Pix of your home-built cams here please

[nick mulder]

Cambara II

nice! i'll have to try a spring loaded back sometime...

any pix from it yet ?

 

[barryjyoung]

Nice work Argus. Is the back missing springs at the loading gate? I only see the springs at the trailing edge of the spring back. Also, what pitch is the thread on the focusing rod?

Thank you

Barry Young
cameramaker.com

 

[Mongo]

Argus...sweet! Have you thought about sharing your plans? I love the way you've built the front standard risers, and I'm fascinated by the back. Very nice indeed...congratulations!

May I ask where you got the bellows?

Be well.
Dave

 

[argus]

Hi Barry,

there's no spring missing at the back. The two springs present give enough tension to firmly hold the filmholder.
The focussing rod is on 4mm, the next bigger size available was 8mm but I found that rather bulky. I must say that the 4mm needs too much of turning the wheel.
6mm rod would be perfect, I think, but rack & pinion focussing would be even better!

Mongo,

the bellows is also home made.

Nick,

they are souped in Rodinal, but I didn't print them yet. The negs look nice, except for some exposure errors due to the weird f-scale on the Zeiss/Compur lens/shutter combo.


I learned a lot from using my previous model. Mostly in usability: it had a bulky back that was a pain to switch from portrait to landscape, not enough redundancy in preventing light leakes and was too heavy and large to take on a trip.
I field tested the cambara II last weekend and encountered the need for a truly folding camera. It is possible with a slight adaptation of the back-to-bottom attachement.

As I just got (well... bought) a 8x10 film holder, that will be my winter project. I'd love to make contact prints of that size!!!

G

 

[kjsphoto]

WOW All you that build your own cameras I am jsut blown away!

Those are some mighty fine looking cameras!

 

[nick mulder]

WOW All you that build your own cameras I am jsut blown away!

Those are some mighty fine looking cameras!

this site is great for getting into building cams, heaps of experience, humor and ideas about

If your looking at this category you're probably interested ?

jump right in and give it a go - yip

I found when making mine that the things that look hard aren't that hard after all...


except bellows.



@@££$$^%@W$ bellows

 

[barryjyoung]

Thanks for the speedy reply Nick. That is an extremely interesting springback. I have never seen one like it. Is it your original design or did you find it somewhere? Again, nice work.

Barry Young
cameramaker.com

 

[PhotoPete]

Poor Man's Polaroid 180

Anyone who has looked at the prices of these things on eb*y knows how costly they are. I made mine from a plastic Polaroid folder ($5) and the shutter from an MP-3 (part of a lot at an auction, less than $10) The lens is the front two elements from a Rodenstock Ysarex 105mm and the rear element from a 75 mm of the same line (both from the same auction lot). Somehow matches the 114 mm focal length of the folder perfectly. The Polaroid headbadge on the shutter is an added bonus. I will scan some pix taken with it soon.

 

[PhotoPete]

Exposure Control Holga

I got sick of the super wide range of density on my Holga negs- it made it impossible to get a decent contact print, so I wound up having to print every frame just to get a good look at it. To make this camera, I removed the Holga shutter assembly and hot-glued the retaining ring for this Prontor shutter to the front of the body. Next, I screwed the shutter onto the ring and hot-glued the Holga lens to it. For version 2, I hope to add some means to adjust the focus- right now it is hyperfocal.

 

[PhotoPete]

Eyeball Camera

Ok, this one was completely uncalled for. I took the remains of the lot of MP-3 parts won at auction and cobbled together this crime against camera craftmanship. It has a 28mm Rodenstock Ysarex for a lens, and the MP-3 bellows extension for a body. The dissected rubber eye hood keeps the subject (usually an eyeball) the correct distance from the lens. The 35mm film cannister acts as a diffuser.

 

[barryjyoung]

What are you kidding? I think that you have done a wonderful thing here. I mean think about it. Does sinar or Linhoff or Horseman or ebony make an eyeball camera? Why no they don't. Take a bow man, you have won the 2005 award for coloring outside the lines. I applaud your creativity, your conviction and most of all the amazing amount of courage it takes to show the world what you have done knowing full well that some may scoff and poo poo such avant-guard adventures into camera modification.

I say Yeah!

Baeery Young
cameramaker.com

 

[Nathan Smith]

RE: Exposure Control Holga

Regarding focus, at this point you might consider taking the shutter (with the Holga lens) off and putting it on an old folder. That is assuming that it's the lens aberrations that you love about the Holga and not the light leaks
Nathan

 

[PhotoPete]

Regarding focus, at this point you might consider taking the shutter (with the Holga lens) off and putting it on an old folder. That is assuming that it's the lens aberrations that you love about the Holga and not the light leaks
Nathan

Great idea! I never thought of that. I keep conceiving of the Holga body as just a film transport mechanism...I can't believe it never ocurred to me to replace it altogether...

 

[noexit]

Pinhole camera

I made this camera to test out my box jointing skills. I'm trying to design a 4x5 field camera now.

 

[John Bartley]

I made this camera to test out my box jointing skills. I'm trying to design a 4x5 field camera now.

Nicely done !! Simple and functional - I love it. Have you tried taking any pictures yet?

cheers

 

[noexit]

I have, but it had a light leak, so part of it is fogged. If it weren't fogged, the image would have been very sharp. I'll post a scan as soon as I have a chance to take another and actually scan it. My light leak turned out to be a gap in the seal I put between the holder and the camera.

 

[nick mulder]

For the cine people here

An 'intervalometer' for a 16mm Bolex - a device used to drive cine cameras single shot capabilities periodically - this one also has the ability to set the amount of time the shutter is open during the cycle period - ie. if its f.p.s was 0.1 (1 frame every 10 seconds) I could adjust the shutter to be open for any fraction of that 10 seconds (within certain a range)

Cine people might find this snippet from an email I sent a friend recently helpful:

... adjustable duty cycle from ~%5- %95 (like shutter angle being 18deg - 342deg) with period anywhere from ~1.5 secs - whatever time you wish (ie. years+) ...

When the period is 1.5secs the shutter angle is effectively set at %50 on the T setting or very low on I (or the other way round cant remember which) - the longer the period the closer you can get the duty cycle (shutter angle) to %100

Its running using discrete logic timers and ripple counters (556, CMOS 4060 etc...) running off simple RC constants switching a relay which supplies the servo two different millisecond pulses blah blah technical etc...

I've had it running with a 18 sec period on already partially depleted AA's for 31 hours now - woohoo!

hopefully shoot some Baraka style stuff soon - but gotta build first:

an equatorial mount and glidecam kinda thingy - then a crystal sync motor ... the list goes on

 

[Cliff]

8 x 20 Panoramic Picture Camera

Here is a camera that I built a couple of years ago. It took me about a year and a half to build in my spare time. I built the film holder first, then built the camera around the film holder. The hardest part seemed to be making the bellows. I am now designing a 14" x 17" camera. It will have its own built in rear extension. It will be similar to the Korona Pictorial View camera. I have 2 film holders that I purchased on Ebay, and will be building the camera around them.

 

[barryjyoung]

Beautiful job Cliff. Very nicely done.

 

[k_jupiter]

I made this camera to test out my box jointing skills. I'm trying to design a 4x5 field camera now.

Aha! If I find time over my vacation break I have a similar project in mind. I have found a wooden cigar box from Guatamala or Hondouras that fits a 3x4 film holder perfectly. I plan on cutting a slot at the bottom to allow the film holder to slide in and plan on mounting a Speedioscope Jr shutter with a pinhole in the top. A couple of 1/4 - 20 inserts for the tripod mount and it should be done.

Nice job.

tim in san jose

 

[nick mulder]

These are pictures of my 20x24. . The total weight is just under 40 lbs.

woah nelly!

I would love to take something like this out just to see the looks on peoples faces ... It would be a real conversation starter

I'm interested to know how it would work with wind, is the aluminium jointing stiff enough to cope ? ... or is this perhaps staying at home and doing studio work ?

 

[epatsellis]

Greg,
nice use of 80/20, I've been toying with the idea of an 8x10, using 1.5in 80/20 for a monorail, with a rack gear within one of the slots, and using their delrin linear bearings.


erie

 

[Poptart]

Aha! If I find time over my vacation break I have a similar project in mind. I have found a wooden cigar box from Guatamala or Hondouras that fits a 3x4 film holder perfectly. . .

Here's a pic of my 4X5 from the back. A similar idea I think.

 

[epatsellis]

At the moment (saturday) it's cold, really, really cold. so I've shirked my house duties and started building a quickie 8x10, the rear standard, back and bed is finished, hopefully tomorrow I'll have the camera finished up and a set of bellows made for it. just a basic 8x10, rear tilt and rise, front rise, swing, shift and tilt. Basically a quick, not too fancy field camera just to get back into the swing of shooting 8x10 again.


erie

 

[claytume]

At the moment (saturday) it's cold, really, really cold. so I've shirked my house duties and started building a quickie 8x10, the rear standard, back and bed is finished, hopefully tomorrow I'll have the camera finished up and a set of bellows made for it. just a basic 8x10, rear tilt and rise, front rise, swing, shift and tilt. Basically a quick, not too fancy field camera just to get back into the swing of shooting 8x10 again.


erie

Erie......how long are your days?.............I'd need about an 80 hour day to do all this!

Clayton