New 8x10 for under $500? Interest levels?

[36cm2]

These responses are too jaded for my taste. If your goal is solely to make money, then perhaps these answers are right. But if you have a love for this art and a passion for its survival then I believe there is a market and, more importantly, a mission. A modern, cost effective, light but rigid production design would be very interesting. It's all about your value prop and the time and resources that's worth to you. As for paper, scale that design across even larger formats and couple it with various Alts backs and I think it's even more valuable to the field if not to your retirement fund.

[Mark Sampson]

How much money do you have to lose? Look at those who have tried within recent memory... and how many are left. I've lost track... Wisner, Zone VI, Bender, Wehman, Carbon Infinity, Lotus, Ebony, all gone. Are Tachihara/Nagaoka/Ikeda still in business? Deardorff? The thing is, you'd be competing against the used market, since many photographers happily use 80+ year old cameras.

[jp]

8x10 users (in the US at least) can get inexpensive film with the Ektascan b/ra film. Used lenses are pretty affordable, at least compared to the pro 35mm gear.

I've bought 8x10 Burke & James cameras pretty affordable and they have met my needs though others are smaller, lighter, or better in some way and compromised in other ways.

One camera that's not common at any price is the 8x10 B&J rembrandt style cameras; fixed front lensboard with some adjustment to the rear standard. This is basically a portable version of the classic century studio camera which is cheap because it's ancient, common, and not portable. The fixed front standard would make it simpler to build, and is good for people that like to play with big old lenses. Should appeal to film and and wet plate users. You'd either have to find a niche (perhaps this) which there is not much used supply, or create a new market by doing something new.

[Fr. Mark]

Another approach might be plans and hard to find bits and sell a kit. I'm to tired to go looking but it seems to me that there has been at least one thread looking at what might be an acceptable set of parameters and where to find the parts.

I've built a succession of 8x10's I'm not happy with: modified opaque projector, telescoping box with light leaks, and an all movements not exactly monorail camera which has adjustment and rigidity issues even if I only mount a 300mm f5.6 on a Sinar shutter on the front of it and not the 457mm/18" f3.6 which must weigh 2-3x as much. As you scale up rigidity does become a pain. Particularly if you have lots of movements.

You could lower film cost with X-ray film or by making your own dry plates. Both have their issues...

I also agree with the fellow who said 1 or a handful of films provides very inexpensive entertainment for most of a weekend. Compare it to going out for a meal and a movie.

[StoneNYC]

Talk to Intrepid first.

[Pete Roody]

At $500 per camera how much profit can be made? A 20% profit ($100) would net you $5000 for 50 cameras sold. So it is essentially a not-for-profit business. That has to be taken into account. If a not-for-profit business model is acceptable, then go for it.

[ic-racer]

Orthochromatic film? X-ray film?
I don't know about you guys, I'm not shooting pinhole or X-rays with my 8x10 camera.

[Bob Salomon]

At $500 per camera how much profit can be made? A 20% profit ($100) would net you $5000 for 50 cameras sold. So it is essentially a not-for-profit business. That has to be taken into account. If a not-for-profit business model is acceptable, then go for it.

Considering their time, R&D, parts, manufacturing costs, etc. they couldn't make a $100.00 profit on a $500.00 camera. Not counting other things like tools, insurance, liability insurance, advertising, postage, packaging, warehousing, etc. they would be lucky to make a 5% profit. And then their is that tax issue. Maybe city, maybe state, maybe county, definitely IRS. And if you don't make a profit for a long enough number of years IRS will tell you that you are operating a hobby, not a business, and then those manufacturing costs will not be a business expense.

And don't forget the cost of that back and a ground glass and Frenel. Are you going to inscribe or silkscreen format markings? That also adds quickly to your costs.

You should sit back and take a good hard look at the 810 market. Who still makes new cameras at any cost, anywhere, not many. It's not a growth market.
You look at lenses. You do know that Fuji, Nikon, Rodenstock and Schneider no longer make any lenses for 810, much less for 45. Who makes new film holders for 810? Who makes film for 810?

Why do you suppose all those camera companies, lens companies, film companies, holder companies have stopped manufacturing for this market or have gone out of business?
Who buys 810 cameras today?

I don't think that your idea is at all realistic as a business venture. Hobby, maybe. And a view camera isn't quite as simple to make as you may think. It is critical for serious users that when you put the camera into a neutral position that the lens and film are in alignment with each other, if you do a direct displacement they remain parallel to each other. If you move a standard forward or back that they remain parallel to each other. If you do a tilt or a swing the standard doesn't also move in another direction. That the bellows extension is long enough to, at a minimum, accept a standard focal length lens of 300/360mm. That you can focus closer than infinity with those lenses requires a double or triple extension bellows. But the camera must maintain its parallelism and rigidity at this maximum extension. You probably want the bellows to compress enough to handle a 120, or so, wide angle. This would probably mean a tapered bellows construction, not cheap, or a WA bellows.
And that is just a start. There is lots more to designing and manufacturing an 810 that is workable.

[MartinP]

8x10" camera . . . injection-moulding . . . $500 . . . does not compute. The tooling-costs will kill the project before you get past the financial planning stage.

If you want to make something that would be saleable, look at new film-holders (maybe a double 4x10 design within an 8x10 measurement DDS) or bellows or a spring-back that can be incorporated in home-built cameras. Possibly a 3D-print lens-mount and simple single-speed shutter for meniscus lenses? This sort of thing might sell.

[blue4130]

I think the key is to not just look at the West for marketing. In China there are (I believe) three companies who make 8x10. Talking to other photographers here (in beijing) there is still a demand for big cameras. If there wasn't, I doubt chamonix or frica or dayi would be making them.

(edit to add additional info)
But even in china with cheap and questionable work practices, the costs are $2700, $1500 and $1300 respectively. So I think $500 is a bit unrealistic.