Re: Show us your home made camera...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
jb7
Nice looking camera Joe, and great pictures from it-
As a child, I remember being in a family picture taken on one of these in Majorca in 1972-
I remember the photographer attaching a logo to the negative before photographing it...
I agree, and I may make one also.
Really a great thing for modern times. A slow down and an interesting process for everybody in this digital gogo world.
You are an inspiration!
Re: Show us your home made camera...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
brandon allen
This camera is a piece of art...well done.
Re: Show us your home made camera...
Re: Show us your home made camera...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
brandon allen
Since this IS a thread about building LF cameras, I'll bore you with some details:
Focused with 3/8" 10TPI reverse-thread acme screw.
Front standard can be attached in three different positions to accommodate lenses from 90mm (possibly even 75mm) to 400mm. Were I to do another I wouldn't bother making it able to fit such long lenses and make it easier to use with the wides I'll probably use 90% of the time.
As mentioned, the front standard moves on 8" triple extension drawer slides which I modified slightly to allow them to be trimmed a bit shorter without sacrificing any extension.
The rear standard can slide forward about 1 1/2" and rearward about 6" on aluminum extrusions. They are actually the T-slot inserts for 1/4-20 bolts intended to be inletted into worktops or jigs. I just flipped them over. They tighten with knobs on the bottom of the camera (not visible in these pictures).
Other metal parts are aluminum or brass. I machined everything myself on a mini mill and mini lathe accquired during the build. I did a fair amount of soldering bits together (ground glass retaining springs, spring shackles, etc,) The springs for the back were flat spring stock ordered from Mcmaster-Carr. I cut them to length, annealed the sections where the bends would go then made the bends. I think these turned out a lot nicer than hacksaw blades do. (No offense meant to anyone there).
All the aluminum parts I made were anodized. All the brass parts were nickel plated - both new skills I accquired as I went.
The spring shackles turned out to be the fiddly-est part of the whole build. I probably made ten duds before I finally got the process right.
I had the glass cut at a local glass shop and ground it myself with silicone carbide grit. I may get some 600 or 800 grit and go even a bit finer than the 400 I used. I dressed the edges on my diamond sharpening stones - worked beautifully!
Wood is black walnut finished with three coats of polyurethane.
4x4" lens boards of my own design (meaning that they don't match any commercial lens boards I know of).
Bellows were made for me by Rudy in China.
In addition to standard film holders, it will fit a Polaroid 645 or 545. A Calumet 120 holder will fit, but not awfully well.
This project consumed about 9 months of fairly consistent work. A lot of that was spent in trial and error repetition. I could do another in a couple of months probably.
I'm planning to just use this camera for six months or so, then start in on a 5x7 version incorporating whatever improvements I discover this design needs. So far it doesn't seem to need much!
BTW, I said my camera could use Polaroid film holders, 545 and 405 (I said 645 in my earlier post...)
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Re: Show us your home made camera...
It's my... Not nice. Not portable friendly. But usable and cheap ;) The whole budget was about 50 bucks (without the brass lens)...
13x18 and 18x24 back, booth are roundable by 90 degree.
All correction capable.
I just made some DIY lens too with guillotine shutter and some film holder too like this: Attachment 133698.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/oldlip...7650409738422/
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Re: Show us your home made camera...
ok, it's not totally homemade, but I adapted a rangefinder from a Polaroid Bigshot onto a Cambo Maxiportrait. It makes it much better for handheld head-and-shoulders portraits, and works great. All credit for the idea goes to Misko, he planted the seed. ;-) I have another Maxiportrait and Bigshot to combine together soon, this one is a slightly later version than the one pictured (they had some design changes through the run, apparently.)
-Ed
Attachment 134643Attachment 134644Attachment 134645Attachment 134646
Re: Show us your home made camera...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
EdSawyer
now wait one gosh darn minute...THATS what I was gonna do
but instead choose to stay with the factory viewfinder + 5' retractable sewing measuring tape combo
what lens do you have on yours? I have a 240 f9 artar...
and what kind of bracket is that for mounting the view/rangefinder?
if the measuring tape proves too much hassle - I might want to go back to the big shot solution
I have my Maxi on a monopod that will also - thru crazy plumbing - hold my off axis flash
Re: Show us your home made camera...
Quote:
Originally Posted by
DrTang
now wait one gosh darn minute...THATS what I was gonna do
but instead choose to stay with the factory viewfinder + 5' retractable sewing measuring tape combo
what lens do you have on yours? I have a 240 f9 artar...
and what kind of bracket is that for mounting the view/rangefinder?
if the measuring tape proves too much hassle - I might want to go back to the big shot solution
I have my Maxi on a monopod that will also - thru crazy plumbing - hold my off axis flash
It's a popular conversion. :)
Re: Show us your home made camera...
I thought of keeping the factory viewfinders on mine, but the Bigshot viewfinder is the right proportion and size, so it works out fine. It also has better brightlines than at least one version of the Cambo viewfinder. The later version of the Cambo has a measuring tape built into the body. The earlier one has a measuring string attached to the side, which just simply unscrews.
The bracket I just fabbed up from a piece of aluminum I had handy. For the 2nd one I'll use pre-formed 90-degree aluminum channel from home despot.
I tried the measuring tape thing and it was a total hassle, esp. when trying to use handheld, shooting kids and portraits wide-open.
For lenses, one came with a Congo 240mm f/6.3, the other one with a G-Claron 240/9. I sourced a second Congo 240/6.3 as I like that one better so far (faster, plus it's a tessar so nice bokeh/rendering.) Both in a Copal Press 1 shutter. I will probably switch to a normal copal 1, since it offers faster speeds and I just like the operation of it better. the self-cocking nature of the Copal Press 1 doesn't seem like a huge advantage to me, in trade for the 1/125 max shutter speed. Hopefully I can get the cable release to fit a regular copal 1 with some fiddling.
Will probably try it with the Nikkor 270-T and 360-T lenses also, though I expect the focus distances and rangefinder to be uncalibrated at that point of course.
post pics of your setup sometime too.
-Ed
Re: Show us your home made camera...