Pix of your home-built cams here please

6x17 what an Obsession!

Being obsessed with camera building must be some kind of mania? If it is, then I have it.
I really get off on building cameras of this format, so I thought I'd share the only 'Woody' I've built so far. It's mostly fashioned from aluminium, either 80mm channel section or drawn 3mm. With this particular camera I selected a lump of Australian Red Gum, but found it was harder to work with than metal. I certainly don't see smoke coming off the saw blade when cutting anything else, it sure is hard as nails.

I managed to fabricate everything myself....but the lens cone is welded for me by a guy who manufactures truck fuel tanks, so if I lay the ready to weld bits in his path he doesn't notice. All spindles etc were machined on my little converted wood lathe, with most brass parts originating from a scrap yard, (a great place to hang out on your day off, everyone should try it).

Buy yourself a Chinese helical focusing unit for around $130, then have all the bits powder coated after they've been sanded smooth, then wash 'em all in Palmolive.......

Finder was an adapted video camera wide angle lens with a mask made from 1mm aluminium. Add a double bubble and a nice 90mm f8 glass in a suitable shutter and voila!
Such big wide negs and trannies turn me on so much, I can't stop making these damn cameras.........not really an obsession, but more like a form of madness. Sadly Woody has gone but is not forgotten, simply replaced by a couple more......

Specialty camera

Hi Clayton........I still have those two 70mm cassettes you sent me for the 300mm panorama camera. Believe me I'm still seriously thinking about it, but being so busy, it's kinda hard to get all the ideas into fruition. I can ship them back if you like? Don't you find 70mm film hard to come by?
Cheers, Dean.

Hi there,

update on my test-bed mule. I bought a Vitax from everyone's favorite Nevada lens mine and it came will a half cord of wood attached. when the dust cleared it is an Agfa/Ansco #4? studio portrait 8x10 from about 1920 and in fine shape. That's a SpeedGraphic 4x5 for size comparison.

SO, of course I just had to buy it's big brother, the Ansco 5A, which opens to 45 inches and closes to use a 190mm lens, has 2 lens board mounts so I can front or rear mount the Packard shutter and use the front bellows as a compendium lens shade. Now to make lots of 9x9 lens boards and a studio stand for it.

Ha!

PhotoPete's Uncalled-For-Crime-Cam get's my vote! I don't know what category, but it's the only one I voted for!

This thread is quite a stunner ... I wish I'd seen it earlier.

Here's a few of the pieces I've made over the past couple of years ...

6x7cm, 4x5", 5x7" extension back, and a tilt/swing bellows for DSLR I made recently.

Thankfully, they all work.

Sandeha Lynch said:

This thread is quite a stunner ... I wish I'd seen it earlier.

Here's a few of the pieces I've made over the past couple of years ...

6x7cm, 4x5", 5x7" extension back, and a tilt/swing bellows for DSLR I made recently.

Thankfully, they all work.

Click to expand...

AHA! Here is the famous builder of the Surveyor.
Tha's quite a camera you made. Your website is in my bookmarks list.

Greetings,
G

Hi Argus !!

Sandeha, great carpentry skills! I have wanting to build a medium format folder for a while now. Can you tell me if this uses RB6x7, or graflex film backs? Now you've gotten me started with this again! I have a front and rear stand made, but am not sure on the focusing mechanism yet. Do you have any views of the rear of the 6x7?

Thanks

Hi Andrew. Thanks for the compliment.

Here's a rear view of the Garden camera (it's not big enough to be a field camera) with the sheet film back attached ...

A view with the connecting plate for the RB67 back clipped onto the camera. The RFH slides down onto the brass strips using the grooves ...

A shot of the RB67 mounted ...

And a shot of the reverse of the two backs ...

And here's the full kit ...

Hope that helps.

claytume said:

Barry

how far will you go taking on oddball one of a kind jobs? I ask because I always have jobs like this to be done but have trouble finding anyone with the expertise, equipment and desire to take on the challenge of a one off that no one else has dreamed up!

Clayton

Click to expand...

Hi Clayton: I no longer do custom work. The problem is the desire you mentioned. I believe that generally people are good. They only turn evil when they want something custom made. You see, people are used to living in a mass produced world. They look at their cell phone or DVD player and think they payed too much when they bought it. Can you imagine what a cell phone or DVD player would cost if you had to make one from scratch? So when people ask me for custom components they are rarely ready for the price. I try to get them ready by telling them that it is going to cost a LOT more than an off the shelf mass produced item, but they do not seem to hear me. For example, a camera knob which is made on a CNC lathe takes about 5 minutes for a fancy one. That is if 500 are being made and if you do not count programming and program optimization and toolmaking time. Those expenses are spread over the entire run and become minimal if the run is huge. That mass produced knob can be sold for about $4. If I were to make the very same knob once using conventional machines it would require a 45 minute set up, planning and I might scrap one or two along the way. My time is valuable as is my investment in machinery and overhead. I would have to sell that same knob for about $85. Even at that I am losing money. So when the customer gets a quote for $85 for something he figures should cost $4, he says "No thanks" or even gets angry and I lose my time figuring up the quote as well as a little bit of reputation. That is why there is no desire by people with the equipment and knowledge, and that is why I do not do custom work any more. I am sorry I could not help you.

Apologies ... it seems I should have used "Attached Thumbnails". Hope all is clear ... Sandeha

Sandeha - that is cool little machine.

The hinged GG is a great idea...I see myself juggling a piece of glass with spacers glued to it and tape on the edges to protect fingers, a spotmeter in the other hand, and ..*^(@*(& ouch, ()()#@=

Very nice Sandeha! Very well thought out.

My 16x20 Camera

I'm making this 16x20 wet plate collodion camera around a $25 e-bay bellows and mahogony that I found in a dumpter in Staten Island. I'm almost finished with the plate holder, and hope to be using it this summer...

So far I have about $80 into the construction (minus the lens).

Cheers...

David
prifti.net

That's gorgeous prifti! ANYONE attempting 16x20 wetplate is deserving of some respect.

barryjyoung said:

If I were to make the very same knob once using conventional machines it would require a 45 minute set up, planning and I might scrap one or two along the way.

Click to expand...

I just took a whole 8 hour day making what I thought would take 2 or 3 hours...

A alu bar with 4 slots and one tapped hole ... Setting up the mill to be safe and not cut into itself took a lot longer than I anticipated. And the constant rechecking of measurements to account for working with drill centres instead of the actual slot dimensions ...

Anyhoo - long winded way of saying yeh, I understand where you are coming from...

I'll post some pix of my setup soon - its a handheld 16mm 3D filming rig with a wireless connection firing an array of strobes at 50Hz (in time with the two shutters)

My 6x17 camera

And the scanner camera, it uses a canon Lide scanner as sensor and a Russian 30 dollar lens no shutter neaded :0)
More about those cameras and other projects can be found at:
Stockholmviews.com
http://www.stockholmviews.com/diyphotogear/index.html

My DIY 612/4x5 shift camera. It's a horseman 6x9cm-to-4x5" adapter, I made a front adapter and lensboard for it. Right now it has a 65mm Nikkor on it, but it can go much much wider. Allows ~3.5cm of shift in either direction. It's extremely light and has very precise, geared track focusing. The standards collapse very close together; I think this baby could take a 47mm lens, no worries.

The main innovation is that I can convert it back to an enlarging back in a few minutes. So, packed with my Horseman VH, I have 3 cameras in one- 6x9, 4x5, and 4x5 ultrawide shift.



Shown here with a fuji instant film back.

Here is a test shot taken with my adapted wide shift camera, on the wonderful fuji-roid 4x5 film, fp100b45. This was taken about 10 ft up on my 21 ft ham-radio tripod, that is another story.

Hacked Lenses

Not a home-made camera, but two "hacked lenses".

The Canon 50/1.5 is made from left over parts, and has the rear optics module of a Jupiter-3 in it. Spent hours getting the focal length and main shim correct. It RF couples and focusses across the entire range.

The Jupiter-3 has the rear module moved in closer to the front to correct the focal length for a Leica, and the main shim is set for correct focus across the range.

pinhole anamorphic

Hey folks

I hope pinholes are welcome here! this is my (very obviously) homebuilt pinhole anamorphic, made from a section of Pringle tube with a foam core lid. it was built to handle 70mm film but for now i will be using paper negatives

*complete camera*

the inside is lined with roll film backing paper and the top is trimmed with black camera tape

*disassembled camera*

here is is loaded and ready to go with a 22.5x7 cm strip of paper, held in place by two smaller rings of Pringle tube (cut, shortened and taped back together)

*loaded camera*

I hope this meets your approval
I will be posting when I get some shots out of it!

take care
pete

Not a homemade camera, but a 5x12 reducing back for an old, off-sized plate camera. Wood's quartersawn sycamore that was collecting dust in the garage. Springs were made from a $4 taping kife from Home dePot. Ground the glass by hand.

I'm waiting on film and lens to test it out, but the homemade, cobbled holder fits it perfect!

Really great thread this one though I would like some constructionprints.
Kind regards
Søren

After an annoyingly non-photographic summer, primarily due to a nagging shoulder injury not allowing me to schlep my C1 very far from the van.

To try and get the creative juices flowing, I've decided to build a field camera. Taking the leftover parts (bellows, rear box) from my previous project, and the back from the same project I've been using on my Calumet C1, I spent the weekend building this:





Still a bit of trimming out to do, as well as lacquering and painting, but at this point it's functional. About the only major change I will need to make is using some lower pitch threaded rod, probably see if I can dig up some 4 start threaded rod, as 1/4-20 is painfully slow.

Some specifics:

Focusing stage consists of two full extension drawer slides, lying down; focusing action by way of 1/4-20 threaded rod. I got the idea from the pictures I've seen of the Chaminox cameras, and basically low teched the same ideas, as the likelyhood of me being able to afford a new 8x10 field camera is pretty slim. All in all a productive weekend; first one in a long time.


erie

My new toy finally up and running

Here's a few pics of my first attempt at camera building. It actually came out ahead of my expectations It is made out of cherry and aluminum with a hacksaw, drill and router and a little powder coating done in my pottery kiln.
It has maximum extension of 33 inches. Back shift, base tilt, rise and swing and front base tilt, rise and axis tilt. Finished in danish oil. The dreaded "hacksaw" springs will be replaced if I get around to it. They seem to work fine for now. I paid for the bellows, I'm not there yet, but I will give bellow making a try on the next one. It fits easily in my f64 backpack. I am quite pleased all in all.
regards
Erik