Reducing press camera weight. Drill pattern wanted.

[X. Phot.]

I say move to 35mm.

Can you imagine what will happen the moment I try to push the hole-saw through a 35mm camera? But since you have mentioned it, that would be interesting. LOL!

I suggest simply adding strap lugs. They aren't that heavy anyhow, and weight relief holes won't do much, so I don't really get your motivation. My Linhof weighs only 7 lbs. or so, and that is probably about as heavy as a RF press camera gets. It feels like nothing with a strap on. My Speed Graphic is very light in comparison; Crowns weigh even less.

Of course changing cameras is always an option. As I already carry this camera, holders, meter, etc in a shoulder bag with a wide shoulder strap, lugs on the camera might be somewhat redundant? But, if anyone comes across a nice pattern to "skeletonize" (if that's a good term) the body on a camera, it could be interesting to consider.

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

you must make it in fractal pattern to reduce weight with same strenght. Patterns is the easy part but carrying them on to camera is another story. You can send your pattens and parts to a laser cutter or water jet cutter and get your shiny metal.

Another way is to rebuild your skeleton from fiberglass or glass reinforced plastic.

WEST systems is the biggest marine level epoxy seller and their website is full with peoples experiments with this epoxy.

WEST means wood epoxy saturation system and it is made for add life expectancy to wooden boats.

This epoxy is special and satures the wood or plywood from their pores.

This part is important , you can buy an engravers hair thin saw and cut your parts from exotic look plywood and saturate the ply parts with heavily WEST epoxy.

They would be very strong in next 24 hours and all the plywood natural pattern contrastly visible.

Protect your lungs , skin and eyes , protect the part from cold and dust.

Umut

 

[Mustafa Umut Sarac]

Be careful to mix epoxy and hardener as much as you use in next half an hour and read instructions to mix correct , minimum error makes it unsettable.
Hardener contains cyanide and look at the bottle , if it is brown ,it is old , transparent is new.

 

[paul_c5x4]

One of the (many) things on my to-do list is to strip an MPP down and weigh each part. Like other all metal press cameras, it is darned heavy and I like to reduce the weight I'm lugging around. I suspect that even after stripping off the range finder and drilling the case, it wouldn't save much..

 

[X. Phot.]

I suggest simply adding strap lugs. They aren't that heavy anyhow, and weight relief holes won't do much, so I don't really get your motivation. My Linhof weighs only 7 lbs. or so, and that is probably about as heavy as a RF press camera gets. It feels like nothing with a strap on. My Speed Graphic is very light in comparison; Crowns weigh even less.

Then again, lugs on the camera with a dedicated strap may have merit. Holders, meter, lens hood and filters in a separate and smaller bag. And should a tripod be required . . . I'll hang it on something. Hmmmm.

I had removed the viewfinder and rangefinder years ago. As paul_c5x4 hinted upon, weighing the individual parts is probably a good idea.

foam core! LOL!

Ooopps, where did that come from?

 

[Besk]

My 4X5 camera is a Busch Pressman. I have replaced the back with a Graflok back from a Crown Graphic (non rotatingl now), replaced the bottom round part for attaching to a tripod with a hollowed out square aluminum plate and replaced the strap lugs with ones from a Crown Graphic and added a tripod attachment hole on the side. The camera is now really easy to use and suits me fine.

But to really have a lightweight 4X5 press camera I had planned to build a lightweight 4X5 press style camera using the front standard and rails from a B&J Press. The body and Graflok back would be from sheets of carbon fiber available from hobby stores. With that the weight maybe could be down to, say, 3.5 lbs or so.

But why bother? My Pressman weighs 5 lbs including the rangefinder but no lens. Except for backpacking I don't see much of a reason to make it lighter.

BTW: My Crown Graphic with the top rangefinder but no lens is practically identical in weight at 5 lbs
but is much bulker.

 

[domaz]

I use this camera as a hand-held camera most times. I just weighed my old 5x7 camera and it's about 1/2 lb more than the Pressman. The secret there must be that it's made of wood and steel.

Were there any 4x5 Pressmans with a wood cases?

Speaking of 5x7 cameras. I'm pretty sure my 5x7 Top-Handle Speed Graphic is lighter than my Anniversary 4x5 Speed Graphic. My 4x5 doesn't even have a rangefinder or any of that business- so I don't think Graflex and others were really concerned about weight as much as sturdiness.