What to build next?

[Fr. Mark]

ULF'ers,

Has anyone ever built an ULF SLR or TLR? I was thinking that 8x10 was enough and that whole plate was really ideal, but over the years several interesting pieces of gear have come my way that beg to be made into ULF cameras.

It started with a projector lens f3.6 cooke triplet 457 (18") that I built a couple fairly crude 8x10's around.

I decided I didn't much like meniscus lenses, but they really aren't that bad stopped down enough and they are inexpensive and someone gave me an iris from a theater light and I mated it to a lens board for my 8x10 field camera I restored so now I could have aperture control with those w/o waterhouse stops like the projector lens requires.

More recently, I was given 1 and bought 1 graphic arts lenses a Nikon 480mm f9 and a Goerz Artar red dot f11 450mm and I was able to get the bellows from one of the graphic arts cameras.

The bellows needs to become a field camera. Probably with the 480 mm lens.

The projector lens and the artar are close enough that they might make a good TLR, f3.6 is not a bad focusing lens aperture with a ground glass screen hood. if I could figure out how to handle film and where to store a nearly refrigerator sized box and how to transport the camera. It would probably need integral legs/wheels (and step ladder?). I see that Ilford is still making rolls of printing paper in several widths. with a suitable backing and a red window a simple film transport might not be altogether nuts. I might have to cut the roll apart to process it. at 20" squares that'd be around $5/exposure for film, and printing paper doesn't get me into contact prints with UV processes. Hm. I might have to make my own film rolls. The typical 12 exposures in a TLR would only require 20 feet of film...A packard shutter wouldn't increase the weight much. The things people will consider to avoid making film holders!

[Tin Can]

Can we assume you are no longer working for a living?

I am now 12 years retired and cannot figure out how I ever had time to work, commute, a social life

and 2 wives, now passed

I am now going into double lockdown and not going anywhere for the duration

Summer is now my plan, good luck to us all

[Mark Sampson]

Cambo made some 4x5 TLRs, Peter Gowland did too. There are plenty of 5x7 Graflex SLRs, most notably the Home Portrait model; and there are stories that Graflex made a few 8x10 SLRs. I think a matched set of focal lengths would be necessary for a TLR... but a ULF SLR seems like a bridge too far.

[Fr. Mark]

Tin Can,
Not working for a living? haha, no. I'm the pastor of a church and have another f/t job. Family: a wife, 4 children 3 grown but on is finishing high school. I got a lot more done on photography when I had a darkroom in the basement and less pastoral care/work responsibility. Still, like I said elsewhere, it was hard to pass up collecting this gear that might otherwise have gone in a dumpster. the ULF TLR idea is probably a silly fantasy. I seem to recall that someone, Peter Gowland?, had made ?4x5? TLR's and I've seen somewhere else that someone made one from lots of Sinar Norma or P parts. A 20x20" TLR is probably a solution for a problem that doesn't exist, but it is fun to think about. I'd also thought that a ULF SLR along the lines Hassy model would be "fun" too.

[Bob Salomon]

Tin Can,
Not working for a living? haha, no. I'm the pastor of a church and have another f/t job. Family: a wife, 4 children 3 grown but on is finishing high school. I got a lot more done on photography when I had a darkroom in the basement and less pastoral care/work responsibility. Still, like I said elsewhere, it was hard to pass up collecting this gear that might otherwise have gone in a dumpster. the ULF TLR idea is probably a silly fantasy. I seem to recall that someone, Peter Gowland?, had made ?4x5? TLR's and I've seen somewhere else that someone made one from lots of Sinar Norma or P parts. A 20x20" TLR is probably a solution for a problem that doesn't exist, but it is fun to think about. I'd also thought that a ULF SLR along the lines Hassy model would be "fun" too.

Gowland made one. LInhof had an accessory to turn a 45 Technika into one and, with accessories, could convert the Kardan B and later models into one, except for the L standard models.

[Jody_S]

If I were going to build something interesting, it would be an 8x10 focal plane shutter, electronic speed control using solenoids to release 1st and 2nd curtains, loosely modeled after the Barnack Leica shutter except of course it wouldn't need to be self-capping and the 2 curtains could be individually wound with a crank.

[Fr. Mark]

Maybe this should be a separate thread, but if I built a ULF camera in the 20x24 class, thinking landscapes and portraits, what movements would y’all say are needed? Rise fall, and back tilt? Or also front tilt, and swing? For the tilts, from film and lens center or base of standard? How do you handle adjustments that are out of reach w/o an assistant? I’ve got more than 4 feet of bellows and a desire to use a 1000mm meniscus lens if I do this.

[Tin Can]

Weight and stability in wind will be big factors

In studio you want a stand that can move the entire camera up and down about 4 ft

In the wild a wheelbarrow design may be useful with a crew

TLR is too much stuff, a calibrated RF may be interesting

Don't forget a way to test with tiny 8X10 film

Very interesting project

[jmdavis]

11x14, 7x17, 8x20 and 12x20 are the ULF formats that I find most interesting. Especially since Xray is available in 7x17 and 11x14 currently. Both of those formats would be doable with some minor rearranging of my 5x7' darkroom. anything longer or wider would be an issue. But what is your vision?

[domaz]

If I were going to build something interesting, it would be an 8x10 focal plane shutter, electronic speed control using solenoids to release 1st and 2nd curtains, loosely modeled after the Barnack Leica shutter except of course it wouldn't need to be self-capping and the 2 curtains could be individually wound with a crank.

I suspect it would be extremely difficult to improve on the standard focal plane cloth shutter design. You could use timed solenoids for the slow speeds and replace the timing escapement (as the electronic shutters do), but the other basic parts would probably be fairly similar.

[Fr. Mark]

My vision? Tough. I’m trying to decide what the compelling reason is to do ULF when 8x10 or cropped 8x10 seems like plenty most of the time.

[Tin Can]

The mountain is the thing

[Jody_S]

I suspect it would be extremely difficult to improve on the standard focal plane cloth shutter design. You could use timed solenoids for the slow speeds and replace the timing escapement (as the electronic shutters do), but the other basic parts would probably be fairly similar.

No need to re-invent the wheel. 1930s focal plane shutters are excellent, they only need a reliable timing mechanism for longer shutter speeds. Hence the electronically-controlled solenoids I proposed.

[Fr. Mark]

Once upon a time, maybe 5-6 years ago I rescued a 1/2 plate camera from craigslist and restored it. One of the included items was an early shutter to be used behind the rapid rectilinear lens. It worked a lot like a roller blind when you let go of it and it suddenly rolls itself up. In this case the blind material was opaque and had a round window in it. But you could use the same thing with a rectangular window for a focal plane shutter. But what is the attraction of a focal plane shutter anyway when you could have a lens shutter or a Sinar shutter or just flick 2 pieces of opaque material past the lens (the Galli shutter)?

[ic-racer]

The focus error for 8x10 is at least ten times that of a medium format camera.

With a series of gears, I don't see why it would not be possible for the "FOCUS" lens of an 8x10 TLR to be a much shorter focal length than the main lens. For example, with the correct math and gearing I'd think that an 80mm lens from a medium format TLR could be geared or cam'd to match the focus of a 300mm 8x10 main lens. That could make the whole contraption very reasonably sized. Maybe even portable.