I just bought this thing online; can you tell me anything about it?

[architorture]

I have seen a photo of that camera before -- I thought it was here on this forum. But it could have been on ebay, I suppose. Within the last year or two.

Vaughn

I was hoping somebody would recognize it and point me to a thread on here.

For $75 i thought why not? Seems like a deal just for the cost of materials and labor time of whoever made it. Hopefully it turns out to be more than a bookend though

From the other photos in the listing it looks like it definitely has a rack & pinion focusing system (4 in of travel according to the seller). It also looks like the lens board can be moved to different fixed locations along the length of the inner tube, so that the effective range of focus is actually up to 8in. I suppose I could put a piece of tape on the top of the inner tube and mark focus distances.

It looks to be made for standard 4x5 film holders, but there may be no provision for a graflok type ground glass. I expect the only way to get a ground glass would be to make one as a simple wood frame with glass inset into it. Has anyone ever converted a sheet-film holder into a ground-glass holder?

There is a tripod socket on the bottom, as well as two telescoping legs at the back of the camera on either side (i don't understand why these are necessary).

My rough estimate is this should be able to accommodate lenses from as short as you can find up to a 210mm. However, I expect the shortest focal length will be limited by the presence of the inner tube - at some point the angle-of-view of the lens will be so great that it begins to be blocked by the tube. A very, very rough sketch indicates that the optical center of the lens will have to be at least 50mm away from the film plane to avoid mechanical vignetting from the tube (so 47mm super-angulon might work?). I'll know more once I have it in my hands.

[Vaughn]

Sorry that I can not be more specific about seeing an image of the camera before. I just remember thinking that the rubber band method of holding the film holder on was a little funky -- and that I would replace it with a GG back if I had the camera.

Vaughn

[Drew Bedo]

This looks like a CRT camera for an O-Scope or something like that. When I worked in medical imaging there were cameras lsimilar to this on much of our gear back in the late 1980s. Tektronix made many of hem, but this doesn't look like one of them.

[John Kasaian]

You don't need to focus or frame with an aerial camera. If the focus is not at infinity, you're in deep trouble.

I expect the knob that looks like a focusing knob is just to set the position for lenses of different focal lengths.


That's very possible.
Tektronix made a line of cameras for that purpose, although the ones I've seen are of much more recent vintage,
and designed to use Polaroid film. This could be an earlier version.

- Leigh

Some aerial cameras do have the capability to focus. Peter Gowland used a helical system on some of his to allow lenses of different focal lengths to be used without having to shim or change lens cones, as well as for terrestial use.
I think the CRT scenario makes more sense though.

[ic-racer]

I don't know why this would be anything but an aerial camera. It looks like the lensboard position can be changed to allow for different focal length lenses.

[Sevo]

I don't know why this would be anything but an aerial camera.

Well, it looks cheap and somewhat feeble. Which points to a affordable or DIY solution - most aerial cameras were neither, and most were built like a tank, as they have to stand 200km/h+ winds without defocusing or even stirring the dust inside.

It could of course be some weight saving DIY (or semi DIY kit) camera for soaring or ballooning. But I've never heard of such a thing, while I've seen quite a few Polaroid, Tek or Hameg CRT cameras of fairly similar form and description.

[architorture]

I think given the weight quoted in the listing of under two-pounds, it's probably not intended for aerial use. Certainly could be inspired by aerial cameras though. I'd say it looks to definitely be some kind of DIY production.

I should have it in my hands tomorrow, so I'll be able to take more pictures and report facts. Interesting to hear everyone's thoughts in the meantime!

[Bill Burk]

What fun! Good luck with it. Looks to me different than aerial. I think it is more likely a CRT / Oscilloscope camera. Though for a DIY-er it may be fun to use for macrophotography.

[architorture]

Well, It's here, and I've been playing around with it for a couple hours. Unfortunately, I have no 4x5 film (this is my first camera that can do that size), so there will be no pictures for a while.

It's definitely pretty cool, I think. Quite light, at least considering the size. Very amateur manufacturing - there's some tape and double-sided type employed to hold extra pieces on. Also, I think it's probably fiber-glass not carbon fiber, as someone suggested above. The rack & pinion focusing is not very smooth or finely adjustable, but I'm sure it should be adequate. There are some parts on the body that I don't understand: There is a short metal pin in the center of the top and bottom of the back frame; and there are two adjustable length legs at the rear of the body, which would serve to point the camera progressively down. Why?

I've roughly measured the flange-focal distance range (with the inner tube completely retracted) as 42mm - 135mm, and maximum extension is about 230mm (so from an APO-Grandagon 35mm up to a 240mm lens?).

I've moved the lensboard so that I can mount my Nikkor SW 65/4. The tube effectively works as a lens-shade with a lens of this short focal length - I just hope that the cable release is not visible in the final image. The board is held in place by 8 set-screws (4 on each side of the board), and the holes happen to be located so that the board ends up providing almost exactly the required 70.8mm flange-focal distance for that lens at minimum extension! There is some play in the system, so it might not be exact down to the 0.1mm, but it measures very close with my calipers.

The back of the camera is made to accept a standard sheet-film holder (it came with a riteway no. 1284). I would love to modify it with a standard graflok-type back so I can mount roll-film holders as well (6x12...). The other reason to get a graflok back on this thing is so I can have a ground glass - unfortunately as it is I have no way to confirm focus. Has anyone ever cannibalized a film-holder into a ground glass? I suppose it shouldn't be too hard to just make something that holds the glass .2in off the back of the camera...

Do any of you with experience with the CRT/Oscilloscope type cameras have some areas that I should take a picture of to help identify this thing? There are definitely no labels/names on it - only a gold sticker with a faded red "7" affixed to one side.

Here it is:

20120604_0006 by s.kunstadt, on Flickr

[architorture]

Well, in case anybody has been curious, I've made 4 negatives with the camera and my Nikkor-SW 65/4.

Unfortunately, my measurements were not accurate enough and the first two, which I thought would be focused at infinity based on those measurements, were not sharp. Once I got my custom ground-glass I was able to adjust the lensboard location and properly focus the camera, so the second two negatives were focused properly.

Here's my usual test scene (which I unfortunately will lose access to in the near future...):

2012_07_12-001_fp4+ISO100_R09-12m_nikkor65_f16-33_S1-60_ColorBluechannel by s.kunstadt, on Flickr
Notice the cable release sneaking into the frame in the lower right... one consequence of using a lens with such a wide field of view.

and a 100% crop of that image (fyi the tower with the scaffolding is about 525 meters away):

2012_07_12-001_fp4+ISO100_R09-12m_nikkor65_f16-33_S1-60_ColorBluechannel_100%crop by s.kunstadt, on Flickr

and a more interesting image (perspective corrected (mostly) and cropped in Photoshop):

2012_07_12-002 fp4+ISO100_R09-12m_nikkor65_f16-66_S1-30_ColorBlueChannel_edit by s.kunstadt, on Flickr
I wish I had framed it a little more to the right - I would have then been able to fully correct the perspective and not lost the protruding light fixture. Of course, with a real 4x5 I would have just used some front standard rise...

and a 100% crop of this one:

2012_07_12-002 fp4+ISO100_R09-12m_nikkor65_f16-66_S1-30_ColorBlueChannel_edit_100%crop by s.kunstadt, on Flickr

also if you're wondering, the negatives were processed at the same time in a tank, with Rodinal 1:50 for 12min @ 20degC. Scanned on Epson v700 with the betterscanning mounting station at 4800spi and downsampled in PS to 2800dpi. Scanning was in 48bit RGB, with the blue-channel then extracted into a 16bit grayscale file. I also ran my standard sharpening routine.

Certainly has amplified my interest in LF, and made me desire a proper field camera and other lenses! We'll see how that plays out...