Making my own 5x7 camera. HELP!

[Michael Cienfuegos]

You might want to check out this link. Some photographers in Kabul, Afghanistan have been making this type of camera. Here is a link: http://www.afghanboxcamera.com/abcp_...howtobuild.htm

Hope this helps.

[Jim Jones]

. . . I'm curious as to how important it is to have the film plane perfectly parallel to the lens board. How drastically will the focus be affective if the film is tilted, say, 5 degrees. . . .

Five degrees tilt is a lot. Careful use of basic tools should permit less than one degree error. The negative carrier should move freely, but with very little play, on its rails. The round rails in Michael's link may be more difficult to make work well than wooden rails screwed to the side of the box. More important is any difference between the positions of ground glass and negative. This tolerance is typically a few thousands of an inch in large format photography. The thickness of ordinary single strength window glass in America is about 1/10 inch. Glass from small picture frames is slightly thinner. If the negative is displaced 1/10 inch, and the lens has an aperture of f/8, a point of light sharply focused on the ground glass will be blurred 1/80 inch. This will be noticable to a critical observer. If the ground surface of the ground glass is towards the lens, the only difference between the focal points on ground glass and negative will be the thickness of the paper and any seperation between paper and glass. The thickness of paper introduces a negligable error if the paper is held flat against the ground glass.

Perhaps a better solution is to have the ground surface facing away from the lens, and the negative pressed firmly against it for exposure. If the texture of the ground glass is as fine as that of good camera ground glasses, it may not show in the image. There may be a loss of contrast, which isn't necessarily bad when using paper negatives. I haven't tried this. A little experimenting is in order before final design and construction is done. There may also be a problem with flare unless the interior of the box is painted black.

[Roger Thoms]

Definitely keep posting, very interesting, been a lot of press about Afgan box cameras lately, if fact my girlfriend emailed me a link and wants me to build one.

Roger

Hey y'all. So construction is underway. Yes, I'm using nails, lol.

Here's what I came up with:

Attachment 70260

It's close to 24 inches long about about 12 inches tall and wide.

There are currently three holes in the box. You can see two in the photo. The one on the right/front is the lens hole, the one on the side is the access hole to move the focus plane. There's a third in the back opposite the lens hole. It's traditionally a door that opens for focusing. I'm making it a sleeve just like the side hole traditionally is.

The film/paper carrier will be a modified picture frame. I bought a 5x7 wooden frame that I'm going to cut to a size that fits in the camera. I took the glass out the frame and acid etched it to turn it into a ground glass. For those of you who are interested in acid etching this type of glass, leave the paste on for 5-8 minutes, not the recommended 1 minute. I know acid etching is not a good way to make ground glass, but it will work for my purposes.

What you can't see in this picture is the rails that run along the inside. The ground glass/film carrier deal sit atop and slide along those rails. You can see part of it through that side whole. Under those rails sits three things: the developer tray, the fix tray and the box of photo paper.

I'm not sure if anyone cares to read about my progress, but I'll probably keep posting things here. As I said, I'm heading to a camera swap on Saturday and I'm hoping to pick up a lens for this beast. My next goal is to make the film carrier thing. After that, I'll be added the collapsible copy stand to the bottom of the camera and hopefully added the lens soon!

Wish me luck!

[Marc B.]

CK,
Yes, please do keep us updated on your progress. I find DIY projects like yours very interesting.

One aspect of the Afghan camera videos I found clunky/antiquated, was all of the tripod repositioning
that was needed to acheive initial distance to subject.

For your first attempts with the camera, maybe using a wheeled cart might be helpful in determining this
optimum camera-to-subject distance, distance dependent on your final lens choice of course.
Something similar to an old wheeled tea cart, or a butler/busboy cart.

Once the distance is determined, attach a thin piece of measured rope or twine to the camera at one end,
and a bauble at the other end, to draw taut to the subjects nose or forehead for use as a distance scale.

Marc

[ckpj99]

So I'm in the final stretch now. I'm placing an order for everything else I need tomorrow.

Here's a list of final things to do, in order:
Fine sand entire camera
Install tripod mount
Paint inside black
Stain outside (possibly clear coat as well)
Install lens
Install sleeves
Install trays and paper box

My three most recent achievements are acquiring my lens from the camera swap I mentioned early (along with an orange and red filter), installing the copy stand, and finishing the ground glass/film carrier.

Here's the lens:



It's a Schneider Symmar 210mm f/5.6. I bought it for about $200, which I think it pretty good. It came mounted in a Sinar plate.

The copy stand was pretty simple when it came down to it. I installed it on the bottom of the camera creating a big slot for it to slide in and out of. Here it is in position.



It's a very snug fit, but it can be entirely removed. It can be pushed close the lens for transport (or turned around and inserted from the rear). When shooting the first image, it can simply be turned upside down. As shown here:

[ckpj99]

The paper/negative carry and ground glass thingy was more difficult. I initially wanted a carrier that could be turned horizontal and vertical, but that ended up being a engineering nightmare if I were to stick with the pre-made frame as a base. I ended up going with a horizontal format. I figure, I can always just make another one of the these.





Here it is "installed" in the camera.



And here's a dark, bad image of what the image looks like projected on the ground glass. Keep in mind, this is a bad picture.



I'm hoping to be putting the finishing touches on the thing by Sunday. I can't wait to try it out.

Some technical notes: almost all of this wood is 1/2 inch thick, laminated birch. It's the type that would be used for cabinets. All joints are nailed and glued with wood glue (except the copy stand bracket on the bottom of the camera which is screwed in place). I used a lot of wood glue and wood filler to seal the gaps between pieces of wood. I'll be using a dark English Walnut stain on it.

[dhaerud]

How did this turn out?

i am working on a box camera my self and have now come to the part where i need to decide what lens and the size of my plate. any suggestions?