Pix of your home-built cams, mods and creations here please (part 2)

This is the base and focus track with the Front standard.



Apart from the metal work in this image every thing else has had to be made.

This is the back with a rotatable holder for the focus frame amd Roll film holder.





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As I write the back has been attached to the base, I used some 90º angled metal (aluminium alloy) screwed to both the base and back after previously glueing the two together. Ththe metalhas been will be covered by 45º mahogay. The next jo is the bracing, and then the brass fittings to hold the back in place.

The wood is currently only sealed, once everything is assembled it will be french polished,

Originally I intended to use a spare Busch Pressman focus frame, which I finally found today, however I've realised the camera will look far better with a focus frame that matches the rest of the camera.

My wife omplains about the time I've been spending on this praject, not actually that long so far less than 10-12, and says I have plenty of other cameras I can use. That bit's true but all are eother 5x4 or larger or have no movements. It's hard when she doesn't understand movements and why they can be important, and why I grew frustrated with my Mamiya 645s.

Thwe camera will be finished (as in useable) in a couple of days, I can see already how practical it''ll be to use particularly the front tilt, it's also very light.

At a total cost of less than £10 ($13 US), OK doupble that for the parts from Paris, it's still a bargain compared to a Linhof.

Ian

 

Man is that looking good!

 

Apologies for the slightly unsharp image of the final camera body. I've now given it a light french polish, added a tropd mount and cut a bit out to allow positioning of the track-bed lock. I still need to finish the ground-glass focus screen frame, the base of the frame that the glass sits on is ready, the T distance is spot on so there's not a huge amout left to do.

Tomorrow is assembly day. I'll see if I can use the old bellows. Then I need to make some brass fittings, I 've week before I need it finished

Ian

 

Finally assembled and awaiting belloew.





Ground glass focus screen holder is nearly finished.

Ian

 

Ian, your posts and pictures are just the inspiration I need. I've been using a Crown as a field camera the past week and am reasonably happy with it. I had planned to pick up a couple junkers that a friend has around an try to improve things a bit. But seeing your pictures gives me the idea of making a hybrid with a partial baby Deardorff I have laying around. It was missing so much that I considered it scrap, and am actually using the back as a reducing back for my 5x7 Ansco. Now I'm thinking I might be able to do something with a Graphic front standard and rail assembly to resurrect the old Deardorff, at least in a new form.

 

Mark, I got my inspiration from the previous page

I have a lot of parts I've collected over the past few yearsvsince I first began restoring cameras after buying two Speed Graphics from the US sold as enough parts to buid one good camera, It turned out one was a pre-Anniversary the other a Pacemaker and no parts are the same, however both are now restored, I've plenty of parts to make custom cameras like the one I'm just about to finish.

While I prefer to restore to original condition it's worth using odd parts to make these custom cameras, so go for it.

Ian

 

Congratulations, is indeed impressive!

 

I'll show here my four home-made cameras soon!

 

The finished camera, ready to take to Canada in a couple of days.





I've added a small cheap fresnel to the rear of the focus screen and it makes a significant difference to the brightness.



The camera can use 65mm to 203mm lenses, it's fitted with a 1913 120mm Dagor in the photos. With a 203mm f7.7 Ektar it focusses to 6ft., Final weight is 1.25kg.

The test film indicates it's light-tight and working great, sharp negatives (where they should be) at f8 with shallow DOF (135mm Caltar (Symmar S). The front tilt works nicely and is exactly what I required,

Ian

 

Looks great! If you ever travel down near NYC let me know! I would love to see it in person.

 

Here's a picture of my Yashica 635, with a Bay 1 to 52mm adapter so I can use 52mm accessories.
Big deal, right? Some heavy-duty modification, adding a filter ring... But, what's under the lens cap? Aha, a pinhole!

You see, a couple years back, this camera took a fall off a classroom desk in the CPCC photo lab, which features a lovely concrete floor. The fall broke the lens aperture coupling. I took it apart to try and fix it, but alas, I'd need a parts donor. So the lens was repurposed. But I was left with a mostly-functional TLR without a taking lens. Hmmm. Hmmm hmmm hmmm.

Pinhole camera! So I did that. But I had no easy way to cover just the taking "lens" without blocking the viewfinder. Enter the adapter. I've got an order of 120 Ilford FP4+ on the way. Can't wait to put a few rolls through my new camera.

 

Here is one just off the assembly line: Super lightweight, has some movements from the 2x3 Century Graphic standard and a composite rear standard from Walker Cameras TiTAN pinhole body made for Ilford.

Build notes are HERE, more pics are on flickr here: https://flic.kr/s/aHskLqLGes

thanks for looking!
Dirk

 

A grip for the RB67:
https://app.box.com/s/j8s76dmrtqgvkwekalmsx9hittdfa63q
https://app.box.com/s/9pfqhb9tlfkxen01pg8nv9zd6fugy7ho

I had previously made the grip for the 4x5 Speed Graphic and the 2x3 Century.
I have added the "L " bracket so the grip is adapted to the RB67 too.

It is a convenient carry handle and also allows more comfortable holding when using the prism hand held.

 

I just one of the several flash brackets I have if I want a handle grip on any of my cameras. ^

 

Aesthetically, it looks beautiful to me. Congratulations!

 

Thinking of selling off the 6x12 camera to fund a new project, let me know if you are interested.
Dirk
dirkfletcher@gmail.com

 

Here's a speed graphic I striped and finished recently, hard to believe they covered the mahogany with leather! I'm still working on a clever way to hold the release button on now that the leathers gone but I'll come up with something.

 

I stripped the leather (most of it anyway) off of mine a few years ago but never finished it. I solved the problem with the release button.... I lost it. Now I have to use whatever is around to poke in there... Kind of a pain!

 

Here is a Polaroid 4x5 conversion I built about a decade ago. It was built using spare parts I had laying around. The body started out as an 800, the rangefinder is from a 900 and the standard is from a 110a. I used a Sinar back which needed quite a lot of modifying to get right. I built this to a working condition over the course of a year or so spending a half hour on it as I had the time. A friend of mine saw it and fell in love. He asked me to build him one. I said sure. Then after I started I realized how much time it takes to do it right... I will probably never make another one. Too much time. A couple of months ago I was in Arizona and the wind blew the tripod with this camera over. I am in the process of fixing the damage lately, but getting it calibrated right is a royal pain.... Still, great camera to have!

 

It's worth the work, the black and chrome look great!
Dirk

 

It really is a lot of work.... After straightening everything, the front standard doesn't get the lens quite far enough out. In other words, it is focusing past infinity. I really don't feel like resetting the front standard, and am now wondering if it has always been out. Possible since I built it over such a length of time. I have some spare parts still, so I can put another track on it, but what a pain. I also found some pinholes in the bellows, which means I am going to need a new bellows. The bellows is glued on, so getting them off will be a pain.... Still, it is a great camera to have. I have made photos like this with it. Can't beat it for shooting handheld.

 

The final(?) version of my RB SuperD 4x5, stripped to bare wood and finished. Also converted to Graflok back, and added a 8" Pentac on a Jolo board, (also stripped and removed extra parts not needed from the lens, e.g. the aperture ring ass'y., etc.). I built a tower to support an RZ67 prism which has some optical mods to allow it to cover the full 5x5 viewing area. Also fitted a fresnel and modern viewing screen so it's surprisingly bright. I had to shim the fresnel/ground glass up a bit to compensate for having the fresnel in there, but it all worked out fine. I also use the RZ67 magnifier (a 2x or 3x magnifier of the center of the image) to double check focus. It works nicely! More pics here: http://edsawyer.com/lens/graflex_superD_pentac_woody/

-Ed

 

Very interesting Ed. I've few TP reflexes and maybe one could be similar

Ian

 

Ian you should go for it. The optical mods to the Prism was basically removing the eyepiece optics and substituting a +3 diopter instead. That, combined with the height, allowed coverage of approx 5x5". I also took the time to strip out the electronics to save a few ounces, and gave it a full cleaning too. I was fortunate to find it (the prism) on ebay for only $20, optics are in fine shape, it had non-working meter electronics which I didn't need anyway, so a good deal overall. As far as I can tell it's the largest prism easily available, for a camera system. The Fuji GX680 finders are not prisms, just mirror viewfinders.

 

Hi Ed,

WOW That is cool. Wonderful job. I used to collect Graflexes, but I never had any idea they were so beautiful underneath