I've been looking for a design project for a while and decided on putting together a 4x5 camera. I had plans for a folding monorail, but chose a simpler design to start:
All parts are made from laser-cut flat pattern Acetal/Delrin or ABS and either snap together or are screwed in. Bellows was ordered through an ebay seller and the ground glass is poached from a Toyo back.
The camera offers geared focusing, front tilt and rise, and comes in at 2"x6.5"x9.5" and ~2lbs (need to weigh it after adding the ground glass and bellows). It lacks a bit of rigidity and could use some redesign on the focusing rail and rear standard.
This is by no means a final design, but I definitely learned a lot through the process. I would go with waterjet cutting over laser cutting for the next run, as the draft angle on some of the cut parts messed up the alignment. I think the back needs to be machined to offer accurate alignment... I would likely swap some plastic parts for machined aluminum or machined plastic.
Let me know what you guys think and any suggestions you may have
Additional pictures can be found here.
Bookmarks