Show off your Large Format camera!

[darr]

My first and only LF camera restoration. This V8 Deardorff was literally coming unglued and everything else about it was in a similar sad condition. Since I did have experience with restoring wooden boats I took a run at it. I disassembled to the last screw, the corners and the base were re assembled with hide glue (as original) I know the original finish is lacquer but decided to use marine grade stain and a high quality spar varnish for the finish; after all it might actually be used outdoors and spar varnish is UV resistant and quite waterproof. A number of new parts, a hand stitched handle and her it is.
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Lovely!!

[John Layton]

Such an amazing job...and wonderful of you to bring such a venerated and inspiring camera back to life - bravo!

[diversey]

Nice job and well done!

My first and only LF camera restoration. This V8 Deardorff was literally coming unglued and everything else about it was in a similar sad condition. Since I did have experience with restoring wooden boats I took a run at it. I disassembled to the last screw, the corners and the base were re assembled with hide glue (as original) I know the original finish is lacquer but decided to use marine grade stain and a high quality spar varnish for the finish; after all it might actually be used outdoors and spar varnish is UV resistant and quite waterproof. A number of new parts, a hand stitched handle and her it is.
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[Kino]

Lovely!!

That is a beauty!

[Beevo]

truly beautiful job!!

Bill

[David Lindquist]

Beautiful! Very nice work. Plus it's on a proper vintage Ries tripod and head.

David

[Fr. Mark]

Beautiful old camera, lovingly restored, looks great, too. It should do good work for many more years. I'm glad you saved it. I like the handplane, too! I recently met someone named Deardorff, she knew about the camera company but disavowed any relation to the camera company.

[Ron (Netherlands)]

My first and only LF camera restoration. This V8 Deardorff was literally coming unglued and everything else about it was in a similar sad condition. Since I did have experience with restoring wooden boats I took a run at it. I disassembled to the last screw, the corners and the base were re assembled with hide glue (as original) I know the original finish is lacquer but decided to use marine grade stain and a high quality spar varnish for the finish; after all it might actually be used outdoors and spar varnish is UV resistant and quite waterproof. A number of new parts, a hand stitched handle and her it is.
Attachment 259654Attachment 259653Attachment 259655Attachment 259656

Well done, very nice work; and lovely stain....who did the bellows?

[L&Scape]

Where did you get your dark cloth focusing hood? I've wanted a yellow one for a while.

It's not just a yellow towel is it?⁷

@L&Scape

This is an old cotton Kodak dark cloth yellow outsisde/black inside from Bay long time ago.

[Rick A]

The terrible trio. 4x5 Tachihara, 5x7 Prinzdorff, 8x10 Nagaoka.