Building a Camera: Part Two
Monday, January 5th, 2009Yep. I’m building another one.
As soon as the first camera was finished, I immediately thought about countless improvements. The front standard was too shaky. The whole camera was too bulky and heavy. The bellows sagged. The knobs were not finger-friendly.
So I went back to the drawing board, this time with some inspiration from other cameras (especially Lotus and Ebony) I had seen since I built my first camera. My goals: reducing folding depth, reducing weight, stabilizing the front standard, and keeping it simple. I also added things for measuring the position of certain elements (like the the front swing and shift).
I then applied for an MIT Council for the Arts grant and received a generous amount of funding from the council (!!)–which included money for materials, as well as a lens and different types of film to experiment with.
My goal is to finish the camera by the end of May, and so far I’m well on my way.
February 22nd, 2009 at 1:10 am
I look forward to watching your progress. I built my first large format camera from a kit last fall and would love to build one from scratch sometime.
March 27th, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Hi! I’ve been checking out your project and it looks like you’ve built a nice camera. I use a 4×5 (bought it though) but would love to some day build an 8×10. I’m also an architect and wood worker…so I’m familiar with sketchup and use it often. Any chance you’d be willing to share your sketchup model with a like-minded photo d-i-y’er?
April 14th, 2009 at 9:53 pm
I followed your successful efforts on your first camera, congratulations on finishing it. So happy that you have received a grant to continue your efforts. I will be looking forward to seeing the progress of your project as well as the finished product. Would also like to see some photos from the first camera. I have been working on restoring a 100 year old Auto-Graflex SLR. It has been quite an effort, I have it up and running, now to make it look like a new camera again.
April 19th, 2009 at 2:47 am
Great job. Looking forward to the next one. Still looking around for all the brass parts hoping to reduce how many I need to make.
May 8th, 2009 at 4:22 am
Have you made instructions on how to replicate this for anyone? I am interested in building a view camera within the next year.