expanding back from camera ( small ) to mate with back ( bigger )

[jnantz]

thanks for the suggestion randy
but i would rather not do something irreversible ..

[Michael Dodd]

Foam core and tape????? Cut foam core to make your adapter seal with tape. will it be strong enough to move a film holder??

[jnantz]

thanks michael
i was thinking of pumbers putty ( dense hard putty that doesn't dry out ) but this morning
i had an epiphany and now i am leaning towards corrugated cardboard
it is more rigid than foam core and easy to make an adapter just like
you described i have extra box board from a stalled corrugated cardboard camera case
i started making last spring but didn't manage to finish.

[Drew Bedo]

What about that black rubbery liquid stuff they sell on TV?

Or the aerosol foam gap filler (also sold on TV)?

[jnantz]

i thought about that stuff too, but worried it would acutally be permanent or hard to remove
i'd like to keep using the camera with a variety of backs, and the back ( i am trying to double duty )
with the camera it originally came with. if i had a random back and a camera to afix it to permentantly
i wouldn't hesitate to use that rubbery or goopy stuff. i was also thnking of that stuff they use inside
head-neck yokes so you can sleep on a plane/in a car...

[Drew Bedo]

Think about this: First off apply furniture wax to the wood, "Mask" off the wood parts with heavy food wrap film. Pieces of wide masking tape may have a part to play some how too.

Somebody else with real-world experience please chime in here. I would hate for him to wreck a fine camera just on my coffee-driven ravings.

[jnantz]

no worries drew
i think i have settled on a cardboard adapter i make by hand. it willbe stiff enough
i'm used to working in cardboard anyways, and its kind of funny after making cameras, backs paper holders and all sorts
of other stuff out of cardboard, i never thought of making a splayed back out of it too.

[jnantz]

well, its been 5 months and i never finished this project.
it's added to the list...


thanks again for your inputs, and in case anyone else has a centuray 8 and thinks a century empire state will fit it
it won't ...

[Harold_4074]

John,

I wish I had seen this thread when it was current. If I understand your problem, you want something to fill the space between the components and sort of "key" them together--reversibly. The other day, I was in a TAP Plastics store and saw what I think was an addition-cure silicone putty. This is pretty much the same thing that dentists use for precise impressions, and I have used the metrology version for making otherwise awkward measurements of mechanical parts. It is a two-part system that you knead together into a fairly stiff putty; if you made a temporary dam out of cardboard, you could fill a channel, press the two camera parts together, and then trim the resulting "spacer". The putty is nontoxic (duh...), doesn't seem to stick to anything, and being an addition-cure polymer doesn't release acetic acid or anything else as it cures.

Good luck!

Harold

[LabRat]

Hi John!!!

Expansion backs are made for different cameras, but the big downside is that if you use the rear movements, they will be way off axis, throwing off that feature... Field cameras are usually not really strong on the rear, and the extra cantilevered weight from the extension + handling forces on the rear creates strain there...

I think the wise way to do this is to think of the Sinar middle standard scheme, where the camera rear would have a MS adapter connected to a bellows, that would extend to the larger back, and all this would ride on a monorail so the different stages could be moved where they would work well, so they will be well supported, individual stages could have their own adjustment, and the whole rig can be balanced well depending where the tripod makes connection to the common monorail adapter... Not the cheapest way (as you are basically adding another camera rear to your camera), but can maintain all functions if done right...

If you install a larger box behind your camera with the larger back, that could work... (Using the existing baffle step/mounting pins would not need tape/glue/sealants , just clip on...)

There are other ways, including just getting a larger camera, but with some excess of camera junk around???

Muse, muse, muse...

Steve K