I came across an old coffee table and picked it up for the 3/4" hardwood in it with an 8x10 field camera in mind. As I glued the body together and put the wooden pins in, I was wondering, how DIY could I make this camera? I mean, with as few fasteners and purchased things as possible, complete, with bellows and lens? I had at my disposal a table saw, table mounted router, drill press, and 3D printer. I ended up purchasing the following:
12 1/4" bolts
7 1/4" nuts
11 wood screws
2 meters of fabric
1 poster board
PVC glue
2 achromatic 600mm lens elements
PLA filament for the 3D printer
I think in total it cost around $35 for the whole camera, including bellows, lens, and film holders. Here is the result:
Wood pieces were clamped and glued, and the front standard was reinforced with 4 screws. The knobs have embedded 1/4" bolts, and the hinges came with the coffee table. The bellows was made of blackout curtain fabric and poster board and lined with broadcloth. Only the front standard has movements.
It folds up fairly small but does weigh quite a bit since it's made out of hardwood. The ARCA tripod mount was made from 2 pieces and a router. I made all the knobs square or rectangular just for fun.
The back is made of softwood as well as the ground glass, which is currently a sheet protector sanded down with 600 grit. I have some 600 grit carbide on order to make a real ground glass in the future.
The back rotates to portrait and held in place by 4 retainers, 2 which are static and 2 which clamp down on it to hold it in place.
The focusing slide was made with a tapered router bit and the rails with the same bit. That was a little tricky. It should work with 150-400mm lenses.
The focusing gear was cut out of hardwood with a hand saw. I decided to 3D print the gear...
The lens is made from a pair of 600mm achromats, with a 3d printed aperture and shutter mechanism that I managed to put in X-Sync connections. It's actuated manually by a shutter release which can give shutter speeds up to 1/20 sec. The front standard takes a linhof lens board.
The film holders were made out of softwood and seem to be light tight for slow speed film. My plan is to use this camera with b&w and colour paper negatives as well as lith film.
I'll have to find some sort of backpack for it, and I'm curious as to how well it will work!
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