How It's Made - Large Format Cameras

[chassis]

Cool video. I just missed it on The Science Channel. Check it out on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9dMn2CbrpQ

[cyrus]

Double-sided glue strips hold the bellows? Really? What happens when the glue dries up and falls apart?

[SamReeves]

That was awesome. Nice find.

[E. von Hoegh]

Plastic? Screw gun? Sheetmetal screws? I didn't see any trace of craftsmanship.

[Scott Walker]

Good one, thanks for sharing.

[David Karp]

Mike Walker himself made the tools from which the parts for his cameras are made. The fit and finish on his cameras are outstanding. They are rigid and rugged as hell. I have had mine for years, and at least one other person had it before me, and there has been no problem with either bellows. It is a wonderful camera in all respects.

Mike Walker is also a very nice guy, who supports his cameras well.

[E. von Hoegh]

OK.

I just think it's a shame that the "How it's Made " footage was so superficial.
I've no doubt the cameras are a good product. Too bad the film wasn't.
Granddad's camera?
..Curtain draped around the viewfinder?
Calling the bellows "The accordion"?

Once again, TV makes a mess of something, presenting a subject in five minutes. An interested neophyte would have to unlearn a bit after watching this.

[TheDeardorffGuy]

In reality it is a kit camera. The craftsmanship was making the tooling that built these parts. This is the ideal way to build a mass produced camera. The precision is in the tooling. If I were to introduce a new camera this is the way. Anyone with manufacturing experience can apprecieate this. And that is why there are so many view cameras made now a days. If it takes just 45minutes to assemble there are good profit margins to be had. Now if you want hand fit and finish the old fashioned way give me a call. I got all sorts of craftsmanship in these hands.

[Daniel Stone]

For people who need a camera for shooting in humid environments(such as the rainforest) or wet conditions, this is a great camera. I've handled one before(5x7 version), and it seemed very well built and designed.

I remember reading an article in Nat'l Geographic a few years ago about a Nat. Geo photographer who was photographing pyramids in the Mexican rainforest. His WOODEN 5x7(IIRC) and 8x10 Deardorffs swelled up so much during the first week of the 2mo he was in the forest photographing that the frames cracked enough to render them useless. He ended up having an 8x10 metal camera shipped down so he could finish photographing the project.

Not trying to argue, but sometimes plastic is the right material, even for cameras :)

-Dan

[TheDeardorffGuy]

For people who need a camera for shooting in humid environments(such as the rainforest) or wet conditions, this is a great camera. I've handled one before(5x7 version), and it seemed very well built and designed.

I remember reading an article in Nat'l Geographic a few years ago about a Nat. Geo photographer who was photographing pyramids in the Mexican rainforest. His WOODEN 5x7(IIRC) and 8x10 Deardorffs swelled up so much during the first week of the 2mo he was in the forest photographing that the frames cracked enough to render them useless. He ended up having an 8x10 metal camera shipped down so he could finish photographing the project.

Not trying to argue, but sometimes plastic is the right material, even for cameras :)

-Dan


I rebuilt 4 Deardorffs specificaly for rain forest duty. The thought of shooting in a rain forest NEVER occured to Deardorff. Constant moisture in a Chicago studio? No way. I did some research and developed a coating and glue. The re-sizing of the wood was a trick I can't really explain other than it involved putting the wood in a very high humidity area and measuring it. It swelled to what I think was a pre kiln dried dimension.. Just about 2 percent bigger. So I removed that much. In the dry midwest these cameras are a bit loose. In Japan and Peru where these cameras work they are fine. What would I take there? Plastic! Carbon Fiber, Phonelic. I have some "Tropical cameras" that saw use in the tropics. They did not hold up well either. The leather was not applied. It would rot. Thats the only thing that makes it a tropical camera.

[Brian C. Miller]

I thought that was quite a good video. Yes, double-sided tape has many different types of adhesives. The 3M industrial tape is very sturdy and lasts quite a while. The bellows are called accordion-like, and are repeatedly called bellows.

If you guys want to post a better five minute film on how a LF camera is made, go for it! I thought that it was quite interesting to see how a Walker Titan is assembled.

[Daniel Stone]

Could be cool to see a Linhof technician putting a MT3000 together too, but maybe that's just me ;).

That's kinda the epitome of camera craftsmanship(at least in LF equipment) for me. And its metal :D

-Dan

[Frank Petronio]

It really didn't explain how it was made, only assembled with crude hand skills from some well designed parts.

I wonder if Mike Walker made a few wooden prototypes before committing to all the machining? Learning how he developed the camera design would be really interesting.

FWIW CameraBellows simply had me use Contact Cement to attach a new 8x10 bellows to Sinar frames and it worked very well. The best attachments are like Linhof's, with metal plates sandwiching the bellows material, but that's more complex and expensive.

[David Karp]

I don't know all the details, but Mike Walker told me that he was not a tool and die maker by trade when he made the tools for the Titan SF! That is hard to believe when you look at the camera in person.

I recall hearing somewhere that he once made wooden cameras, so perhaps these are plastic versions of what he was making before.