Pix of your home-built cams here please

[nick mulder]

Cambara II

nice! i'll have to try a spring loaded back sometime...

any pix from it yet ?

[barryjyoung]

Nice work Argus. Is the back missing springs at the loading gate? I only see the springs at the trailing edge of the spring back. Also, what pitch is the thread on the focusing rod?

Thank you

Barry Young
cameramaker.com

[Mongo]

Argus...sweet! Have you thought about sharing your plans? I love the way you've built the front standard risers, and I'm fascinated by the back. Very nice indeed...congratulations!

May I ask where you got the bellows?

Be well.
Dave

[argus]

Hi Barry,

there's no spring missing at the back. The two springs present give enough tension to firmly hold the filmholder.
The focussing rod is on 4mm, the next bigger size available was 8mm but I found that rather bulky. I must say that the 4mm needs too much of turning the wheel.
6mm rod would be perfect, I think, but rack & pinion focussing would be even better!

Mongo,

the bellows is also home made.

Nick,

they are souped in Rodinal, but I didn't print them yet. The negs look nice, except for some exposure errors due to the weird f-scale on the Zeiss/Compur lens/shutter combo.


I learned a lot from using my previous model. Mostly in usability: it had a bulky back that was a pain to switch from portrait to landscape, not enough redundancy in preventing light leakes and was too heavy and large to take on a trip.
I field tested the cambara II last weekend and encountered the need for a truly folding camera. It is possible with a slight adaptation of the back-to-bottom attachement.

As I just got (well... bought) a 8x10 film holder, that will be my winter project. I'd love to make contact prints of that size!!!

G

[kjsphoto]

WOW All you that build your own cameras I am jsut blown away!

Those are some mighty fine looking cameras!

[nick mulder]

WOW All you that build your own cameras I am jsut blown away!

Those are some mighty fine looking cameras!

this site is great for getting into building cams, heaps of experience, humor and ideas about

If your looking at this category you're probably interested ?

jump right in and give it a go - yip

I found when making mine that the things that look hard aren't that hard after all...


except bellows.



@@££$$^%@W$ bellows

[barryjyoung]

Thanks for the speedy reply Nick. That is an extremely interesting springback. I have never seen one like it. Is it your original design or did you find it somewhere? Again, nice work.

Barry Young
cameramaker.com

[PhotoPete]

Anyone who has looked at the prices of these things on eb*y knows how costly they are. I made mine from a plastic Polaroid folder ($5) and the shutter from an MP-3 (part of a lot at an auction, less than $10) The lens is the front two elements from a Rodenstock Ysarex 105mm and the rear element from a 75 mm of the same line (both from the same auction lot). Somehow matches the 114 mm focal length of the folder perfectly. The Polaroid headbadge on the shutter is an added bonus. I will scan some pix taken with it soon.

[PhotoPete]

I got sick of the super wide range of density on my Holga negs- it made it impossible to get a decent contact print, so I wound up having to print every frame just to get a good look at it. To make this camera, I removed the Holga shutter assembly and hot-glued the retaining ring for this Prontor shutter to the front of the body. Next, I screwed the shutter onto the ring and hot-glued the Holga lens to it. For version 2, I hope to add some means to adjust the focus- right now it is hyperfocal.

[PhotoPete]

Ok, this one was completely uncalled for. I took the remains of the lot of MP-3 parts won at auction and cobbled together this crime against camera craftmanship. It has a 28mm Rodenstock Ysarex for a lens, and the MP-3 bellows extension for a body. The dissected rubber eye hood keeps the subject (usually an eyeball) the correct distance from the lens. The 35mm film cannister acts as a diffuser.