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DaveTheWalker
4-Oct-2010, 05:13
Hello all,

I thought I'd show the fruits of my labours over the last few months. I've only had occasional evenings and weekends, so it's taken a while... and the decision to use a high-gloss red paint, and round off all the edges significantly lengthened the timescales!

Still, after all the gluing, sanding, drilling, priming, sanding, priming, sanding, painting, sanding, painting, screwing and gluing and here we are!

I can't wait to get started with my first steps into Large Format.

Comments welcome, bearing in mind that it's my first ever camera build(!)

Cheers,
Dave

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4112/5047495007_ae2af6680d_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/5047494463_92a70ea92a_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/5048117262_4f2448768e_b.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/5047494775_52c2b65c70_b.jpg

ic-racer
4-Oct-2010, 05:31
Wow, looks fantastic!

Scott Walker
4-Oct-2010, 05:49
Very cool, I like the rounded edges & bright color. Have you put any film through it yet?

DaveTheWalker
4-Oct-2010, 06:02
Thanks guys, I appreciate it!

I haven't put any film through it yet (only finished gluing the bellows yesterday), but hopefully next weekend, if the weather stays nice.

I'll be sure to keep the forum posted with any photos once I get them developed.

Thanks again,
Dave

domaz
4-Oct-2010, 08:23
It looks nice- but I think you need a new lens. The Tominon won't cover 4x5 at infinity!

DaveTheWalker
4-Oct-2010, 08:36
Hi Domaz,

There seemed to be some conflicting information about this lens when I was looking around about whether it would cover 4x5 or not.

Actually, it does seem to cover 4x5... But maybe not with movements. I'll report back with any progress once I've seen what it can (and can't) do.

Thanks for your comments,
Dave

BetterSense
4-Oct-2010, 09:27
I have a tominon lens that looks like that, and it does cover 4x5 at infinity. At least mine does.

DaveTheWalker
5-Oct-2010, 00:51
Thanks BetterSense, that's reassuring! :)

Cor
5-Oct-2010, 04:21
Nice job, and a non-standard colour, it will attract spectators if you shoot outside!

What is the maximum bellows draw, it looks a bit limited?

Best,

Cor

DaveTheWalker
5-Oct-2010, 04:46
Thanks Cor,

I will certainly be shooting outside - that was partly why I picked 2 coats of glossy paint... just in case I get caught in a shower! MDF without paint wouldn't behave very well(!)

I shall expect spectators.... good call.

The maximum bellows draw as it stands is 155mm, so my 127mm should be fine. Also, the beauty of a home-build is that I could extend that in future if I needed to, with a new base-piece. I'll keep the tins of paint ;o)

Dave

John Conway
5-Oct-2010, 17:59
That is a very cool little camera.Nice job

Vaughn
5-Oct-2010, 18:32
Very cool indeed! Cool with a hot paint job!

Have fun!

Vaughn

ic-racer
6-Oct-2010, 06:55
Hi Domaz,

There seemed to be some conflicting information about this lens when I was looking around about whether it would cover 4x5 or not.

Actually, it does seem to cover 4x5... But maybe not with movements. I'll report back with any progress once I've seen what it can (and can't) do.

Thanks for your comments,
Dave


If you are new to Large Format, you will soon find out that the image circle chages quite a bit as you focus. It gets much bigger for close objects. So, around the house the coverage may be adequate. If you cut out the corners of the ground glass it lets you look in there and tell if your picture is going to have cut-off corners before you take the picture.

DaveTheWalker
6-Oct-2010, 07:24
Good tip, ic-racer, thanks for that. The ground glass already has cut-off corners, so that's a really useful thing to know.

I'll get the hang of all this stuff one day ;o)

Drew Bedo
6-Oct-2010, 07:44
Very nice job on the camera!

How was your experience with the kit? Were there any problems in assembly, iclear instructions, dificulty finishing and so on . . .please tell us a little of that story.

Mike Anderson
6-Oct-2010, 14:06
Really cool. The colors are great.

...Mike

DaveTheWalker
7-Oct-2010, 05:16
Thanks again for all your encouraging comments, everyone!

Drew - a little of "the story":

The kit itself arrived in a very unassuming white box and was basically two large pieces of LASER-cut MDF, a piece of ground-glass, a pinhole in a lens panel, some instructions and a bag of bits.

The first thing I did was "pop" all the pieces out of the MDF sheets. All was going well, and I had all the pieces free, but I needed to break out the little hole-fillers that hadn't been cut completely free by the LASER process.

This is where it went wrong. I managed to snap the sliding base completely in half at the weakest point. I nearly cried.... but I'm a man, so I considered the situation and realised I could glue it back together quite well, and it'd be stronger than it was to start with. I did that immediately, and got a very clean joint... unfortunately one side was very slightly offset from the other so when I attached the focusing racks, the teeth didn't quite match up with the pinion cogs on both sides. In the end, it was a compromise between fixing the cogs slightly offset from one another and putting up with a very slightly less-than-square base.

The instructions themselves are very minimalist, and consist mostly of small monochrome pictures. It always pays to think about the process a few times before actually trying each one.

Putting the camera together after my disaster was remarkably simple. Some pieces needed sanding to make them fit, and others were slightly too small, leaving small gaps in the dovetails.

I decided to sand the whole thing nice and smooth, which served two purposes. Firstly, it rounded off the edges and made it feel nice in the hands. Secondly, it took off most of the black edges, from the LASER cutting process, so they wouldn't show through the paint. Sanding was a chore, but not difficult.

I primed with two coats of proper MDF primer, then painted with two coats of high-gloss red paint. This took AGES to do all the bits, and I did it in sequence to make sure everything fitted properly. The base and the rear standard came first, then the front parts. The universal revolving back and the ground-glass holder came last because they had to fit into the rear standard, and the paint adds thickness. I spent a lot of time pre-sanding each part to make it slightly smaller than it needed to be - then the paint thickness brought it back up to the right fit.

All the metal fixtures were easy enough to fit, although I made sure to pre-drill all the holes to prevent splitting.

Hanging the parts to dry after painting required a bit of ingenuity with that thick red paint, but I came up with a good method involving a scrap wooden pole mounted horizontally.

The final fit was a huge relief, and the bellows went on easily.

I'd purchased the 127mm lens as it was about all I could afford at the time, with my fingers crossed about the size of the image circle. I think it'll be OK, but tests will tell the story.

The camera came from PinholeSolutions, The lens came from MrCAD, and the lens panel & double dark-slides came from Ffordes. Everything else came from Homebase :)

I had a really great time making this camera, and I can't wait to get started with trying it out. I already have some Adox B/W film that I was sent accidentally by a supplier once (they let me keep it, as it was their error), so I should be well away when I can find the time!

Thanks again everyone for your kind comments and support. I really appreciate it. I wasn't sure if the red would appeal to everyone's tastes, but most people seem to like it(!)

Cheers!
Dave

Noah B
10-Oct-2010, 19:09
Sweet camera Dave, where'd you pick up the kit?

DaveTheWalker
11-Oct-2010, 01:09
http://www.pinholesolutions.co.uk

Noah B
11-Oct-2010, 07:08
You'll have to let us know how it handles. I may pick up the 8x10 version.

davkt
17-Oct-2010, 04:11
Cool, I'm seriously thinking about of these as a dedicated pinhole camera. Just need to decide if I need the 5x4 or 10x8 variant!

Lochnagar
4-Nov-2010, 07:46
Hi

I've now taken a little more than 100 exposures with my Bulldog. However I'm slowly turning it into a hardwood camera, having to replace a number of the smaller MDF parts which have broken. While MDF seems fine for some of the larger parts the smaller parts really do need to be made of something a bit more robust.

Having said that; I'm still using it, and still enjoying the camera. However I think you do need to be prepared to do some repairs as the finished camera is not just as robust as one might want. However on the plus side it is light and small and I use the same tripod for it, as I use with my D200.

I'm using it with a 135mm Fuji f5.6. But have also used the pinhole supplied with the kit.

Lochnagar