Show us your home made camera...

[Nimrod]

Really amazing camera.

[EarlJam]

Here's a home made camera from the other end of the build-quality spectrum. During WW2, my dad was attached to a USAAF reconnaissance squadron based in the UK, working in the photo lab. By fall of 1944, he apparently had some time on his hands and built a 4x5 camera out of scrap wood and what appears to be an enlarger lens. It's likely that he folded the bellows himself, something he often promised to teach me but never did. The letter to his brother, that I found with the picture of the camera and sample image from it, describes the camera and how he used it.

[Roger Thoms]

Nice, really enjoyed reading your dads letter, made me smile, seem your dad had a good sense of humor. Thanks for sharing the photos and letter.

Roger

[plywood]

I dunno, looks like it did a credible job on the portrait. Stop down to f22? I seldom go faster than f16 so f22 is only one stop down.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Here's a home made camera from the other end of the build-quality spectrum. During WW2, my dad was attached to a USAAF reconnaissance squadron based in the UK, working in the photo lab. By fall of 1944, he apparently had some time on his hands and built a 4x5 camera out of scrap wood [...]

Your fathers built camera is the minimalist type I admire considering the economy of the time. Thanks for that.

FWIW I was stationed at UK recon base: RAF Upper Heyford.

[EarlJam]

Thanks, all. My dad was based at RAF Alconbury. I posted a short photo essay on Filmwasters a few months back, with some of his pictures of the lab, etc. For much of my life, I've been primarily a small format shooter, 35mm and MF. I kept my dad's Graflex 4x5 SLR and have a Century 5x7 that was given to me when I was in high school, and will eventually get both cleaned up and start to use them with what I've learned from this forum.

http://www.filmwasters.com/forum/index.php?topic=9290.0

[James R. Kyle]

5x7 non-folder I made last fall. It's more or less a wide angle design, but with the triple extension a 360mm is usable at infinity.

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Elegant. That is the only word I would use for this excellent work. You need to be very proud of your work in the build of this camera.
I have made four (4) "Sliding-Box" cameras, over the fall and winter. Rather crude as compared to yours, but they work well for what I am doing (Paper Negatives). I am making use of Photo-Paper as the "Film-Base" in my cameras. Building "around" brass 1880 lenses and "Waterhouse" stops, with a Lens Cover to let in the light and sutting it out after 1 to 10 seconds. I am currently making use of old Kodak Polycontrast "F" and Kodabromide II papers. These have been in storage at my father's house since 1969 to 1974. (I resently recovered these when my father passed away -- I never thought that he had kept that old paper. Anyway = I shall post photos of my 8X10 "Sliding-Box" camera.
Just wanted to tell you - that You did one really great job of craftsmanship on your build.

[James R. Kyle]

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I built these "Sliding-Box" cameras for the reason of William Henry Fox Talbot use cameras like this for his experiments with Paper Negatives. I bought the lenses on eBay for about 130 U.S.D. and simply built a box around the dimentions of the focal distance of the lens used and the dimentions of the film holders that I have. They seem to work very well.

[Andrew Plume]

Colin: your build is amazing, really terrific - btw do you still make 'panoramic style images' of the Washington/Oregon coast.............?

James: equally impressive but in a different form

best

Andrew

[Colin Graham]

Thanks guys. James, those sliding box cameras turned out great, they look like fun projects.
Andrew thanks for asking but I haven't used any pano formats in a while.