · Apr 26, 2014

This is awesome!

I found my 5x7 on the cheap, paid 150 for it with a 4x5 lens

Altogether with my Bausch and Lomb lens which barely covers 5x7 but it does better than my old Meyer Gorlitz, I've got maybe 250 in the camera and 150 in film holders.

pdeeh · Apr 26, 2014

the holders are the bugger. You're lucky to find one in decent order over here for under £40-£50 (US$70-US$80)

paul_c5x4 · Apr 26, 2014

pdeeh said:
In my quest to pursue lo-tech very-lo-cost LF photography,

Low cost can never be used to describe LF photography

I have a couple of lenses that will cover 10x8, but little urge to get in to that format.... Although if I do, I have a couple of part boxes of film sitting in the fridge.

pdeeh · Apr 26, 2014

"Never"?

If I can get a sliding-box foamcore together, then I should have a working 10x8 setup including two lenses and 2½ film holders for about £100

It won't be a Deardorff and it won't have movements, but it'll be LF all the same.

paul_c5x4 · Apr 26, 2014

pdeeh said:
It won't be a Deardorff and it won't have movements, but it'll be LF all the same.

Wait a little while longer. After you have had a few more fixes, you'll be hankering after that Deardorff, or maybe a nice shiny Gandolfi....

pdeeh · Apr 26, 2014

hmm, well I did say it was like crack ... maybe crystal meth would be a better analogy ?

paul_c5x4 · Apr 27, 2014

Psst... Wanna buy some 10x8 film.
Good clean stuff, never been used honest gov. :

pdeeh · Apr 27, 2014

hehehe ... get thee behind me, Satan ...

or, on the other hand, drop me a PM .... I warn you though I am (as they say) brassic at the mo ...

mhcfires · Apr 27, 2014

I never thought that buying a Leica would get me into so much trouble, then I found a 5x7 to my liking. I also have an 8x10 2D.

removed-user-1 · Apr 27, 2014

pdeeh said:
while there seems a bit of mystery about the 150 as to how badly it might vignette on 10x8.

I have the same lens, used it on a Toyo 810m. It will not cover 8x10 at normal distances without severely vignetting the corners, but I assume it would work for macro. The image circle is just past ten inches. Mine is slated for a 4x10 camera I'm going to build... someday.

pdeeh · Apr 27, 2014

Ah that's good info, thank you.

removed-user-1 · Apr 28, 2014

Here's a test shot with the Repromaster 150mm on 8x10" film: View attachment 87033

pdeeh · Apr 29, 2014

Thanks very much indeed for taking the trouble to post that.
Putting the corner clipping aside, the falloff is quite visible isn't it?

It still might make for a "fun" box camera lens, although the "look" might become a bit wearing if overrused.

Sibben · Apr 29, 2014

Pdeeh, this is so cool! Awesome camera.

pdeeh · May 16, 2014

Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!

I found I had enough materials to assemble a foamcore box and decided to build one around the Repromaster 150mm.

It isn't the best choice lens, as although I have a flange for it, the thread depth on the lens is very short - only about 5mm - which means one can't be too innacurate about positioning the front board, as there's almost no room for manouevre in shimming the lens. Of course there are plenty of solutions, if one has the materials, skill, tools and whatnot, but part of the point here was to do as much as possible with as little as possible.

Anyhoo, here's the final camera, and an inverted scan of the second paper negative I got out of it (about 45s @ f/64, on some old Kenthene g2 someone found in the back of their garage, EI3, metered off middle foreground).

20140516-1 by _loupe, on Flickr

20140516-1 by _loupe, on Flickr

Not too bad, I think.

A heavy vignette as expected, and it does look as if I haven't got the lens vertically centred (the vignette is greater at the top than the bottom (or, I suppose, the bottom than the top)

paul_c5x4 · May 16, 2014

How about mounting the lens on a small and thin board. You could then fix it to the main body with long(ish) bolts and pack it out to suit - Using oversized bolt holes, you'd also have a small degree of movement to center the lens.

pdeeh · May 16, 2014

Yep, thanks Paul, that would work, and I had thought of something similar except I would have had to go out and buy nuts and bolts!

For this build, I'd not thought things through clearly enough, and the internal struts on which the front board sits are too far forward - they are exactly right for the lens mounted in a 5mm thick board, but then of course I can't secure the lens in the board (I believe the right expression is D'oh!); so I had to improvise using thin cardboard to mount the lens on and shim the whole thing out. Which is flimsy and a fiddle.

If I were to do it again, I'd use a method like the one you suggest to give better flexibility.

LF box

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