Pix of your home-built cams here please

SMBooth · Jun 16, 2011

I have not got any recent internal images, but well get some tomorrow for you. As for the pressure plate that why I asked about yours , as yet I have not done it , but last time I used some 6mm draft stop foam with double sided tape which worked quite OK. This time I would like something a bit more refined but I don't have access to flash machinery. So I need to think about it more.

Steve Smith · Jun 16, 2011

SMBooth said:
As for the pressure plate that why I asked about yours .

Oh yes!

Mine looks like this inside. Behind the two little captive bolts are a couple of leaf springs from an old Mamiya C33 camera. The plate design is copied from the Mamiya but stretched to cover the format.

Steve.

SMBooth · Jun 17, 2011

a inside shot, sans the pressure plate which is work in progress. Left that problem to last hoping it would solve itself.

Steve Smith · Jun 17, 2011

That's often my method of solving problems. If I ignore it and get on with doing something else, a solution often presents itself.

The Mamiya pressure plate mechanism is quite well designed and might be worth copying. Otherwise a rigid plate attached to the back by a piece of foam or sponge might work. You need a pair of rails for the film to run against then another pair of rails slightly higher so that when the pressure plate is up against them, there is just enough gap for the film and its backing paper.

How much space do you have between the film plane and the back?

Steve.

SMBooth · Jun 17, 2011

The rails are there, I do have a couple of pressure plate and springy bits from 2 35mm cameras that I was going to use but in my cleverness to put a hidden sliding counter hole I overlooked the problem that it gets in the way of one of the plates. I have about 6mm to play with depth wise and most likely go back to the foam strip idea (which work well last time), or I toyed with the idea of hinging the plate to the film box which you flip out of the way when loading film and just having a couple of spring epoxyed to the back to provide some light pressure when the lid was closed. One of the big problems is making sure the pressure plate is reliable in seating between the rails when you close the back up.

Steve Smith · Jun 17, 2011

Another option, which I think you have the space for, is to have the pressure plate fixed rather than sprung. Load the film then put the pressure plate on top of it and fix it in place with some screws leaving just enough space for the film to transport smoothly. It doesn't need to be spring loaded, this is just a convention to make film loading easier and not having to have tight tolerances on the film rails to back/pressure plate dimensions.

Steve.

bliorg · Jun 24, 2011

Don't know if I've posted this here, but this is the latest revival of my fixed-focus 4x5, the Neretta Mk II:

Neretta Mk II, rev 03... by Scott --, on Flickr

Based on Sandeha Lynch's design, has a Graflok back and a (new to me) Linhof-select 90/6.8 Angulon on front. Mortise and tenon joinery in mahogany. Need to figure out a hood now...

werra · Aug 10, 2011

Yesterday hacked 5x7 foamcore point-and-shoot together:

Some more at http://www.nahui.eu/5x7ps/

Straight into the sun shot using 1979 expired Kodak Vericolor II type L:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/werra/6028809335/

Steve Smith · Aug 11, 2011

Nice. The fact that we can get lenses with built in shutters and film holders with built in dark slides means that we can get great results with the most simple of cameras, as your foam core example shows. All we really need is a box to keep the darkness in with a lens at one end and the film holder at the other.

This makes it easy for any of us to make a camera and is doesn't matter if we are master craftsmen or bodgers with gaffer tape!

Steve.

moki · Aug 13, 2011

Steve Smith said:
a box to keep the darkness in

Hehe, I love that wording. All the people who try to keep the light out, probably understood something wrong

I built a few boxes myself and it wasn't easy to collect enough darkness, put it inside and then seal the whole thing. Most of these boxes have a hole insted of a lens, though. This one's an old Kiev magazine (the camera was broken beyond repair) with with a 35mm/175 pinhole. And no, I didn't throw it into a mirror to test its sturdiness

bobmercier · Aug 14, 2011

My plywood/gaffers tape masterpiece. This version had a wax-paper
ground glass!

https://picasaweb.google.com/114539835266038554850/DIY8x10Camera?authuser=0&feat=directlink

The image was at f32 and the lens didn't quite cover. I'm on the lookout
for a proper lens but am not ready to spend $500! I like the idea of a cheap
russian process lens like the Industar 37, and a Packard shutter...

Steve Smith · Aug 14, 2011

Seems to work o.k. What lens is currently on it?

Steve.

werra · Aug 14, 2011

bobmercier said:
I'm on the lookout
for a proper lens but am not ready to spend $500! I like the idea of a cheap
russian process lens like the Industar 37, and a Packard shutter...

Or 260/9 Konica Hexanon GRII, if you like wider view. I found mine dirt cheap, EUR35 (~US$50). Hard to beat price/performance.

Jeff Searust · Oct 5, 2011

New 6x17 pano camera

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Steve Smith · Oct 6, 2011

Wow. that looks bomb proof!

Steve.

McFortner · Oct 6, 2011

Now that looks nifty! Makes me want one of my own.

polka · Oct 30, 2011

urPOLKa : panoramic pinhole camera

This was my first "Panoramische Oberlicht Loch Kamera.

Using 120 rollfilm formed as a cylinder of 80mm diameter.

Giving 4 pictures of 55x175mm per roll

Horizontal angle : 250°

Paul

First picture : the camera is open, ready for loading a roll
Second picture : 2 views of closed camera ready for shooting :
- left : backside with 2 film spooling buttons
- right : frontside with shutter and viewfinder

himself · Nov 14, 2011

bobmercier said:
My plywood/gaffers tape masterpiece.

that thing looks great!!

I thought I'd add a couple shots of my newly finished creation.

it takes a 6x9 back and 3x4 polaroid film back and has tilt/swing, a little lift but not shift. I made it entirely out of recycled and scavenged parts, but the lens board was made by a collagist friend of mine.

the runners need redesigning and I could do with a lens with a bit more coverage for full movements, but beggars can't be choosers.

this is my first full build so be nice

ChristopherCoy · Nov 14, 2011

himself said:
this is my first full build so be nice
View attachment 41643

That thing looks awesome! Makes me want one! Whether it works or not, it looks like it was pulled straight out of a Home & Garden home design add. One of those shabby/chic/modern room design articles or something....

himself · Nov 14, 2011

ChristopherCoy said:
it looks like it was pulled straight out of a Home & Garden home design add. One of those shabby/chic/modern room design articles or something....

not sure how to take that

but thanks and it does really work like, I've only taken one shot so far and was gob-smacked to see that there weren't any light leaks or anything

holmburgers · Nov 22, 2011

himself said:
not sure how to take that

haha... I can't blame him for saying that honestly. I mean, you did employ Paisley bellows afterall!

himself · Nov 22, 2011

holmburgers said:
haha... I can't blame him for saying that honestly. I mean, you did employ Paisley bellows afterall!

oh yea? yea? I'll 'ave you know that welsh pears are the bellows of choice 'round my way

Andrew O'Neill · Nov 22, 2011

Well, after more than a year the 14x17 is finally finished. Some of it looks nice, lots of it looks like #!@*...especially the bellows. Ground glass is plexi. Sort of looks like a Chamonix, that's because I "borrowed" the design...Used the lens board sliding lock from my old Cambo. Used birch 'cause it's cheap and light. Now I need to check it for light leaks. Then hopefully I can use it to make bigger carbon prints and other alt processes.

SMBooth · Nov 24, 2011

Looks like you've done a pretty good job, I'm surprised its has not got a bigger lens board which to me would of made making the bellows easier ( I assume anyway), and allowed fitting of a larger variety of lens if you come across them.

Andrew O'Neill · Nov 24, 2011

Fitting the bellows was pretty easy. I plan on using existing lenses: 355, 450, 600... magnifying glass lenses, and assorted pinholes. The 355G that you see in the pic is about the biggest/heaviest of the three.

Pix of your home-built cams here please

SMBooth

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