The black camera with the modern 65mm SA needed a 65/65mm helical to get the rear element to fit. I was able to use a much smaller 52/42 for the older 47mm SA. It’s really a small lens, much smaller than the modern 47mm (non XL) and only a bit larger than the f/8 version.What size Helicoid do you use?
Actually Dirk I was wondering how much focus you get from infinity?The black camera with the modern 65mm SA needed a 65/65mm helical to get the rear element to fit. I was able to use a much smaller 52/42 for the older 47mm SA. It’s really a small lens, much smaller than the modern 47mm (non XL) and only a bit larger than the f/8 version.
Dirk
Hey Paul, That should do it, just spend some time and get it placed at the ideal distance so you can use the entire 5mm of movement. I’m using 17mm helicals but I don’t always hit infinity perfectly at the end of the focus mount. This camera in particular will focus past infinity and it will actually focus much closer than 6 feet but I only indexed it to 6 feet. I feel like I’ll shoot it mostly at infinity and 12 feet a majority of the time.Actually Dirk I was wondering how much focus you get from infinity?
I'm going to make a compact 6x9 using a film back and a little 65mm Angulon. The helicoid I ordered is M42, but only has 5mm of focus, hopefully it will be enough. Don't need to focus anything more than a meter.
Great looking camera, love the silver and black. I have an old Kodak 616 folder I could convert, will be close to 612 aspect ratio......just need to save up for a 47mm lens.After making the last 6x9 Zeiss conversion with a 65mm lens for someone, I realized how cool these little Zeiss conversions are. I had long wanted a ‘smallish’ camera with a ‘largish’ neg which would be ideal as travel companion (if we ever get back to traveling again…).
At first I was thinking about using a 6x9 Graflok back, but by the time you added the roll film back, the camera becomes more like a cube or box due to the way the film plane is directly in front of both the feed and take up spools. Using a Zeiss camera body with the film plane at the back of the body and the spools to the sides (and kinda in front) really helps the finished product be a bit less boxy and a little more ‘camera’ shaped.
To keep the camera as small as possible and ideal for handheld shooting, I used a single coated 47mm f/5.6 Super Angulon, this lens is remarkably small, especially compared to the modern, multicoated 47mm f/5.6 (non-XL) Super Angulon. The older single coated version was only designed to cover 6x9 which I have to assume keeps it nice and tidy. The front filter thread is only 49mm and the rear element is small enough to fit inside a small focusing helical. This was key as the lens board had to be recessed inside the camera body a bit for the focus to be work, the larger helical that I usually use would not fit into the smaller 6x9 camera body. The camera will focus from infinity to well under 6 feet!
After stripping off the 85 year old paint and leather from the camera, a gorgeous stamped steel camera body emerged. It was just too pretty to cover up with fresh paint or new leather so I gave it a good cleaning and buffed it out as best I could. The black accessories and lens mount look great on the polished silver camera body, I could be more happy with how this camera project turned out.
I’m looking forward to shooting a bunch of 6x9 this fall and winter.
There are more pictures of the camera and some other test shots on Flickr if you want to check them out: https://www.flickr.com/photos/dirkfletcher/albums.
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Excellent Ron. You have great wood working skills.Building an 1850's sliding box camera. The camera is very simple, however I tried to build it like they did in the old days
I've uploaded the process into the DIY section of the LF forum; seems adequate just to place a hyperlink instead of copies in this thread:
https://www.largeformatphotography....-in-trying-to-build-a-1850-sliding-box-camera
Excellent Ron. You have great wood working skills.
@odonata I like the wooden sailboat very much.
Thanks! The sailboat is my project to keep me entertained ...
Excellent build. The view finder is huge!When the pandemic hit last year, I was looking for some interesting projects to keep me busy as I spent my evenings isolated in my apartment. I had always admired some of the unique camera builds that people were building in these forums so I decided to take a shot at doing that.
I found an old 6x9 Zeiss Ikonta folding camera on eBay for $24.95 that had a frozen shutter & fungus in the lens as my base camera to build off of.
I decided that I would use this project to try to learn how to design & 3D print the replacement lens mount to put one of my large format lenses on the front of the camera. I chose my Nikkor-SW 65mm f/4. I was hoping that this might produce images similar to my Fuji GSW6800 III rangefinder. Instead of trying to draw the lens mount with a mouse and some kind of drafting program, I decided to use the OpenSCAD programming language. This allowed me to set size & length variables for various design elements at the top of the program and do small millimeter micro adjustments that propagated throughout the entire object when modified.
Since I had never built a camera or 3D printed anything, I made a lot of newbie mistakes. Here's an early crude design with a lens mount like a pipe flange & way too many extraneous supports that had to be broken off and filed down. It was tedious & ugly so a lot of future design iterations were focused on making those disappear.
I attached an inexpensive projector helicoid to the front of the mount, velcroed an old 6x6 TLR fresnel screen to the film plane & used a loupe to try to get the length of my lens mount correct for infinity focus at minimum extension. If it's not obvious that I'm just making stuff up as I go along, I am.
The best part of this project is I learned a lot about 3D printing & the OpenSCAD language as I refined my designs.
Clamping it snuggly together & pinning it in place with stainless steel pins. I lined the inside with black telescope flocking. This is exciting! I wonder if it will actually take a decent photo...
The finished product with a Horseman viewfinder attached to the top. Time to do some test photos!
The following are just some test snapshots from a couple of rolls I took to see if I had actually managed to make a working camera or not. In this photo, I'm building a small wooden sailboat so I took a self portrait under the glaring light of a halogen lamp.
Diesel, Dwight & Burgard near Brookhaven, Mississippi.
The family farm outside of Kentwood, Louisiana.
My friend Cara who was kind enough to do all of the 3D printing for me since I didn't have a printer or the space to put one. Without her help, I don't think I would have gotten this project done.
Based on the test photos, I'm going to label this particular project a success. It kept me from going stir crazy while I was alone in my apartment for months and I learned a few new skills that I think will be useful moving forward. Best of all, it didn't cost much because I already had the large format lens, the viewfinder & the 3D printing was free.
I have a small cruisin' dinghy (5,3 meter - pine and oak); bought it used and renovated it.View attachment 285375
Excellent build. The view finder is huge!
Hows "Plaubelang 69"?How do you call this camera? The Angula ?
And I wonder where that box originates from. Art first glance it made me think of an electric-connector box, but then I realized it is from 3 not 2 parts.
The only thing I dislike are the cross-heads of the screws...
If you decide to pretty it up, all it needs is a couple of camera strap holders on one end and you've got a good copy of a Horseman 842 Convertible there. If you equate simplistic or functional with pretty, then that camera was gorgeous. Otherwise, not the sexiest camera ever produced. Definitely a "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" type of design. I like big negatives from small cameras so yours qualifies. I like it!If all works OK I might pretty it up, but I kinda like ugly cameras.
It's what's on the inside that counts...hopefully that doesn't include light leaks.If you decide to pretty it up, all it needs is a couple of camera strap holders on one end and you've got a good copy of a Horseman 842 Convertible there. If you equate simplistic or functional with pretty, then that camera was gorgeous. Otherwise, not the sexiest camera ever produced. Definitely a "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" type of design. I like big negatives from small cameras so yours qualifies. I like it!
Ha! Are you always this funny?It's what's on the inside that counts...hopefully that doesn't include light leaks.
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AgX wonder when last you been to hardware stores but old type screws nowhere to be seen slot in round or flat heads (sign of the times).
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