Pix of your home-built cams here please

[Steve Smith]

New 5x12, WA style. A svelte 6.5 lbs, down from the 11lbs of my first homebuilt 5x12

Fantastic looking camera and a great write up. Thanks for sharing it with us.


Steve.

[dlin]

Colin,

That looks like a fine piece of craftsmanship. Looking forward to many more beautiful photographs taken with it.

Daniel

[Andrew Moxom]

Stunning carpentry Colin!! Wow!

[archphoto]

Great camera, Colin, realy a beauty !

I will have to do a lot of practising before I reach your quality of work......
Will be starting on my field in August or so..... from Brazil Wood and yellow copper.

Peter

[R Shaffer]

[QUOTE=Colin Graham;821463]New 5x12, WA style. A svelte 6.5 lbs, down from the 11lbs of my first homebuilt 5x12 (13lbs including the vertical mounting bracket).The back switches to vertical, and the front standard telescopes enough to get well past center of the vertical orientation.

There's a shorthand log about the build here, including some ravings on bellows. (I haven't had a chance to write up building filmholders yet, sorry.)

Beautiful camera Colin. I'm way impressed and enjoyed your blog on building it.

[Colin Graham]

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments. I'm glad the blog came across ok. Spending that much time on one thing, well, I was afraid my lunacy might have started showing through. I really enjoy starting such projects but wow am I glad when they're done!

[Steve Smith]

Spending that much time on one thing, well, I was afraid my lunacy might have started showing through

We would probably see that as totally normal!



Steve.

[Curt]

Thanks guys, appreciate the comments. I'm glad the blog came across ok. Spending that much time on one thing, well, I was afraid my lunacy might have started showing through. I really enjoy starting such projects but wow am I glad when they're done!

I know exactly what you mean about walking in and out of a hardware store and not getting the part needed for a project. Your back spring mechanism is a great design, I found the left and right hand wound springs but haven't figured out the sizing yet, I wonder if the old camera manufactures measured in inch pounds with tools or just developed them in time by trial and error.

[Colin Graham]

Yes, sizing is tricky for the springs. I used trial and error myself when I first came up with it several cameras ago. It's hard to get a significant amount of torque without getting really large springs (like those 4 inch coils on graflock backs) so I had to compromise a little. My holders are very flat so I don't really need the mousetrap-like tension (and no need for a bail back either). If it's any help, the part number of the springs I used from McMaster Carr is 9271K42. If you need really strong tension, the traditional flat leaf spring is probably most efficient design.

[nana sousa dias]

I've build this camera from parts of a 4 lenses Cambo portrait old model camera. The lens is a Schneider Super Angulon 47mm XL. Drawer handles for lens protection. For the viewfinder, I used a lens of those used on apartment's doors, attached to a piece of PVC used to join PVC pipes. The GG cover is made from black K-line. I changed the position of the handle to horizontal, originally on vertical position of the camera. The 3 plywood plates will be substituted by a piece of exotic wood, I used these 3 plates just to test the hiperfocal distance, wich is about 3 meters (9 feet). The camera weights 1.6 kgs (3.5 pounds). This is the first photo I made with this camera, I used f22 to confirm that I would have everything on focus from 3 feet to infinity. I've already enlarged this photo on 12x16" fiberbase paper, everything is as I expected (something that doesn't happen too often!)