Hello,
I wanted to share my latest build, which is a foldable 14x17 camera, with a 11x14 reducing back.
Along with it, I also made 4 filmholders per format, and a tripod.
All wood is walnut and the shiny bits are aluminium. The bellows are made out of the Thorlabs BK5 fabric with paper stiffeners, phosphor bronze for the leaf springs and light trap in the filmholders, and there is a carbon fiber rod in the bellows support.
Linear bearings and a lead screw move the front standard for fine focusing and semi-hidden linear bearings allow rough focusing with the rear standard.
Plenty of neodymium magnets hold various (re)movable parts in place.
The dark slides and septums are Garolite.
Total bellows draw is ~42" and it can focus a 355mm lens down to infinity without the bed appearing in the picture.
The camera weights about 19 lbs. and the tripod 10 lbs. Both seem sturdy. At this size, it's amazing to see the laws of mechanical leverage in action ;-)
The film holders weight 3 lbs 6 oz and 2 lbs 7 oz respectively.
It took me way too many hours to build it, many things didn't work out as planned (especially the folding mechanism and the sagging bellows) but all in all, I'm happy with it.
I still have to make bags for all of it and of course, take a picture with it.
Let me know what you think.
Thanks
JP
(pardon the too many pictures in too many replies)
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