Moulded carbon fibre folding field 4x5

[barnacle]

Morning All,

I'm getting to the end of the design phase for - as the title - a carbon fibre moulded camera. This is based largely on a previous wooden prototype which was built mostly to find out what will work... here are the headlines:

• Folding 4x5 camera
• Tilting rear
• Slide carrier clock mounts in portrait or landscape mode
• Spring mounted ground glass, negative holder slides in between it and the slide carrier
• Single extension to about 350-400mm
• Rack and pinion focus
• Front standard tilts, folds back to fold the camera (while lens swings forwards)
• Lens remains attached during folding, if it fits through an 80mm hole
• Front standard offers minimum tilt and vertical shift, yaw and sideways shift if desired
• Custom Bellows tapered bellows
• 100mm x 100mm lens board

To make the carbon fibre moulded parts (i.e. everything that isn't cut from flat sheet) is not straight forwards: you need to start with a model of the part you need, from which you take a mould; you then make the CF part in the mould, ideally with added vacuum. To add to the complications, there are parts which must have an exact thickness and parts which must slide within each other.

I haven't yet made the models, let alone the moulds, nor considered all the fine detail about the fixtures and fittings, but it would be nice to post some .dxf files; sadly the forum doesn't appear to allow it. Posting png files seems to restrict the size, which defeats the object a bit - can anyone suggest the best way to publish the drawings? I suppose if the worst comes to the worst, I'll have to build a web page.

Neil

[B.S.Kumar]

Google Drive? or a file sending service like YouSendIt? Upload the files and share the link here.

Kumar

[koh303]

Do you mean you will make this again?

[vinny]

use linhof sized lens boards.
make it weigh less than the chamonix 45n-2.
have you seen what gibellini is doing with carbon fiber? Maybe he can help.

[Bob Salomon]

Why would you make a camera that would be this expensive? Especially if it does not have full movements? Exactly what benefit, as a functioning camera would it offer over a TechnikKardan or say a Canham. What is the target price point? What about front and rear swings? And what is "clock"?

[Jody_S]

can anyone suggest the best way to publish the drawings? I suppose if the worst comes to the worst, I'll have to build a web page.

Neil

Dropbox allows you to generate a link for either a file or a directory. Anyone who clicks on the link has access, but it's not visible to the bots (google, etc).

[barnacle]

@Bob, mostly, but to all, really!

'clock', er I think I meant 'click' but even that doesn't mean what I meant: the rear standard has three parts: the case, the carrier that holds the dark slide and the ground glass, and the ground glass itself. The carrier may be mounted in either portrait or landscape direction, but held on with thumbscrews (so it's not an immediate swap but can be performed reasonably quickly on shoot).

Cost is immaterial; this isn't a commercial project, just an amusement for myself and anyone else who cares to try it. It's not designed to have a full range of movements because my photography tends to landscape and architectural; it's a field camera. For full movements, I'd build (or buy) a monorail camera. My aim is for lightness and portability, hence the requirement for folding. The only rear movement is the tilt which comes automatically from the folding hinge; at the front there's a full set though front drop is very limited.

At a guess, it would offer no advantages at all over any commercial camera, except to me...

Neil

[AuditorOne]

That looks pretty neat. I have never seen one like that. What is it called?

Do you mean you will make this again?

[koh303]

It was called carbon infinity.
It is a cool yet not very practical camera, and the makers never made it very far as the cost was way to high to justify it. Only a few hundred ever made.

[djdister]

One or two Carbon Infinity were sold through this forum.... http://www.largeformatphotography.in...arbon+infinity