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Thread: Homebuilt LF cameras

  1. #1

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    Just curious as to how many of you, like myself, enjoy designing and building th e large format cameras that we photograph with. I build mine not from kits, but from scratch sometimes using components from oth er cameras such as filmbacks, monocular viewers etc. Just curious as to how many other LF photmasochists are out there.

    Bob Parsons

  2. #2

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    "Just curious as to how many other LF photmasochists are out there."

    Bob, we are all LF enthusiasts - that by itself makes ALL of us photomasochists (a term I use whenver I think of picking up one of my backpacks) of one sort or another.

    Tony

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Jan 1998
    Posts
    262

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    Tony, I know what you mean, but the awful truth is that you do not know photomasochism until you have built your very own 4x17 pinhole camera that uses what you think might be some kind of X-Ray film from the former Soviet Union that you bought on ebay and have no idea in the world how to expose or develop, and turns out to be completely insensitive to any shade of green. That's masochism! (No, I haven't done this, but my dad did. He's getting pretty good with that camera, too!)

  4. #4
    multiplex
    Join Date
    Feb 2001
    Location
    local
    Posts
    5,358

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    hi bob

    i have been building a 8x20 camera off and on. this is the first one i have built, it is inspired by the mandelette post card cameras if the 1920s ( so i can load it up with a handful of film/paper and store the exposed "stuff" without holders, and without having to go back to a darkroom over and over again ..

    if you don't already know about this group, check out:

    http://rmp.opusis.com/pipermail/cameramakers/

    they make and use cameras too ..

    cheers

  5. #5

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    Bob, I know the feeling, I live and breath this stuff. If I don't have a camera project to work on, I don't know what to do with myself. Sometimes I think I'd rather play with equipment than take pictures. After building a 12x20 monorail camera from scratch, I constructed a 4x5 super wide camera, complete with home-made bag bellows. I also built an 8x10 Bender kit, but that's another story. I recently made a rotating 11x14 back for the 12x20 and have ordered film that should arrive by the end of this week. Between projects, I managed to put together some web pages with details and pictures. You may be interested, the URL is: http://home.earthlink.net/~samfidget/

  6. #6
    Yes, but why? David R Munson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 1999
    Location
    Saitama, Japan
    Posts
    1,494

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    I've built a number of cameras but more than that have modified or simply taken apart a whole bunch...my next adventure is going to be trying to fix the shutter on an old folding polaroid camera. I love screwing around with that kind of stuff. While I'm at school, though, I don't have acces to a workshop, so I have to content myself with drawing up plans (if anyone's interested, I've recently drawn up pretty complete plans for a 5x7 field). One of these days I plan on building a 7x17, but that won't be for a while.

  7. #7
    Yes, but why? David R Munson's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 1999
    Location
    Saitama, Japan
    Posts
    1,494

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    Forgot to mention that while I was home for spring break last week I mad a new bag bellows for my Linhof with excellent results....not a hard project to tackle and it saved me several hundred dollars.

  8. #8

    Join Date
    Dec 2001
    Location
    San Joaquin Valley, California
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    9,599

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    Bob, I recycled one of the boxes my computer came in into a 12x20 pinhole. I hope to build another out of wood someday.
    "I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority"---EB White

  9. #9

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    I am constantly amazed by how resourceful and mechanically proficient the members of this forum are.

    I read many posts that go something like, "I was hiking when I found that the neighbor's child had used a hole-puncher to aerate the bellows on my 8x10, so I used some pebbles and a swizzle stick to repair the thing in the field. It's better than new, now."

    I wish that I had that kind of ability, but I have a hard time getting the plastic seal off of a jar of peanut butter, let alone building LF cameras.

  10. #10

    Homebuilt LF cameras

    Bob

    I think building cameras is just a natural extention of the craft of LF and a lot of us build them to suit our tastes and wallets.

    I shoot panoramas and had to modify an enlarger to take the long negs which are 2 x 13" long. Having done that I thought, why not a camera to max out the enlarger which is 4x13. I dug out some 3mm cardboard and leftovers from making bellows and other bits and taped and glued a camera together, cost me just under $10 (already had a lens) and it shoots incredible negs. I should point out here it's a single shot point and shoot inspired by Gordon Marks Hobo.

    I'm also part way through building a giant swing lens camera, takes a 16 x 48" neg, should be finished later this year.

    The good thing about building your own gear is there's no rules....build them to suit yourself.

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