12"x12" Camera Build

[woodbox]

Hello!!!

Here is that tripod head you asked about... (From right here in the classifieds)

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...t=graflex+head

Easy enough!!!

On the tripod;

Having some independent leg movement will help a lot while trying to level the rig (as your head does not have side tilt) if the ground is uneven...

Also, on the lensboard holder;

It looks a little small, (4"X4"???) if you find some big glass later...

But by all means, Carry On!!!!!

Steve K

I considered doing something like that tilting head, in fact it was the only simple way I could think of until I saw the other design. I'll try it out. Looks easy enough. Thanks for the info!

Regarding the lensboard, I think it's 5"x5", but that's an Industar 37 you see on there. Not a tiny lens. I have a 6.5" cinephor on my 4x5 camera and it's quite a bit larger diameter than the Industar-37, but it would still fit on this lensboard.

It seems like almost anything that doesn't have a giant flange on it will fit. And I've definitely seen some period lenses with giant flanges, but I aint shelling out the $$$ for them. Long story short, I considered the size of the lensboard, and figured this was plenty big for any lenses I'd likely be buying.

Industar-37:


By the way, that tripod does have adjustable legs. I just caught that maybe you're thinking it doesn't.

[Mark Sawyer]

Regarding the lensboard, I think it's 5"x5", but that's an Industar 37 you see on there. Not a tiny lens. I have a 6.5" cinephor on my 4x5 camera and it's quite a bit larger diameter than the Industar-37, but it would still fit on this lensboard.

It seems like almost anything that doesn't have a giant flange on it will fit. And I've definitely seen some period lenses with giant flanges, but I aint shelling out the $$$ for them...

I have a number of lenses that won't fit on a 6x6, and they're not all high priced. 18-inch f/3.75 triplet projection lenses are fairly common and usually in the $50-$100 range, but the barrel itself is almost 6 inches in diameter. If you go with a common studio camera size like 9x9, you may also someday have the opportunity to borrow other lenses...

[woodbox]

I have a number of lenses that won't fit on a 6x6, and they're not all high priced. 18-inch f/3.75 triplet projection lenses are fairly common and usually in the $50-$100 range, but the barrel itself is almost 6 inches in diameter. If you go with a common studio camera size like 9x9, you may also someday have the opportunity to borrow other lenses...

Well, if the intention here is to leave a written record for someone in the future making a similar camera, then by all means make sure you don't need a larger lensboard futureboy. I didn't need one, I won't need one, and it's too late even if I did. I'm confident this camera will be killer with lenses that can fit on a 5"x5" lensboard (edit: you know I think my lensboard is actually 6"x6" anyways just in looking at the photos again)

BTW, I had one of those fast 18" triplet projection lenses, and it was very large, and I was considering using it for this camera, but I eventually talked to someone who had used one and they said it wasn't a very good taking lens. So at that point I started looking elsewhere, and everything else I was interested in was a lot smaller.

I even sewed up this crazy leather flange for it because I thought it would look cool:

[woodbox]

I got the camera "finished" this weekend, and I'm really in awe of how it turned out. It's the first time it's all been put together at once, and it's better than I ever imagined. And the view through the lens is amazing.

I think the only thing I'm going to change on the camera is that I'm going to remove the "Guerry Flap Shutter". It works perfectly (and it was a small engineering feat), I'm happy with how it turned out, but now that I've got it all put together I've got a nagging "why did I do that?" feeling. It's not necessary at all (I can just remove the lens cap), and more moving parts means more things that can break in the field. The good news is that I built it so it could be removed, in case I ended up not wanting it, so it's simply a matter of unscrewing it from the inside. I've got a small hole in the front of the camera for the button, but I've got an old bridle rosette that will cover the hole nicely and should look pretty sweet anyways.

The other thing I'm definitely changing is the tilt head on the tripod. This camera is too much for the original head design. I need a more stable base, so I'm going with that old design that was recommended, except in lieu of friction knobs I'm trying out a ratcheting table support to hold the tilt.






More photos here: http://postimg.org/gallery/2jigq5xhq/

[barnacle]

That's looking really very nice. Any chance of a close-up of the ground glass/dark slide holder mechanism (the ali and springs)? I'm curious as to how it works.

With regard to the extra hole: plug the lens space and use it as a pinhole... <grin, duck, run>

Neil

[woodbox]

That's looking really very nice. Any chance of a close-up of the ground glass/dark slide holder mechanism (the ali and springs)? I'm curious as to how it works.

With regard to the extra hole: plug the lens space and use it as a pinhole... <grin, duck, run>

Neil

I can take some closeups, but it's pretty much a copy of this design, so you can see how it works here: http://cdtp-photography.blogspot.com...t-film_25.html

The main difference is that the ends of his levers that hit the back of the camera just kind of drag along, and I put wheels on mine. That seems more logical and easier on the parts to me, in the long run. Plus the wheels allow it to slide sideways whilst lifting so the whole thing remains centered. I thought a long while about how I would make it stop/hold once it was at the maximum distance and it turned out to not be a problem, even with the wheels. I tightened the bolts at the pivot point down so much that there's a lot of friction, and that holds it in place so I can let go and slide in the plate holder. In other words, it doesn't snap closed accidentally if I let go of the handle.

BTW, in a few of the pics posted above which show the back of the camera, I didn't have the handle installed, so that may be a little confusing.

[blindpig]

Really good design and well thought out(love the simplicity)and well executed.I sympathize with your mounting problem and had similar results with a 14"X 14" sliding box camera I built and resorted to a hinged mount for stability.
Good job,hope you take many great photos with it....

[barnacle]

Gotcha, thanks for that. Bit complex for my 4x5 variant. Have fun with it!

Neil

[woodbox]

I whipped up a new tilt mechanism for the camera. Inside the box there's a ratcheting table support that holds the tilt (and is rated for 200+ lbs). The hinge on the front is a heavy duty commercial door hinge, and I put a rotary draw latch on the back so when it's not tilted, it's all locked down tight. There's no wobble anywhere. I tried it out on the tripod and camera last night and it's totally stable. It makes the overall camera setup look a little clunky (now it's sitting on two boxes instead of one, so it kind of looks like an afterthought). Oh well. It should work great. Thanks for the suggestion. If I could go back I would have built this system into the rail.

[woodbox]

Also, a sneak peak at my portable dark room (work in progress):



The portable darkroom is super light (most of it is 1/8" plywood that is practically balsa), will have a ton of working space, it's got a rubylith 8x10 window, and a 12v ventilation system so it can run off a battery (and I'll probably buy a solar panel for it someday). And I'm building a mini swamp cooler to hook up to it. When I started building this it was like 95 degrees outside and I thought "I can't imagine working in this thing sitting out in the sun in the middle of the summer without some sort of cooling system" It should make it at least 10-15 degrees cooler inside the darkroom than outside on most days, which will be nice.