Diy slr

[IHS]

So I am in the design phase of a panoramic camera with a roll film back...but I getting a little hung up.

I would like to make it an SLR, and aside from the impossible (machining gears, springs, and other tiny parts) I think my only solution is to make it so the Mirror is retracted manually. I have heard some passing whispers that at one point early in the LF world there were a few LF cameras that had MANUAL MIRROR retraction.

Does anyone know where I can see some of these?
The names of them?

Also I have been looking for some books on the design of cameras, and I have not really been able to find any? Any suggestions on good ones?

Thanks a bunch!
-Ian

[lenser]

I have never heard of such a camera, but then I am certainly no photo historian and others can answer that far better than I. My only contribution is to offer that if such a camera was issued a US patent, you should be able to access the full details including diagrams from the patent office.

Sounds like a great project, so good luck.

[Dan Fromm]

Look closely at a Graflex SLR. The mirror is lifted by a spring, returned manually. The mechanism isn't particularly complex.

But why invent what you can buy? Namely, 4x5 Graflex Super D with Graflok back and a 6x12 roll holder to fit it.

Any DIY LF SLR is going to be subject to the same limits as the Graflex, in particular, long minimum focal length. If you want to use lenses that are as short as normal for the format you shoot, you're stuck with a view camera, possibly the most rudimentary possible. This because of the non-existence of retrofocus lenses for LF.

[IHS]

Thanks Dan I have looked at the old Graflex online but never in person, I'll have to see if I can examine one.

[Sevo]

Most early return mirror cameras had manual mirror action - that includes many of the German and British pre WWII designed medium and large format SLRs, at least part of my Mentor, Primar and Thornton-Pickard cameras behave that way. The rest act as described by Dan - a similar mechanical effort, but trading in the return mirror for having no issues with the mirror swinging back too early.

[IHS]

Thanks Sevo, I will look into those cameras and their design also.

[IHS]

But why invent what you can buy? Namely, 4x5 Graflex Super D with Graflok back and a 6x12 roll holder to fit it.

Any DIY LF SLR is going to be subject to the same limits as the Graflex, in particular, long minimum focal length. If you want to use lenses that are as short as normal for the format you shoot, you're stuck with a view camera, possibly the most rudimentary possible. This because of the non-existence of retrofocus lenses for LF.

Sorry I didn't respond to all of your post in the earlier message. I am tired of buying cameras and would like to make something to call my own. It will not be a large format camera, it will be used only for 120mm film, but using 4x5" lenses to cover.

[Dan Fromm]

Sorry I didn't respond to all of your post in the earlier message. I am tired of buying cameras and would like to make something to call my own. It will not be a large format camera, it will be used only for 120mm film, but using 4x5" lenses to cover.

I guess we differ on goals. At times I look like a dedicated tinkerer, but for me the point of tinkering is the pictures it enables. Your goal seems to be to build something. There are solutions to the photographic problem you're addressing, they're on the shelf and if your time has any value at all they're less costly than DIY. If its pictures you're after, buy the right gear and go shoot.

That said, I'm all for the joy of tinkering, so if that's important to you go to it.

You used the word panoramic. Which format(s) were you thinking of? IMO an SLR isn't really the right tool for shooting anything longer than around 70 mm with an SLR. There are good SLRs for 6x7. For 6x9 and longer, reflex cameras make little sense. FWIW, my 6x12 rig is built around a couple of Cambos and I find Cambo's reflex viewer very useful with it.

If you're going to build y'r own camera, must it be an SLR? I ask because of the "short LF lens on an SLR" problem. It is real and you may find it limiting.

[IHS]

Yes our goals differ, and I'll leave it at that.

[Carsten Wolff]

If you do have a chance you can also look that an (albeit reasonably rare) Arca-Swiss 4x5" SLR. Another manual mirror beast with features perhaps worth copying.

(In defence of tinkering AND Dan: I made myself a W.A. 6x9 scale-focus camera on a rainy Sunday a few years back. In that case I wanted to save money and make something light, cheap, but good, compact and user servicable. Cost me perhaps $200 in stuff I had and 5 hours of my time, vs the cost of e.g. a Fuji GSW or Hassy SWC.)