Polaroid 110b 4x5 snap shooter with a lens interchangeable system!

The closest distance of subject is about 3.5ft.


Byron + Xenotar 2.8/150, f/2.8 1/200sec, Fuji FP-100C 4x5

All focus as close as possible (3.5ft), I found that DOF is really shallow, wasted about 4 instant films to get these two rather satisfied results.
150mm, f2.8, focus at 3.5ft, DOF got only 0.08 ft (2.4cm!), means when I focus at the eyes, ears are already out of focus!
and I had not made the lens coupled with range finder yet, I made photos this afternoon by gg panel, ruler, and ordered my kid to hold still, not even breath!

salihonba said:

DOF got only 0.08 ft (24cm!), means when I focus at the eyes, ears are already out of focus!

Click to expand...

That's 24mm, not 24cm. 24cm of DOF would be quite a lot (about 9.5").


Steve.

Corrected, thanks man!

I received feedback from Raymond who told me that "the focus scale, the ground glass and the rangefinder did not agree on the focus distance." That brings me curiosity how precise the RF on 110B? I never doubt about the distance scale that camera shows me, until this time.

So I managed to measure the REAL distance scale that read out from ground glass panel. After some cameras were measured, a curve plotted to represent the relationship of focus distance and the rail movement.
Black curve represents the measure I made from ground glass, the blue curve is what distance scale on camera marked.


The curve tells me some facts that I should let all of the polaroid 110A/B owners to know, that is "the distance scale on camera is IN-CORRECT"!!
How surprise! I did trust the credits of Polaroid, their reputations of the quality control on productions......., but I should check before that!!
The curve tells me that 127mm lens actually can not focus as close as 3 feet, like the distance scale shows, 3.6ft (110cm) is the nearest distance that camera can focus.
And the curve tells me more, that the distance scale is somewhat correct from infinity to about 5 feet, and then incorrect increase when focus closer.

Scale in purple is what real distance scale should be, according to my curve. You can notice that distance less than 5 feet(1.5m), the curves significantly differ, and when the rail extends to the end, it actually focus at about 3.6 feet, not 3 feet.

BEWARE!!!

I should re-mark the distance scale on Byron

When I mounted a different lens on an old folding Polaroid many years ago, I put tracing paper where the film would lay (by disassembling an old 667 film packet). Then I unscrewed the reflector from my Mini Mag Light, leaving only the brightly lit grain-of-wheat halogen bulb visible and burnng. In a darkened room, I meticulously measured out selected distance from the film plane to the bulb, and then focused the lens until the image was sharp on the "ground glass". I then marked the focusing scale with a mark for that specific distance. Because the lens had been changed, I could't use the old focusing scale which was used pictograms anyway, but the new scale i put on top of the pictogram worked fine for my purposes. Of course, as you say, at close distances DOF is critical.

I received a mail, James from US told me that 'Actually Polaroid did make the distance scale inaccurate on purpose. What they did was based on ordinary people who are not aware 'focal plane', estimating distance between subject and the front end of lens, not knowing that real focus is on 'focal plane', about 20cm behind the lens, thus Polaroid marked the scale a little bit shorter, to compensate the common errors. When subject is far out of 5feet, that 20cm error won't bother anything, but if subject is very close, say 4feet (120cm), that 20cm deliberated shortage then become obvious! That is exactly what my curve shows me!!

And Mr.James pointed out that '110B camera was made in a closed system, that is, fixed lens, so as long as the range finder is coupled with the lens, no matter how the distance scale marked, it won't bring errors, but Byron now makes its range finder an open system, not only coupled with one lens only, and it also becomes reference for other lenses, for un-coupled setting, that makes distance scale in-correct.'
Thanks James, your explanation released me, bring back my faith to Polaroid!

Inspired by distance scale issue, I measured all lenses in hand, combine same focal length lenses into one, and plotted the curves representing them.

Most lenses marked as same focal length have same characteristic curve, except 120mm lenses I have.
One is Schneider Angulon 6.8/120mm, and another one is a vintage Tessar 4.5/12cm lens from Cocarette folder. Their characteristic curves are totally different, funny thing isn't it? That means two 120mm lenses need different distance scale.

Rules are made to be violated. I am happy to said that, since I break another rule I set before, it means the limits are less, options are wider.

Byron has its own back system, differs from International Standard Back System or Graflok Back System, because I want it to keep simple and slim as possible.

Since it did not follow industrial standard, there are some limits for those standard film holder to be mounted on.

I received feedback from my dear client Raymond, who are not satisfied when using regular double dark slide film holders: "The tabs holding the film holder do not close completely when a film holder is inserted. The tension is insufficient to keep the film holder snuggly against the camera and I am concerned that there will be a light leak. Is this how it is supposed to work? It seems you are trying to make the tabs work with all types of backs but have compromised the operation when used with a regular film holder. I think it should be the other way around - it should work perfectly with the film holder and compromises should be made when using the other backs."

What my main purpose on developing Byron camera is for hand-held, street snap 4x5 rangecoupled, so those holders who can carry as many films as possible are prior listed, Grafmatic 6 films, 120 roll films, instant film packs, to name a few, and they are all in Graflok standard, thus Byron Back System was guided for Graflok standard. Two clamps on both up and beneath side hold Graflok film holders very well, you can see operations on my YouTube video.

Trying to design a system perfectly fit both for Graflok and Graflex systems, but failed, so I had to compromise the regular double dark slide film holders, what clamps hold are only the tiny ditches on side of the holders, not very securely held. In the picture below you can see that clamps do not grip the holder by "bite in" the holder, but just hold the side by the tension.

For this I set the limits on regular double dark slide holders, only allow those holders who has ditches on side, like brand Fidelity series, or Lisco holders; and those holders who has no ditches on side are off the list, like TOYO holders.

Though clamps do not "bite in" the holder, I am not so worry, since when hand-held, your left hand holds the camera, thumb naturally press the back , providing good support of the holder, to keep it from falling.

But how about when not hand-holding, but on tripod, there is no hand to press the back, will it be secure to hold? That must be concerned by many clients who are experienced LF camera users, but seldom hand-held snaps on 4x5, like what Raymond said.

For this, I provide three options to clients to choose.


1. Keep It that Way.

If you use Fedelity or Lisco holders, with faint ditches on side, and would like to hand-held snaps, you don't need to do any change, just use the holders. When you mount the holders, your left hand thumb will provide enough press to keep the holder, and the dark slide you insert into the blocking plate (see pic, above), provides another security to keep it.


2. Make Ditches for Bite-In

If you are good at machine, and happen have tools, you can make ditches on side of the holders, let clamps grip the holders by "Bite-In", it is the best solution I can get now, but you need tools to do it. The ditch is 1.5mm wide, 20mm long, and 2mm in depth.


Here I use TOYO holders, whose side are without ditches, but with these ditches I made, they are feasible for Byron now, holders is securely hold.

3. The Velcro Way

I know that ditches way is difficult for average people, so there is an easy way, what we want to prepare are velcro tape, a pair of scissor, and file.

File both side of holder, to make room for velcro tape, you can compare original holder and the one who been filed.

Then cut the proper size of velcro tape (hook side), paste it on both sides of holder, now we provide very good "Bite-In" zone for clamps!

For comparing the "Bite-In", we list three ways in a row, you can choose an option you like. Now, the DD slide holders are not limited anymore, any holders allowed!!

Walter Garcia in NY added a bubble on Byron, how creative! I love the idea!


I should try mount one on my Byron!
Thanks, Walter, great idea!

And he successfully made ditches on side of Fuji Quickload film holder, now Byron list one more holder! Good Job! Walter!
in the mail he said
"Daniel, Attached are photos of my modification for Fuji Quick Load holder. After cutting the two small notches the fit is good. I will expose some film with this in the next few days If weather is good. It is not difficult to do but it must be done carefully and slowly. I do not have small measuring device to see exact measurement in mm. I think you can do this if you get one of these holders. They are easy to find and not so expensive. To disassemble you must remove 6 small screws circled in image #01. Then carefully take apart two half. Be careful with roller it has two small springs that like to jump out. Also pressure plate likes to fall out. The other images show where cut must be made to fit with Byron locks. Let me know what you think."
What I think? I think it is wonderful!

Walter sent me images of Quickload on the back of Byron

Looks like it is Angulon 6.8/90mm lens at work!!! That's the reason for lens interchangeable system!!

Now I took time mainly on developing Emily, WA 4x5 shooter, based on J66 body, almost the same as 110/B, except no Range finder on top, and no front door for rail, so it is a good candidate for wide angle.


All the same back system to Byron, Emily needs new bellows, new front lens plate, and a new top plate. The top plates just arrived, I installed it with two cold shoes, one for view finder, one for a tiny range finder, if uses want to, that one from Voigtlander/Cosina is good I think.

This is the position for about 47mm lens. Avoiding pig snout and helical focus ring which are popular seen on wide angle camera, I want to replace them by bellows and level, to keep it slim and easy to carry. Bellows is easy to me, but the level, that puzzeled me.

If I can successfully made it, then Emily will be a great WA camera for lenses wider than 90mm! Here I come! 47mm, 65mm!

Just brought back the top plate for Emily, I did some modification---drilled hole for bubble level. Contributed idea by Walter, drilled hole on Byron top housing, I found that Emily should have one too.
bubble level is rather thick, but thanks to the plate, it is implanted quite well


Ok, what else we need?
Kids has just re-watched Harry Potter movies, said this camera should be named "Mad Eye Moody".
Worth to think about it.

RF housing modification takes many steps, and now it adds a bubble level hole.

left to right: 110A housing, 110B housing, 110b modified Byron housing, eye window adds a eye caps attachment.

and at the right side, use putty to reshape the button line,

far right side was drilled with hole for bubble level, and a dent edge for PA-45 holder.

a lot of putty, drill, sanding, and 2 to 3 layers of spray paint.

Wow..... A production line!


Steve.

Steve Smith said:

Wow..... A production line!


Steve.

Click to expand...

and I am the only labor....., no matter sick or injured.....

Exchanged opinions with German bear last night, he would like to have Ysarex 4.7/127mm lens a lens shade, but since the lens does not have filter ring, so asked me if I know any shade available for it.
I remember reading a post, a Chinese lives in Canada ever glued a step-up ring on lens, then he can use filters/shade in front of Ysarex.
I think this is not bad idea, a little more improvement makes Byron better, I can do this as basic conversion, so I went to find the ring this afternoon.
49-52 step-up ring is almost perfect fit for the lens, but the inner diameter of ring is 46.0mm, and the outer diameter of the lens is 46.5mm, that I need to visit my mechanist to do some work.

Lathe the inner diameter into 46.5, step-up ring is tightly fit on the lens. Inner circle is shinny silver due to the lathe work.

And then I squeezed to fit the ring, no any glue needed, it is just so tight, you will need to use a philip screwdriver to take it off.

It looks neat and pretty, with this ring we can install any 52mm filter on, and of course a 52mm lens shade. With ring on the lens, it safely stay in the camera body when fold.
Another improvement is to unify distance scales.
Byron is a conversion turning a fixed lens camera into an interchangeable lens system, besides one prime lens is range coupled with range finder, other lenses planning to use must have their distance scale for un-coupled focus.

But Polaroid designed distance scale in a merely weired way, distance scale original on 110B is not engraved in between object and focal plane, which is a common way to do, instead, they measured distance between objects and lens. Two system differ on the length of camera body, that is about 8inches.

For object locates far away, say 20feet, 8 inches makes no difference for both two scale, but if object is near, maybe 5feet away, then 8 inches means a big focus error.

I was reminded by Raymond, a Byron client, he wrote me one day said that the distance scale is not right, I followed what told and found out the same situation. Then I finally found that all lenses I measured and set are based on focal plane, but distance scale on 110B is based on lens tip, that caused errors.
So I redesigned the scale, remeasured and remarked it, image on top is what original distance scale shows and what it measured, below is what new scale shows and it measured.

New scale has bigger numeric numbers, to help people like me, in the middle age, weak eye sighted. And by using colors to more clearly display.
Not only scale in feet, also there is version in meter, reminded by a French client, some people get used to use metric system.

New distance scale compared with original ones, font size is bigger for reading, and in Imperial system as well as Metric system upon client's request.

Revised in 4 versions, and re-arranged colors, font size and locations, distance scales are re-designed in whole new looks. Every version of output is different from what I saw on monitor, that took me many hours to adapt with, time wasted between output lab and my studio.

Left two are from original, notice that one in meters, very very few, most 110B I encountered are in feet.
Right four are covered by new distance scales, different scales for different prime lenses, they are more clear reading, and the scale is unified to focal plane, no more confused "Feet to lens".

So do the un-coupled lenses, accompanied by distance scales engraved red line mark, and infinity stop engraves, Byron is capable of with 3 interchanging lenses.

Rangefinder calibration / adjustment on Polaroid 110B

Rangefinder camera needs calibration for some reasons, maybe caused by vibration, camera hit the ground, loosing screws...., anyway, if you found that the overlay images in viewing window mis-aligned or the photos are out of focus, it's time to check it out.

There is not much information about 110B rangefinder calibration on internet, the best I can find is from Option8, master of Polaroid camera conversion/ modification.

While Byron is a little bit different from other conversion, so it provides more options for rangefinder calibration, easier and faster to finish the job.

In common case, calibration can be done by turning two screws on the back of mirror, that is...

1. Focus at the infinity, then turn the screws, to align the overlay images in the view window,
2. Then focus at something near, then turn the screws, to align the overlay images in the view window,
3. Leave the focus between near and far to the cam curve.

Two screws adjust mirror's horizontal/ vertical movements. as image below shows, upper left screw adjusts overlay image horizontal to move left (clockwise) or right (counter clockwise) direction; Lower right screw adjust overlay image vertical to move downward (clockwise) or upward direction (counter clockwise)


It is not so easy to remember which turn to which direction, so I developed a 'Right Hand Rule' to help remembering it.


When you adjust the overlay image, and don't remember which direction screw should turn, use your right hand like this, thumb represents horizontal screw, index finger represents vertical screw, and they are now showing the direction if you turn screws clockwise!

Now back to the calibration procedure mentioned earlier, you see that no matter at infinity or at near object, only two screws available for adjustment. Isn't that funny if you align the image at infinity, then at near object requires adjustment too, won't it ruin the first alignment???

In many forums discussing about RF adjustment, people always puzzled in this dead alley, aligned image at one end, but the other is not, and then back and forth, drives people crazy, still in dead alley.

Actually there is another place to adjust the overlay image, it is the fixed screw in the middle, by loosing it a bit, you can make whole RF mechanical part turn, thus move the image horizontally, by tighten or loosing the screw, you can move the image vertically.


So there are two sets of adjustment for overlay image alignment, with one set at infinity, and other set for near object focus, thus won't ruin the previous calibration.

In theory this should satisfy all calibration required, but there is always exception. If you align both infinity and near end, but the adjustment always ruin the other one, no matter how you adjust, it just can't match both ends, in this case, it must be something wrong on cam.

(to be continued....)

This situation happens when you use the wrong section of cam curve.

If you ever read my post of lens curves, then you knew that the relationship of distance between 'lens to focused object' (L-O) and 'lens to focal plane' (L-F) never be a linear ratio. When focusing at infinity, we set the 'lens to focal plane' as ZERO point, the least length required to utilize this lens, and an 'infinity stop' is engraved on the plate, for quickly and precisely set lens on this position.


When focus objects in distance less than infinity, rail moves and bellows extends to increase L-F distance to fulfill the requirement, as object get closer, extended distance increase more. that is, if object at about 10 meters away, maybe the L-F needs only 3mm increment, but when object at 2 meters away, increment increase to 18mm.

That expained why cam curve designed to be a parabolic curve, and if you set the wrong section, all adjustments are in vain.


Left on image shows the correct curve section on cam, infinity stop is aligned with the engraved line on cam, the ZERO point, and the curve section is match with the lens focus characteristic curve. But if the ZERO point is not aligned with the mark, then curve section must be shift, like what shows on right of image. Thus before you do any calibration, you should check if the infinity stop aligned with mark line or not.

Basic concept is clear, so we conclude the steps of calibration as following..

1. Zeroing: set the lens to infinity, and make sure the mirror arm is attached with cam, on the mark line.
2. Align overlay image at infinity object.
3. Align overlay image at closer object.

That are all steps we will follow, then here comes the detail...

Settings
1. Byron camera with prime lens, ground glass panel, magnifying loupe, tripod.

2. Screw drivers, one tiny flat head, one normal philips head.

3. A sunny day and clear view
Choose a contrasty object as infinity target, like a high-voltage tower, about 2 km away from my house.

4. A high contrast object for close focusing
What I pick is a Big number calender panel. Hang it on wall, at the same height of the tripod, parallel with camera.

Step 1. RF housing removal

* Byron uses two screws to hold the RF housing, one is beneath the cold shoe, you need to remove tiny screw on top, and peel apart the plastic sheet to reveal the screw.

* Another one is in the side plate of film chamber, this screw need a long neck driver, or you can temporary take off the sliding tooth set for easier un-screwing.

* Once two screws are removed, carefully take the housing off, and put it aside.

* Now the RF mechanical parts are revealed, what we will adjust later are three parts, as explained at beginning, they are fixed screw, mirror, and lens cam (from left to right).

Step 2. Zeroing
Now we are going to calibrate infinity end, this is no extension for rail, so called zeroing.

* Mount Byron onto the tripod, face the infinity object. (high voltage tower)
* Mount on your prime lens, here is a Ysarex 4.7/127mm lens as example, if your prime lens is 150mm, mount it on.
* Pull the front standard to the correspond infinity stop, engage the groove. Byron engraves lens length for each infinity stop, so it is easy to distinguish.

* Set shutter to B, and with a cable release lock, make the lens shutter keep opening, and the aperture to full opening.
* Make sure that rail is not extended, distance scale marked on infinity. You can check with loupe on ground glass panel.
* Check lens cam, mirror arm should engage cam curve at the engraved line, adjust the cam by loosing locking screw if necessary.
* View through the RF eye window, align the tower in the center, observe the overlaying image, do necessary adjustments, till images align with each other.
* (In this step, we use two screws on mirror for adjustment)

Step 3. Close distance calibration

* After zeroing, turn camera to close distance object (calender), adjust camera distance to object about 4 feet, about the nearest distance the lens can focus.
* with loupe and ground glass panel, turn the focus knob to focus the object, after focus is set, DO NOT TOUCH THE KNOB ANYMORE!
* View through the RF eye window, align the object in center, observe the overlaying image, do necessary adjustments, till images align with each other.
* (In this step, we use fixed screw for adjustment)

Step 4. Re-check, further adjustment

* Both infinity and close ends are calibrated, we re-check the result by turning back to face the infinity, to see if images in eye window keep align or not.
* If overlay images keep align, then the calibration is done, and you can put back the RF housing.
* If overlay images are not aligned with each other, then it may caused by wrong cam curve section. By loose the cam locking screw and turn the cam a bit, to make overlay images align again.
* Repeat step 1~3, make necessary adjustments, till overlay images keep align on both end.

These are steps for calibration, I hope this answer some questions concerning about the RF adjustments.

And for Byron whose prime lens is set to 150mm, the original 127mm lens cam is replaced by custom made 150mm lens cam, they look alike, but curve is little bit different. (left: 150mm cam, right: 127mm cam)

Sometimes new cam needs a little bit of filing to match the lens, because each lens got its own character! That belongs to advanced fine tuning...

You have covered it well Daniel..

This is a very informative way of explaining the adjustment and the operation of the Polaroid 110B/900 range finder.
Well done mate. I will refer those in need of assistance to this thread from now on. It's great to see this sharing of information...thanks

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