4x10 Point 'n Shoot Camera Build

[Michael Roberts]

Congratulations on this camera, it is quite something. I used to have a "point and shoot" Fotoman with a 121 Super Angulon and a 90 f/5.6 Super angulon (more of a 4x8). I sold these and got a 4x10 back from China to use on my Linhof Kardan TL.

Thanks! Both the Fotoman and the Kardan with the 4x10 back seem like awesome rigs.

[Michael Roberts]

Woke up thinking about designs for a viewing hood/ground glass protector....

[Michael Roberts]

Now that I'm back from my trip I've got some time to better document this build.

Here are some pics of the main camera body.

I replaced the original 6 1/2" leather handle with one about 8" long. Need to fill in the old bracket screw holes.

[Michael Roberts]

Pics of the front box for the 159mm Wollensak lens:

1. the front box with lens board swivel locks
2. the rear mounting flange and light trap
3. matching light trap on main camera body
5. front box mounted on main camera body

The main camera body is 3 1/16" deep, the spring back is 3/4" deep to the acrylic ground glass, the front box is 2 3/8" deep.

The tricky part was estimating the depth from the front of the lens board to the aperture diaphragm inside the shutter in order to get the fixed focus spot on the hyperfocal distance. This took me a bit of trial and error. Someone with a more analytical mind could have done this more efficiently.

[Michael Roberts]

Pics of the front box inverted into the main camera body to pack into an unpadded nylon brief-type case.

This was my carrying method for the trip. I wrapped the camera in an old black t-shirt that doubled as a dark cloth.

I scored and folded a piece of corrugated cardboard for a protective case for the wire viewer. This fit in an outer pocket on the case.

Also visible is a 6" tripod extension accessory.

[Michael Roberts]

Here is the 4x10 splitter I mounted inside the spring back:

The splitter is a 4x10" panel of 1/4" balsa wood with two strips of canvas contact cemented to each (long) end.

The canvas has a piece of soft velcro cemented to it; the matching hook velcro is cemented to the inside of the spring back. On the splitter’s other side, the soft Velcro is cemented directly to the butt end of the wood and the canvas just covers the gap. This difference was necessitated by the available space inside the spring back—a work-around to avoid interfering with the proper alignment of the spring back and the main camera body.

The spring back can be rotated 180 degrees and the splitter moved to cover the other half of the rotated back.

[Michael Roberts]

Here are pics of the 4x10 wire viewer.

[Michael Roberts]

Pictures of the camera, assembled, on tripod.

[Michael Roberts]

I painted the front panel and lens board for the 110 Wollensak lens today. Will hopefully get hardware mounted tomorrow and share pics.

I also put the 240mm G-Claron back on my old 3 1/2" extended lens board today to see how far off the focus is. The lens focuses wide open at about 15'. Too close. Stopped down to f45, it might be in focus to infinity; hard to tell. Looks soft at f22. I figure I'm 1/8 to 1/4" too long, so need to fabricate a new box. Also, it turns out the mounting flange on the old box doesn’t play nicely with the front box for this camera.

Also working on a folding viewing hood....

[Michael Roberts]

Pics of the 110 Wollensak lens, mounted to the front box on a flush panel (no extra extension needed).

To center the lens on the 4x10 GG, I had to cut the lens board down to 3.25 x 4.25" and fill in 1" at the top of the front panel.

Unfortunately, this lens does not cover the 4x10 format; it covers about an 8 3/4" circle, far less than the 10.3-.6" Wollensak advertised. From what I am seeing on the GG, this would produce a usable image, corner to corner, of only 4 x 7.5" on this camera.

So, after experimenting with this lens, I doubt I will actually use it on this format. Better suited for 5x7, I think.

A shame, because this lens is so compact and light weight it would have been a good match for this point 'n shoot.