Home made 8x10

[jonathan_lipkin]

Saw this at Stupid Photographer blog:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dairequinlan/4300741225/

Made from foamcore and rubber bands. The only thing missing is duct tape and chewing gum.

[jnantz]

too funny
i have made 10 cameras out of foam core

1 2x4
2 4x5
1 5x5
1 5x7
3 11x14 / 7x11
and 2 12x20

in the end the camera doesn't really matter
it is what you do with it that matters ...

[Brian Stein]

foamcore: easy to buy, cheap, strong and easy to cut/machine: a good way of prototyping, and like many prototypes often ends up being used forever as the real thing because its good enough!
as this shows a camera really is just a box to keep the dark in.

[Daire Quinlan]

Yeah it does the job pretty well, initially it was meant to be a working prototype which was going to be transformed into a proper monorail view camera with movements of some description, but having a second child sort of got in the way of that

Here are a couple more representative B&W samples ...





I also started experimenting with exposing RA4 paper negatives ...

[Brian Stein]

Yeah it does the job pretty well, initially it was meant to be a working prototype which was going to be transformed into a proper monorail view camera with movements of some description ....

The defence rests!

[jnantz]

nice work daire

john

[Scott Walker]

Very cool camera Daire Quinlan & it seems to function rather well based on your images.
When I was in art school I made a 4x5 pinhole camera out of foam core inside a 12 pack beer box.

[Daire Quinlan]

The defence rests!

It's true, best laid plans etc etc etc

nice work daire

john

Very cool camera Daire Quinlan & it seems to function rather well based on your images.
When I was in art school I made a 4x5 pinhole camera out of foam core inside a 12 pack beer box.

Thanks guys, yeah it does surprisingly well considering. The only crucial measurement I guess in a camera like this is to make sure that your film plane is as close as possible to the GG position. That took me a bit of shimming to achieve. Shooting that 300mm wide open at f/4.5 meant that a difference of about .5 mm on the ground glass put the focal point about an inch or so further back on the subject. not good :-)

The one adjustment i want to make to this current model is to add up down movement on the front panel, maybe some sort of sliding arrangement. This, I think, will allow for more dramatic portraiture with some of the shorter lenses with less coverage that I have, as I can fix the center of the image circle on the subjects face but still have it off-center on the negative.

[JoeV]

If you iron and/or glue countertop woodgrain laminate onto the outside of the black foamcore, to make it appear like wooden construction, it not only acquires a wood-like appearance but the lamination gives it some great strength for its weight.

~Joe

[Casey Kidwell]

Beautiful images for any camera.