Arca Irish 8x10*

[Henry Suryo]

Wow, Joseph, that is beautifully done, congratulations! The bellows look great, too! Enjoy the camera and the new format. Thanks for sharing the pics.

[Mark Sampson]

Very elegant photographs of the process and the finished camera too- a beautiful presentation. Based on those, I'm looking forward to seeing photographs made with the camera.

[lenny8513]

Great works

[John Schneider]

That's an impressive example of woodworking.

What did you use for the dovetail rail at the bottom of the 8x10 back? Is it a cannibalized Arca part or was it made from scratch?

[spiky247]

wonderful! the illustration photos were beautiful too! One day I wish to also build a camera for my self :-)

[jb7]

Thank you all again for all the nice comments-

John, the dovetail was cut from a piece of aluminium extrusion using a circular saw-
not the correct circular saw either,
so it needed a lot of patience, steadiness, ear defenders, and about three attempts.

It's not the most beautiful thing in the world, but it works-

It's made in two parts, the dovetail itself is cut from 4mm section,
and seems to be one of the strong alloys;
the angle is from 1/16th".







I've added to the project since this, so I might add a few more pictures soon-

Thanks again-


joseph

[jb7]

Time to wrap this up, I think-
I did mention that I'd be adding to this thread, that it wasn't finished yet-
so here it is- last post-

At some point in the future, I might get a backpack for the camera,
perhaps a large Alice pack...

But for the moment, wheels are the answer-




Mary Poppins goes Large...

The case is a Stanley Rolling tool case-
the camera fitted quite well, and there was room for film holders, film, lenses, meter, filters, darkcloth-
pretty much everything really-
I fitted some padded dividers-



However, the plastic lid was a bit ridiculous, occupying part of the interior of the case, making it quite useless.
It was almost a deal breaker- but I decided to make a custom lid for it,
mainly because the extra height made it worthwhile-

I've used the camera a few times now, and I've used the case to stand on for most of the pictures so far...





The extending metal handle makes the case ride too tall,
and isn't comfortable, so I added an extension to suit my height-
now it just tags along behind me.

It isn't perfect, it's very loud for one thing-
I could really use some pneumatic tyres-
The tripod makes it a bit top heavy too, though the balance and weight can be helped by extending the head out the back-

Like any photographic project, I could improve it by spending a lot of money-
a nice carbon tripod would help-

Anyway, that's it-
there are other parts to this diy project, but they're in the darkroom, and don't really belong in this section- although it's all the same project to me-

Thanks for looking, apologies for the bump-
won't do it again, promise...

joseph

[C. D. Keth]

That looks awesome, Joseph. I'm glad my little groundglass write up helped.

[Turner Reich]

This project is inspiring Joseph, can you estimate how much the camera weights, it looks like you have a 410 tripod head, how is that working for you?

tr

[jb7]

Thanks Turner, funny to see this one back-

I did weigh it, it's 4,070g, inc. 450mm telescoping rail, without lens or board-
I'm not sure how that would compare to the Arca,
but I would imagine it's similar-

My 410 head has been through a lot, the gears are worn,
and there's excessive play- more than can be adjusted out by tightening the bolts.
I removed the gearsets completely and rotated them to a fresh position,
and it made it slightly better, but it isn't an 8x10 head-

A brand new one would be better, obviously-

It's just about ok for 4x5, but I've since got an old Gitzo 3 way head for this thing...
not as portable, but solid-