View Full Version : My Home made 4x5 P&S Camera
nana sousa dias
02-01-2010, 10:58 PM
I made this camera with parts of a Cambo Portrait 4 lenses camera, plywood and some other cheap parts, like drawer handles. The lens I used is a Schneider Super Angulon 47mm XL wich covers 4x5" without much room for movements. It's fixed focus, I fixed it for 3 meters (about 9 feet). For fixing the right focus distance, I used 3 plywood sheets wich I will change for an exotic wood one with the same thickness of the 3 sheets.
http://img203.imageshack.us/img203/4568/img2586k.jpg (http://img203.imageshack.us/i/img2586k.jpg/)
http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5545/img2588et.jpg (http://img268.imageshack.us/i/img2588et.jpg/)
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1345/img2591uk.jpg (http://img193.imageshack.us/i/img2591uk.jpg/)
http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/8/valefurado1.jpg (http://img683.imageshack.us/i/valefurado1.jpg/)
Colin Corneau
02-01-2010, 11:32 PM
Cool! I'm not at all handy...couldn't hammer a nail to save my life.
Have you considered using this for street photography or more impromptu shooting?
2F/2F
02-01-2010, 11:41 PM
Good job, and nice pic. Looks like a super fun camera!
How far were you from the cliffs?
That is pretty. I am a sucker for nice woodwork. The image cool too. Good job on both accounts.
dwdmguy
02-02-2010, 07:12 AM
Wow. Just wonderful work.
illumiquest
02-02-2010, 07:51 AM
Nicely done! I wonder if you could find a better option for focusing? I was thinking the rail out of an RB67 might work well for a DIY camera, they're dirt cheap now.
Steve Smith
02-02-2010, 08:57 AM
I don't think a focusing mechanism is needed for a 47mm lens on 5x4. I was considering hyperfocal focus for my 6x12 format camera with a 65mm lens (link below) but in the end I modified part of an Olympus lens to do the focusing.
What did you use for a viewfinder? I made mine from some spare lens elements.
Steve.
rafaelpeme
02-02-2010, 09:02 AM
Beautiful camera.
Jeff Kubach
02-02-2010, 09:10 AM
Excellant work on the camera and good image. Very impressive.
Jeff
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 09:17 AM
Cool! I'm not at all handy...couldn't hammer a nail to save my life.
Have you considered using this for street photography or more impromptu shooting?
The camera was built with that in mind, too. I'll have to buy a box of HP5+ for that purpose...
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 09:19 AM
Good job, and nice pic. Looks like a super fun camera!
How far were you from the cliffs?
I would say 9 feet. This lens is extremelly wide, perspective is completelly changed, with this lens. I love it!
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 09:22 AM
That is pretty. I am a sucker for nice woodwork. The image cool too. Good job on both accounts.
Thank you, Mark. This woodwork is just temporary, I will build a nice lens plate with exotic well varnished wood in the future.
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 09:22 AM
Wow. Just wonderful work.
Thank you.
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 09:26 AM
Nicely done! I wonder if you could find a better option for focusing? I was thinking the rail out of an RB67 might work well for a DIY camera, they're dirt cheap now.
That crossed my mind but What I really wanted was a light point-&-shoot camera, fast to operate. This lens is now focused for 9 feet, wich give a really great DOF, even at f11.
This way, I can get the camera ready for shooting in seconds.
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 10:23 AM
I don't think a focusing mechanism is needed for a 47mm lens on 5x4. I was considering hyperfocal focus for my 6x12 format camera with a 65mm lens (link below) but in the end I modified part of an Olympus lens to do the focusing.
What did you use for a viewfinder? I made mine from some spare lens elements.
Steve.
Congratulations, Steve, your 6x12 camera is extremelly well designed and done.
For the viewfinder I used a lens wich you find in apartment doors, I don't know the name for that in english. It has a very wide angle, near 180º. Then, I found a PVC piece, used for conecting gardening irrigation PVC tubes and fixed the lens to it. Then I mounted an acessory shoe piece. This lens on 4x5 has a 120º angle and, as you know a viewfinder for this angle is expensive, so I built this one. The quality of the image, obviously is not great but the purpose of this viewfinder is just framing, I have a ground glass on this camera if I need to frame and compose more accuratelly.
I adjusted the frame with black tape, wich is not what you see on those camera photos, I tried first black paint but the tape is better. Here you have some photos of it.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/272/img6084a.jpg (http://img340.imageshack.us/i/img6084a.jpg/)
This is the door viewfinder, as you can see, the screw on front part is very long, wich allows the viewfinder to be mounted on diferent doors thicknesses. This was very important to fix the viewfinder to the PVC device.
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/5232/img6086e.jpg (http://img156.imageshack.us/i/img6086e.jpg/)
This is the PVC device to wich i fixed an accessory shoe piece.
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/9136/img6087g.jpg (http://img11.imageshack.us/i/img6087g.jpg/)
This is the finished Viewfinder, wich I painted mate black and wich needs now a repainting!!!:p
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/1452/img6088w.jpg (http://img340.imageshack.us/i/img6088w.jpg/)
These PVC tube unions (I don't know the right name for it in english) exists in several sizes, so I choosed one that matches the door viewfinder, I was a bit lucky on this, it looks like it was made for the viewfinder. This costed me a ridiculous 6 €!!! And it works!!!
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 10:24 AM
Beautiful camera.
Thank you, Rafael.
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 10:26 AM
Excellant work on the camera and good image. Very impressive.
Jeff
Thank you, Jeff.
Steve Smith
02-02-2010, 10:27 AM
How far were you from the cliffs?
The camera was in the cave at the bottom of that middle mountain. The view's that wide!
Steve.
nana sousa dias
02-02-2010, 07:09 PM
The camera was in the cave at the bottom of that middle mountain. The view's that wide!
Steve.
Eheheheheh....
These are not mountains, they are cliffs at the beach, about 100 feet high.
2F/2F
02-02-2010, 07:19 PM
I would say 9 feet. This lens is extremelly wide, perspective is completelly changed, with this lens. I love it!
Wow. Those three meters look like about 12 or 15!
I knew you had to have been pretty close, because the cliffs are not tiny in the picture. I know how hard it is to make mountains look enormous with a wide lens...you have to be CLOSE to do it. One of the reasons I generally do not like wides for broad landscapes: They exaggerate the distance of distant objects.