I would note that any good front standard from any one of many used view cameras would do as the front end is not especially big. This is fantastic, you remind me of when I learned 50 years ago, I know exactly how you feel. You're wearing a wristwatch!
@@johnsmith1474 thanks very much! And those parts are attached via a built in 1/4-20 thread that is on the edge of the arca rail. There’s a dual rail slider / macro rail variation of the arca Swiss rail that has two sets of dove tails on top / bottom. The specific one I got was from fotoconic on Amazon, but I just did some searching and happened upon those with the 1/4-20 thread already on the edge, so those are just screwed directly to the horizontal arca plate. They keep from torquing generally by the vertical lens mount sections always being attached. It has worked great so far.
As you stop down more, you'll get less vignetting. It's pretty standard to end up at f/45 - f/64 with an 11x14 camera doing landscapes. Yep, there will likely be wind movement of foliage. Otherwise, you might consider a 480mm lens. You can save money by getting something like an APO Nikkor in a barrel. At 1 second exposures, it's not hard to use a lens cap for exposure. A Nikon 450m would also be a great option.
Great to know, thanks! It seems like researching further the 360 is really only just covering 11x14 wide open with basically no movements, but stopping down gives a bit more room. I will keep this in mind, and the shots at Zion that I show are between f11,18, so I was helping myself a little, but am interested to see what those very small apertures can give!
Congrats on the camera. As an impoverished student I once built a 6cm x 9cm view camera incuding the bellows! Boy so stiff. Crazy project but it worked. Film holders in that size existed then. Mucked around then with 6.5 x8.5 inch on an old Thorton Picard body. Beautiful antique wooden film holders that I still have. My last wooden 4x5 sits on a shelf gathering dust. I'm tempted (just a little) to try it again with paper negs. About ground glass: I ground my own using an abrasive powder that was used to hone microtome knives that are used to cut histopathogical tissue sections. Two bits of glass of the correct chosen size (you get a spare in this process!) Some powder between them, water to make a thin slurry annd rub them against each other on a firm flat surface (larger heavy glass IIRC is ideal) with firm pressure until the whole surface is ground to taste. Replenish the slurry as required. Tip #2: a small central spot of grease or oil on the ground face clears the glass to allow critical focus on what is the aerial image. Thanks for the vid.
Awesome to hear about your homemade cameras! Yes I am familiar with the hand grinding process for ground glass, I have done it a few times before for 4x5 cameras, it works very well, and if needed to be sourced locally one can use fine valve grinding compound from an auto parts store, it is a similar ultra fine abrasive powder but pre suspended in a paste form and handy tube. Though these days, I am really a fan of frosted or even hand ground acrylic, with a fresnel lens added it is very bright, and the main advantage is it will not break and shatter and cut up your bellows when it is eventually dropped or hit with something.
Honestly this is outstanding! Clearly a brilliantly simple but well thought out design, Would love to see a PDF which gave detailed schematics, but also can't wait to see the 5x4 build.
Thanks very much! If I had any schematics I would share them, but I did not make any drawings or rigid plans for this build. It was an intuitive process of looking at the firm parts that I had, the lens, the film holders, and the available hardware, and to build the handmade parts to fit. So my hope is that others may do the same with what is available to them and to fit their own wishes for their ideal camera instead of just following exactly what made my camera perfect for me. But yes, with the 4x5 I am planning to have that one be much more uniform with a more build along style.
Less than 5 minutes into your video and so impressed by your simple built-in tripod approach, I had to comment. I had thought of doing something like this, motivated by wanting to avoid lugging a tripod and inspired by the old wood field cameras that have legs that attach to a large diameter circular opening in the camera base. The "modern" tripod's weak point is that the camera's entire load is clamped on a very small surface area. Why not use the width of the camera to spread that load around? I had no clear idea how I would design this. Now I know. Your solution is so practical, economical and flexible. Now back to the video.
@@iseolake thanks so much! Yes I knew the camera would be very heavy so I really wanted to avoid a tripod to lug around as well! Also the 11x14 base was just big enough to fit the smallest of the monopods I could find. I appreciate you watching!
I can't wait to see the 4x5 build video! I've made a couple basic 4x5's out of lasercut chipboard, and have been wanting to build something with movements, more durability and variability right when I've come across this video. So I'm excited to give yours a build and take some new shots.
Thanks very much! I am working to make the 4x5 open source and fully featured, with instructions for building your own bellows and a simple lens. But it will need to wait until I finish up my master's degree, so I am expecting the project won't start coming out until summer.
What a great build! I really like the way you've solved some of those tricky design problems in novel ways. I hope you enjoy your 11x14 as much as I enjoy mine 🙂
Extremely impressive and elegantly designed on many levels. It could have looked like a janky mess with all the outside-of-intended-pupose parts, but you made it look cohesive. Well perhaps the handle is a little crude looking, but that’s just nipicking. The green bellows and walnut compliment each other in color. It looks like total success to me. Even the bottom with all the bits packed inside is aesthetically pleasing. Nice.
Thanks very much! I had considered getting some kind of an Amplifier Handle, which would be leather and look a little nicer. But I liked the secure feel of the solid metal one in my hand, plus it was already at the hardware store so cheaper and no waiting time!
@@richpence You also get infinity bonus points for making your own bellows. I had notions of building one myself once but when I saw the process I got cold feet. I’ve always wanted a solution to the darkcloth problem and I thought that a bellows with goggles on the end would be cool. Blocking ALL light but without encasing yourself in a hot blanket. I never built it but its one of those things that nags at my mind.
Thanks very much! I actually just filmed a tutorial of the steps for making bellows, I’m hoping it can make the process less intimidating! I am still going to film parts for designing and layout, and then for copying and making fresh bellows from existing broken ones.
I made an 8x10 from a hardwood coffee table, with wooden standards with routed slots. Like you mentioned, the bellows was the most challenging part, with the film holders as a close second. Simple non-standard film holders can be made with a table saw... Do you find the tripod legs sturdy enough? D-23 and Ansco 120 developer are both metol only developers which can lower contrast for paper negatives even more. Combined with an MG 00 filter, it can produce negatives with 5+ stops of dynamic range.
That's awesome! I have played around with some simple cardboard film holder ideas. So far yes I am finding the lens to be plenty strong. The widened design is good for distributing the weight. There is a little kind of spinning torsion that happens, but it has not caused any issues and I tend to keep the camera around kneeling height. Thanks for the tips! I have been recently getting into some post flashing ideas that have greatly helped. I am still experimenting with different developers as well.
@@richpence I'm going to look into doing something similar to my 8x10 with the legs. Right now I have a 20 lb tripod which is impossible to lug around. Maybe 4 legs?
@@hackaninstant stick to just three legs. Three legs will never have a wobble problem which is why we have tripods for the field and not quadpod tables, there will always be a leg wobbly if you have 4 unless you are on perfectly flat ground, so the weight will be spread onto three legs anyway. Leveling with that forth leg would be a bear but with three it is easy.
Great job sir. A couple of years ago I 3D printed a fully functioning with full movements 5X7 field camera based on Linhof. It took nearly a month to print the parts and all the bits and pieces for the sprung back. The most costly part was the bellows which I had to get made in China. I might remake it with wood this summer if funds allow. Sadly, UK is a very expensive place to have a hobby. You have done a grand job BTW. I would also advise anyone wishing to build an uncommon size camera to make sure that 1: they can get the film holders or build them accurately, and 2: the film sizes are available. I had great difficulty sourcing 5X7 film holders but I managed to buy two six months before I started the project. I knew that I could get the 5X7 film from Ilford which are only less than ten miles from where I live in the N.W of England. There were quite a lot of 12X16.5 cm holders at quite reasonable prices from Japan on the usual auction site, but a lot of the sellers were trying to pass these off as 5X7 (12.5X17.8 cm) and the only way to tell was to look at the photos and try and read the sizes printed on the holder. Apparently 12X16.5 was a popular film size in Japan and not one that the Europeans or the Americans used, so be on your guard.
@@lensman5762 thanks very much. Good to know. I have stuck to 4x5 for the reasoning of easily accessible film holders, and lenses to a certain extent. I think it is the most reasonable format and the cameras can remain quite small.
It is amazing. I just have got an idea to build a 5x7 pinhole camera to be able put a lens on it in the future. I really glad I found your video. Now some ideas boiling in my head.
Looking forward to your upgraded version. It should have some weight loss space. You should consider whether using a wide-angle lens will cause occlusion underneath? Rear group: Can tracks be added on both sides of the frame below to adjust the movement of the rear group forward and backward? Add some components to give the rear group a certain amount of left and right translation and pitch angle. Under the same weight, I would like to add thread adjustment to the front group's pitch adjustment to control the accuracy of the adjustment.
I think this will be my 11x14 for the foreseeable future, I don't see much need for major upgrades or a new version, but I am working on an affordable and functional 4x5 camera design that will be easier for others to make. For weight saving, there are a few things that can be done. There are some slightly lighter materials than the hardwood Walnut, but they would still need to be strong, as the body exists it is quite minimal as is. The front movement standards could be significantly lighter with other available or a custom made option. upgrading the legs to lighter and stronger carbon fiber would save a little weight. The bellows would be no problem for wider lenses, but yes at some point the lower part of the base would come into the frame with extremely wide lenses. You can take advantage of the 20 or so degrees of extra rear back tilt and tilt the whole base forward to get a small amount of extra room at the base, but for any lenses that extremely wide a purpose-built camera for those would make more sense. Yes, movements could be added to the rear group, but it would go against the folding box easel design, so a compact and stable closed package would be more difficult, and much heavier to add in all those functions; something more like a rail camera would be a better design, but at the cost of the portability. A few camera designs do allow for some rear shift and swing, but not very many above the 8x10 format. I have not found any real use for those rear movements on this format the same way that I prefer them on 4x5. For me, 4x5 is the largest I can reasonably enlarge up to larger papers like 20x24 inch, and with much more affordable film, so that format is actually my preference for highly technical high-resolution images that can take use of rear movements. The 11x14 is more for contact printing, and in making interesting images that take advantage of the depth of field and large rendering, so I have not found myself wishing for rear movements. Certainty geared movements can all be added as needed. They may increase the weight and bulk of the camera, but there would be several options. A set of geared macro rails could be added for lateral shift and rise, and there are some great new 3 way geared heads from Artcise and Neewer.
Woh! This was super inspiring. I've been slowly putting together the plans for a camera minutera and your process in this camera build has me rethinking some aspects. Love how modular and simply sourced all the parts are. I literally laughed when you were like "and these are clothspin springs!" So smart.
@@grifftur thanks very much! I hope you are able to build a great camera for yourself! Those cameras with mini trays and developing, plus a macro positive copy function are very cool.
oh my god, i've only made it 4 minutes in but i cannot describe what seeing this project has done for me, I feel very intensely about trying to recreate something similar to this, the built in tripod legs and overall form factor is scratching an itch i never thought could be scratched, that i viewed as sort of drawback of large format you just had to accept, but this is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing friend.
I don’t have a lot of interest in panoramic formats. There are lots of 3D printed 6x17 cameras available online to try and make. A field camera with movements is harder to do.
Thanks! I have considered how I can bring some of these projects to life as finished products. Right now I’m too busy to undertake producing finished cameras, but maybe in the future I will!
I absolutely love your work and your camera !! Would be incredible if you can make your project open source. Also I'm very interested on how you convert to positive your negative you get from the photo paper. Please continue to post and update us And just to say, your video is really well made, Thanks !
@@zumpitu thanks very much! This camera is about as open source as it can be for now, I tried to link all of the parts so people can buy their own, but the building of wood or other material parts will be different for what parts and tools people have experience in. For other projects I would like to work on I will make more specific parts and instructions and models. For getting positive images there are two ways. The easiest is to scan the paper negatives and to invert and clean them up digitally, that’s how the images in the video were made. But for nice prints I make contact prints under an enlarger in the darkroom, I have the most success with Multigrade fiber papers and employ dodging and burning to get nice final prints. I am currently finishing up graduate school so am not able to post as much as I’d like, but I expect in next spring and summer to have a lot more time.
This was an incredibly well put together video. I've been tinkering with moving into large format for a little while and your use of the off the shelf parts is brilliant. Obviously there are tradeoffs, but you explain them well and I'm more motivated to build my own. I liked and subscribed because I'm very interested in the video you teased about the accessible DIY 4x5 camera (seems more approachable for me getting into large format that 11x14).
Thanks very much for subscribing! Yes 4x5 is a great way to get into large format, and I am very excited about the 4x5 camera project, and am hoping to get it done in less than a month.
@@richpence Hey Rich! Just checking to see if you have an ETA on that next video? I just got a LF lens in the mail today and I'm trying to decide what approach I'll take on the camera build for it. Thanks!
@@DannyZawacki Hi there! Teaching / school has started back up so I am slowing down a bit. The next video will be a bellows tutorial, and hoping that will be done in the next few weeks. Getting time to get my 4x5 design together will likely not happen much until mid October or so.
@@DannyZawacki Can I ask which lens you have, and what kind of camera you are interested to build? I may be able to offer some advice. If you want a very simple camera to just start making some photos with, I'd recommend taking a look at Morten Kolve's WillTravel 4x5 camera. it's all 3d printed and no movements, but via his Ebay store the camera, fit to your lens, is around $180, he also offers his 3d files totally free if you want to print or order prints yourself. It's a great simple camera to just start shooting on.
GREAT Camera and Build! Do you have a product list of the items used in the making of this camera? Also do you have a video of the woodworking side of the build?
Thanks very much. There is a list of the parts in the description, and within the video itself there are screenshots of the exact Amazon listings I used. I don’t have any major footage of the woodworking beyond some in progress photos. I needed to build the camera in a timely manner, so I did not have time to set up and record that process. It is mostly intuitive, I do not make heavy drawings or plans first, I obtain the film holder and the lens, the ground glass, and go from those.
haha thanks! I'll for sure have to get a Pro Mist filter or maybe some Vaseline and expired color film. Will have to do a Caffenol/dr. pepper film soup and double cross process.
I would love to see a few videos of you using this camera in more places, circumstances, etc, and showing your progress learning to get the best photos out of it.
As I've toyed several times with the idea of building my own 11x14, I'm awe struck by the elegant, yet, simple design of your camera. Just beautiful! Now you've got me thinking, again... Thanks so much for sharing this project.
I’d be interested to see it! The use of those off the shelf arca parts really lets you be more imaginative in your design. The integrated legs are my favorite part of my camera, but for an 8x10 the would be tough to fit the lens inside.
I love your appreciation of quality. This if the first video of yours I've seen but I can tell the amount of love and consideration you've put into the construction of this lovely camera. It reminds me of working with my grandpa in his wood shop, making everything to not only complete it's task but to look and feel good doing it. You've inspired me with soo many ideas in both my photography and camera construction, I'd never considered making my own large format camera simply for what I thought was a more extreme cost. Thank you for sharing such an amazing project, I can't wait to see more videos from you.
Thank you very much! please subscribe if you'd like to keep up to date on my projects. In the next month I am hoping to get my 4x5 DIY plans and video out, my goal is for anyone to be able to make a 4x5 camera for $200 or less. I am even working on a super simple and easy to source lens.
The way you emphasize the simplicity of using off the shelf parts is wonderful. Having your tripod incorporated into the design must save another several pounds. If you could source carbon fiber fittings you could save on weight, but the cost would be higher. Great job and a very nice descriptive video.
As a student, currently and in the past, I never had the kind of money to own “dream cameras”, like Gibellini and Chamonix view cameras, leicas, Hasselblad X-Pans, so I would try and build them myself. These days, I hope to make the kinds of videos and camera designs that a young me would see and be super jazzed to be able to easily gather the parts, make their own designs, and make a camera over a weekend or quiet summer. I would love to have custom built and designed every piece, it could certainly be a lot lighter, but I also am a sucker for the speed of getting off the shelf stuff, and also the promise of being able to replace anything easily, or modify for other needs, and start from that design principle. For example, this camera is really just the folding box, and a front standard glued onto bellows, the rest can all be easily removed. If needed to lighten it, I could just make a single frame with an arca clamp to put the front standard on and skip all the movements.
Excellent work Rich. I preflash paper at home with enlarger and 0 filter, electronic flash would also work, anything accurate and repeatable. Make a test strip and use the setting where you first see a shift from paper-white. Then you write that setting on the outside of your paper box to use all the time. If you dial it in to this level then you see the full benefit of this technique and will find yourself hooked on it. You can redo the test strip if you change paper brands but I found if it's the same grade/type of paper then the same setting works for all.
@@ianbabcock5951 great tips! I tested the methods I used in the video to see if there are any options for when I don’t have a darkroom or enlarger available before shooting, or couldn’t have a dedicated space or time to pre flash beforehand. I think my version of the live pre flash with some more testing would still produce the same result. Since I am using a 00 filter installed inside the lens and sunlight which has a nice full spectrum. The thing to figure out is exactly what ratio of exposure to my metered iso 3 exposure is needed to adequately flash the paper.
That was inspiring. Earlier this year I was talking myself into making an 810 in the Chamonix Alpinist style for backpacking. A car-portable easel style rig seems much more attainable for a "first go". Tons of great information and insight here. Utilizing the arca plates is genius: way more attainable than trying to fabricate custom pieces. Great stuff!
Awesome! Thanks very much for watching. I hope you try and build your own camera! Maybe try actually just using a box field panting easel, looking at my Wife’s I believe it could be turned into an 8x10. There are several on Amazon for $80-$160, you’d then have a folding box on legs, to reinforce, add arca for movements, bellows, and figuring out how to route and make the spring back. Maybe easier to just do all from scratch.
You really nailed down the simplicity, usability and still have good look! Looking forward and I hope there will be detailed videos about each part. Now when everybody are trying "vintage" lenses with 16-24 Mpx sensors squishing more vintage juice out of them ( I've also done that - but this did not fill the void ) . Having such camera will create images that will be totally out of range for digital photography for many years ( and still be in very affordable price! ). Have You tried convert such camera to the dark room enlarger - with the the DIY strong light source. THANKS!!!
Hi! Thanks for all the compliments! About the enlarger, I actually do plan to make this camera into some kind of enlarger someday with a large light source. But if you look at the section in this video where I show the 4x5 camera that I built, I have actually turned that camera into an enlarger and it worked quite well. In the Ansel Adams video I made last year, there is a section in it about darkroom light sources and I show the kind of light source that I used to do that, I’ll keep it in mind for future videos!
Thanks very much for watching! The camera itself is 26lb and measures 20x21x6.5 inches (11.79 kg and measures 508x533x165 mm) But also remember that you also have to drag around the film holder bag and the bag for the lens and other accessories. But I'm very happy with how the built in tripod legs worked out, that really helps a lot with the ease in taking it around.
@ thank you ! I’m at a point deciding whether I want to build a 8x10 or 11x14 . Or buy 8x10 . I’m not to concerned about price difference for paper between the two but I’m thinking of it would be more portable probably I’ll use it more idk
@@cipriandragoi9166 I think what may help is considering what kind of film you want to shoot on, and then what you'll be doing to make your final images. 8x10 is significantly easier to get film holders, lenses, and the film itself. You can easily get all kinds of film in 8x10, and this becomes nearly impossible on 11x14 and up. So 8x10 is for sure much more supported and is the last stop in size for what you'd consider a standard camera. Next, how will you make your final prints? do you want to be contact printing almost exclusively? or will you want to use an enlarger? 8x10 enlargers are out there if you want to work all analog. I have hopes to make an enlarging back for my 11x14 for big mural prints. And you may find that 8x10 is much more manageable to dev, scan, and digitally print. On the other hand, 11x14 or bigger contact prints are really beautiful and create a meaningful size impact in that final form, as well as being able to take a full headshot at 1:1 macro size.
Amazing work! Sourcing machined parts to fit the design is what has always hindered me from building my own camera. Love the information and that you shared all of it. Lovely camera!
I am so glad that you made a video on this, I saw your original post on facebook and my jaw dropped! I will be respectfully ripping off the tripod base idea for my ULF camera in the future, but first the small cameras need to be made.
Dude... you are on another level... seriously impressive... I now have to go rebuild the P.O.S. 12x12 .... my mind is spinning ... thank you soo much for the effort in making and sharing this video...
Factory lens circle coverage is typically stated at infinity and f22, but may also list a smaller diameter at wide open. Of course, as you open up from f22, the area of acceptable sharpness will also decrease toward the edges so, even though the light "covers" a certain area, it may not be acceptably sharp. The vignetting on only one corner of the image suggests the lens is not dead center in relation to the back standard. You may not see that at higher f stops, but it will suddenly appear when you open-up. You might be able to build a frame that fits into the rear standard with an opening that will place your front standard in exact center (at zero on all axis) as a centering jig. but if your lens coverage is barely enough to cover the format wide open, that will leave you with practically zero possible movements without vignetting at apertures lower than f22. ULF lenses are NOT cheap! Great job! I have started shooting paper negatives with a Calumet C2 "Black Beast" 8x10 camera that weighs around 30 lbs by itself, so I think your weight of 26 lbs for 11x14 is fantastic!
@@Kinemechanica thanks very much for the info and compliments! Yes I am for sure more limited than I expected for landscape/infinity focus with the 360mm lens. One improvement I have made was to accurately measure and then etch lines into the metal parts so that the front standard can be easily centered when setup. I still believe the movements will prove useful for any closer focusing subjects and portraits.
Really interesting video and excellent work. A really interesting and different approach to building/assembling a LF camera. As soon as I saw it I wondered how you would produce the bellows and front standard. It was a complete surprise how you built the FS. Would never have occurred to me but then I am no way an engineer. The bellows ? Respect ! I'd have wimped out and ordered a set. Great work though and an excellent video !
Thanks very much for watching! And there may be hope yet, I am making good progress on a bellows video, showing the full process from designing to building.
I love your design and the design approaches behind like the by design "integrated" transport box, the simplicity of the tripod and the Arca Swiss rail usages. I am myself in the middle of an own 30x40cm ULF camera build with the following similarities and differences to your path and design: - I sourced several repro, projector, ... lenses (all without shutter) and put them on Linhof and Toyo plates (adapter). (Note I: Toyo is my primary 4x5'' / 9x12cm camera.) (Note II: I started with lenses, as they are the element you can not do yourself.) - I adapted repro camera shutters (75 +90 mm hole) driven by 24V DC. And I have already the key element of an own shutter (125mm hole) following same repro shutter design. Just programmed an SOC shutter steering for those shutters. (Note I: I do not expect to be fast than max 1/30th... but even an 1/8th will be good - an shutter tester build in parallel will show.) (Note II: As the lenses and the shutters are also for use with the Toyo 4x5'' / 9x12cm, I focus at moment my work here) - For the frame of camera I used 20x20mm aluminium system (us.item24.com US page) cut by supplier on my lengths. - The film holders will be also based on that material as frame + fiber glass . Here I still change and advance the design inside the frame. (Note: Seeing the film holder prices and limitations, I try to build those myself) - Ground glass holder is out of same material and uses like you (to be sanded) acrylic plus an Ebay frensel ;-) (Note: sing the same construction like for the film holders, I expect no focal plane difference issue by design) - For the front standard I use the standard Toyo having all free axes moves geared + swing and tilt. (BTW: My reuse approach could have also worked with a Sinar, Arca, Cambo, Linhof, ... front standard) - Aside of the frame holder, will be the bellows the most challenging. I plan a bag bellow design out of artificial leather.and other fabric. - The camera stand on an a normal tripod (an old heavy duty aluminum Gitzo). Notes: - The 30x40cm my design focus on x-ray film (or paper) in that max size. (Note: I want to use the camera also for 24x30cm due to availability of moma x-ray film up to that size and lens availabilities in wide-angle area.) - Lenses with 600mm + reasonable bellows extension for foutdoor is the limit. Outlook: - If this all works fine I consider to use to build / dual-use the 30x40cm for an 50x60cm or 60x60cm together with 800/900mm lenses up to ~ 1:1. But this is far future as being an other beast. - After the nicer/brighter weather and photo season of 2024 I hope to have the 30x40cm ready for next spring. That includes also a transport case - here your design is very clever-- and a scratch free development method for double side coated x-ray film. Here I have ideas but it is to early to say if it will work.
Wow, thanks for all the details, it is very nice to read about your build! Using the aluminum extrusion is a good idea, I did similar with the 4x5 camera that I showed in the video, that with then some laser cut black acrylic. I have considered making a couple new enlarger / copy stands out of the same aluminum rail. For the Bag Bellows, I suggest using blackout curtain liner fabric. It is white, and a bit thick but it is sturdy and should be flexible and hold up to the bag bellows movement very well. Then use a simple piece of black cotton for the inside. Leather is very nice, but the fabric may be simpler to work with and a lot of money saved. Is there anywhere that you are posting updates? I'm interested to see how you get along with the film holder construction, my suggestion would be to make that part first, then to design your spring back and exact camera sizes relative to that.
@@richpence Good point. Indeed I am thinking since a while about having my construction work posted. But I am not there yet... have not even pictures of my stuff... ;-). But you gave me an other trigger/reason to work on this. I'll keep you updated.
I use the same loupe for my monorail 4x5, a fantastic cheap alternative to the photography specific ones that cost a surprising amount. Awesome video, really cool project
I’m happy to answer any questions you may have, and measure out and explain how I worked, but I actually do not have any drawings or plans because I did not make any. When building in wood, I always measure everything off of the parts I have in front of me. For cameras it is a balance between the known exact parts that are critical, and then designing fluidly around those to make everything work. The most crucial sized parts are the exact dimension of the film holder, and then building the ground glass frame and the spring back to perfectly match and fit. The same goes for any lens mount. Then I gathered all of the off the shelf arca rail parts, and the rest of the design was just measuring to what felt like it would fit best for all of those parts to work and collapse into itself. But the parts you collect and find may be different from the parts I have made. Maybe some day I will draw up exact plans of stuff like the spring back, but also I am not totally sure that the design as I have made it is exactly the best possible for expecting others to make from plans, it could likely be simplified and optimized for more people to be able to make. That’s kind of why I didn’t make a really strict step by step of the building for this video, since I haven’t optimized the recipe and steps to be able to show them exactly, there was a lot of trial and error for the making of this camera.
So cool! Great work on the camera and the images! You may have already figured out the lens coverage question, but if not, I did a little digging out of curiosity. According to the lens data provided by Nikon, the 360 will cover 415mm at f6.5 which is just shy of 420mm, which is the diagonal of 11x14. In your video, it appears that you may have had a little bit of front rise, which could account for the clipped corners. It's also worth noting that the data also notes that the same lens covers 494mm at f22. So, stopping down will give you more room to breathe. I hope this is helpful. Thanks for sharing your work on UA-cam!
Thanks so much for the info! I actually had a pretty significant amount of rise for some shots, and those were between f11 and f18, so that explains it! Great to know. I will leave the wider apertures for portraits or still life with little movements (the longer lens distance should help with the coverage) and will stop down more for landscapes. What I really need to do as well is to really accurately measure out when the front standard is exactly centered and note / etch marks for setting up the camera to perfect center.
Awesome job! I saw your post on FB and forgot about the project. I just so happened to chance upon this video while scrolling. I have that same lens, but have only ever used it for 4x5. It’s so cool to see it reach its maximum potential on 11x14 I am VERY excited about the DIY 4x5 video you mentioned towards the end. I had a sort of “d’oh!” moment when you went over the individual components that make up your camera; how had I never thought to do that before? Anyway, nice work! Looking forward to seeing more of what you’re doing +1 to your wife as well. There are many cool projects that do/don’t exist largely due to the support (or lack thereof) of friends and family.
Thanks very much for watching! Yes I am very grateful to have a supportive wife and friends! I have been really enjoying the lens, and a few days ago I sat down and etched in all the centering marks and it turns out I have been putting the lens with a slight bit of rise from what I thought was centered, there is plenty of coverage. I was just shooting on my original homemade 4x5 yesterday, testing a diy large format lens I’m working on. And seeing all the places I can improve on the new one has gotten me excited to keep working on it! It will be mainly 3D printed then added onto the base parts I showed. But for those who don’t have a 3D printer I am looking into various online printing companies, and want to keep the price of ordered parts around $60 or less. The ground glass (including a fresnel) will be sourced and bellows will be made from material. And I’m hoping for the camera with ordered 3D prints to still be less than $200.
I am excited for it and working on it right now, it will involve some 3d printing, but that is something that anyone without a printer can send off to various companies online to have prints made for them. The rest of the parts will be collected from amazon, and the bellows made by the user, my goal is for the whole camera to be under $200 total (potentially including a super simple lens I am working on)
Awesome detailed video! I saw your post on a Facebook page a while back about this camera, so cool seeing a video about it! I was in Zion with my 4x5 last month and I’m working on my own video about my photos from there
Thanks very much! Bellows and a few of the wood cuts were the hardest thing to do, but most of the time was spent on really figuring out all the dimensions.
Nice work building your own ULF. It is well thought out and I love the built in tripod. You might find a larger dark cloth well work better especially when you are in a bright environment. Well done sir
Thanks very much! I have some bigger cloths I can use, but I like that the small one fits easily in the bag, and in the summertime heat it does not get as hot underneath. I know I can have white fabric on the outside, but I am in Phoenix AZ, so it does not help much in 110 degrees. I’ll take any kind of breeze I can get under the cloth! Plus the lens is quite bright at f6.5, so have been bright enough so far.
Thank you! I will see about making a video on that! I have actually made a video going over some more advanced contact printing processes in my Making Large Negatives in the darkroom Video that is already up if you'd like to take a look, it has lots of contact printing in the process.
I would too! I’m fairly unlikely to shoot any though, it is around $30 per sheet, and most of all it is quite difficult to process at this size. Maybe someday! I think 8x10 film and cameras is more feasible for shooting large format color film. If you have not yet, check out Ben Horne’s UA-cam channel, he shoots 8x10 color film almost exclusively.
Really really amazing job. Well done! You might already know this, but the Nikkor W 360mm has an image circle of about 494mm. On 11x14 this gives you roughly 1 inch of movement in any direction before vignetting occurs. I suspect excessive movemens may have caused the vignetting on your Zion image. Looking forward to more videos.
Thanks for watching! Yes that is correct, I was giving too much movement, but another problem is that I hadn’t yet really measured and etched the rails to know that I am starting from perfectly centered! Which I have done now, so now I will be starting from a better place.
Thanks very much for the compliments! I recently moved to Arizona / western US from the Eastern US, and I’m amazed at the nice hardwood selections you can find here even in Home Depot.
@@richpence Very cool! While watching, I had an idea for an "upgrade", for connecting the dark cloth to the camera. Instead of using the clamps, perhaps either of these two options work (and leave the need to carry clamps) 1. Velcro. Having it stitched onto the cloth, with the other parts on the wooden frame. The only downside would be the noise of taking the velcro off (might be an issue in nature) 2. Metal rings on the dark cloth, that you can hook on little latches on the wooden frame
@@MickBenjamins good ideas! I like the metal hook one, Velcro to me is just not a very attractive material compared to the rest of the camera. I think what maybe I would like is some fabric strips with riveted snap buttons at the top corners inside the box since I am considering a similar method for making some adjustable straps for the bellows droop issue.
Thank you so much for your effort to create this video and build this wonderful camera. Its such an inspiration to slow down more while taking pictures.
This was fascinating to watch. Your intuitive understanding of camera construction, understanding of how light travels and your ability to source material from just about anywhere make me want to go out and explore this for myself. I currently have both a Sinar and a Graflex 4x5. Thinking about making a hybrid build between both of these cameras with extra features designed into a single unit. So many things to think about. Your post processing skills and add in video explanations were very helpful. Subscribed and liked to assist you achieving 1000 subscribers 😊
Thanks so much for watching and for the compliments! I hope you do make or customize your cameras to work well for you, maybe save some money for more lenses or film along the way! I was just using my DIY 4x5 yesterday to test a diy large format lens I’m working on. But I realized that my old camera is not as great as it could be, so I’m looking forward to finishing my next project of the affordable 4x5 camera, so I’m hoping that will be out later this summer!
@@ML-rm3vk thanks for watching! I have studied both quite a bit, you. Can see an earlier video I made all about the third book in Ansel’s series The Print.
Is there a particular part you are referring to? My intention is for this video to be able to act as the sole reference for how I built this camera. I was focused on problem solving and getting the camera completed on schedule so I did not film the bulk of the woodworking save some of the photos I share at 38:51. My hope is for anyone interested in building an ultra large format is to go about making their own ideal camera with it’s own production and dimensions that fit their needs and material and production abilities, take inspiration from the mechanisms and design I used, but not just make a copy. I will be making a full video about designing and producing of camera bellows in the next few weeks.
@@bonnevillegarage Yes I have some more closeup photos and behind the scenes of the building. If you are on Facebook, join the Large Format Photography and Handmade Film Camera groups. I have posted many photos about this camera. Also if you are on instagram my username is Richpence like my youtube channel. I have posted more photos about this camera, but also you can feel free to send me a message asking any specific questions and I can take more photos of parts of the camera.
@@Squeegeecleanthanks very much! I have recorded a large part of the building process videos for bellows, but still will need to record the design side of things. Realistically I won’t be able to get to it until after April when I am finished with graduate school.
Congratulations on the realisation of the optical bench! Looks like you're back in 1800! I have no experience of optical bench with large format film, but only with Hasselblad 500CM. I just remember that I got to see up close an optical bench (I don't remember if Linhof or Sinar or another brand) of a friend of mine in his photo studio. Impressive to notice the great detail and dynamics of the shadowed parts of your photos. For the filter, instead of having it internally, why not have a slide on the front optics so that you can also use other filters, red or blue? About the fall of light at the edges depends on the optics? For a larger format print than film how do you do it? Do you digitise the negative and then print on plotter? Anyway my compliments for the construction.
Thanks very much! I will try and answer your questions. For the filter, I worked with what I had available. I knew I would be using darkroom photographic paper as my negatives, so I had to use that specific filter type. Some also use regular yellow or orange filters for the film, but the issue is the size of my les. The Filter thread is 95mm, a odd and very large size, so filters are hard to find, and when you do find them, they are extremely expensive. My solution worked for what I need the camera to do, and the filter is always easy to remove in just a minute, and the filter is the exact best kind in my opinion for the negatives I am making. The paper itself is darkroom paper, so it is actually designed to not be sensitive to RED light at all, and inside of a camera it is extra sensitive to blue and UV light, so the filter is helpful. The filter will also work quite well on black and white film to darken a blue sky slightly. I would only really need to remove it for shooting color film or paper. Yes the lens light falloff is a matter of the lens I have, and giving too much movement up to see the mountains level. If the lens were to be centered and the whole camera tilted up it would cover the whole image. For prints I still make them in the darkroom! I sandwich a new sheet of paper under the face down negative and use an enlarger to shine light through the negative. This process is called "Contact Printing". If you look at my video "Making Analog Alternative Process Negatives in the Darkroom: Ortho Litho Film for Cyanotypes" You can see my darkroom and several versions of contact printing in action.
@@richpence Thanks for the reply. I know very well that square filters for large diameter lenses are expensive! On the other hand they have the convenience of removing or inserting without having to dismantle the optics. I have no experience with prints from very large format negatives but only 120 from Hasselblad. Yes, I had heard of the contact printing technique, but if they ask you, for an exhibition or for home furnishings, for a larger print than the negative, what do you do? I was curious to know having seen your very high quality negative from which, for example, a 2 m x 2 m print can be produced. I don't think there are enlargers for that type of prints for which the only solution is digital scanning and sending the file to a service. I watch the video of your darkroom
For the filter, Since I do not currently have any traditional film (Regular ilford hp5 is available in 11x14 sheets but it is $375 for 25 sheets), and do not plan to make any color negatives, so having the filter live inside the camera actually makes shooting more convenient. Good question about print size. My first response would be to simply stand firm on keeping the size the way it is. I don't have any issues with digital technologies, I use them a lot and of course did make high resolution scans for this video, but for my artwork I tent to want it to stay within what is possible with analog process. To me the direct connection between the end print, and the cameras on location is important. If I absolutely had to enlarge the negatives further, there are a few options. 1. I could turn this 11x14 camera into an enlarger by making a large light source and negative holder that attaches to the back of the camera, which stays upright and points at the wall. Then a large roll of darkroom paper is cut and a large print made on the wall, this is called mural printing and has been used to make extremely large darkroom prints. Another options would be to make a good contact print, then to take a high resolution image of it onto 4x5 film, or some other format that has more common enlargers, then make bigger prints traditionally.
@@richpence I saw the video of your work in the darkroom. The orthochromatic technique is interesting. As well as pointing the enlarger towards the wall for larger format prints, but are there sensitive large format papers? In 1975 I dabbled in b/w printing with the Durst enlarger but then gave up due to lack of time.
@@clabart There are still many large format papers available in both color and black and white. Cut sheets go up in size to 30 inches x 40 inches (75cm x 100cm) and rolls are available in a variety of widths, the biggest being 56 inches wide (142cm), normally with 100 foot lengths (30 meters)
really makes u appreciate early photography of landscapes
The effort of the early days is really something impressive!
I would note that any good front standard from any one of many used view cameras would do as the front end is not especially big. This is fantastic, you remind me of when I learned 50 years ago, I know exactly how you feel. You're wearing a wristwatch!
@@johnsmith1474 thanks very much! And those parts are attached via a built in 1/4-20 thread that is on the edge of the arca rail. There’s a dual rail slider / macro rail variation of the arca Swiss rail that has two sets of dove tails on top / bottom. The specific one I got was from fotoconic on Amazon, but I just did some searching and happened upon those with the 1/4-20 thread already on the edge, so those are just screwed directly to the horizontal arca plate. They keep from torquing generally by the vertical lens mount sections always being attached. It has worked great so far.
As you stop down more, you'll get less vignetting. It's pretty standard to end up at f/45 - f/64 with an 11x14 camera doing landscapes. Yep, there will likely be wind movement of foliage. Otherwise, you might consider a 480mm lens. You can save money by getting something like an APO Nikkor in a barrel. At 1 second exposures, it's not hard to use a lens cap for exposure. A Nikon 450m would also be a great option.
Great to know, thanks! It seems like researching further the 360 is really only just covering 11x14 wide open with basically no movements, but stopping down gives a bit more room. I will keep this in mind, and the shots at Zion that I show are between f11,18, so I was helping myself a little, but am interested to see what those very small apertures can give!
@@richpence Really great job on the camera and video, btw!
@@peterdesmidt8742 thanks very much!
This is outstanding! Thank you for sharing your build.
@@HonJazzz thanks very much for watching!
Thanks so much for this! I have been scouring the internet for a detailed video of a camera build and this has everything. Appreciate you!
@@RyanScheer-o1g thanks very much for watching!
I’ve been looking for a video exactly like this for months now…. Thank you
I'm glad it can be helpful, thanks for watching!
Congrats on the camera. As an impoverished student I once built a 6cm x 9cm view camera incuding the bellows! Boy so stiff. Crazy project but it worked. Film holders in that size existed then. Mucked around then with 6.5 x8.5 inch on an old Thorton Picard body. Beautiful antique wooden film holders that I still have. My last wooden 4x5 sits on a shelf gathering dust. I'm tempted (just a little) to try it again with paper negs. About ground glass: I ground my own using an abrasive powder that was used to hone microtome knives that are used to cut histopathogical tissue sections. Two bits of glass of the correct chosen size (you get a spare in this process!) Some powder between them, water to make a thin slurry annd rub them against each other on a firm flat surface (larger heavy glass IIRC is ideal) with firm pressure until the whole surface is ground to taste. Replenish the slurry as required. Tip #2: a small central spot of grease or oil on the ground face clears the glass to allow critical focus on what is the aerial image. Thanks for the vid.
Awesome to hear about your homemade cameras! Yes I am familiar with the hand grinding process for ground glass, I have done it a few times before for 4x5 cameras, it works very well, and if needed to be sourced locally one can use fine valve grinding compound from an auto parts store, it is a similar ultra fine abrasive powder but pre suspended in a paste form and handy tube. Though these days, I am really a fan of frosted or even hand ground acrylic, with a fresnel lens added it is very bright, and the main advantage is it will not break and shatter and cut up your bellows when it is eventually dropped or hit with something.
Love the ingenuity! The finished camera and the pictures taken with it are beautiful!
Thank you very much!
Honestly this is outstanding! Clearly a brilliantly simple but well thought out design, Would love to see a PDF which gave detailed schematics, but also can't wait to see the 5x4 build.
Thanks very much! If I had any schematics I would share them, but I did not make any drawings or rigid plans for this build. It was an intuitive process of looking at the firm parts that I had, the lens, the film holders, and the available hardware, and to build the handmade parts to fit. So my hope is that others may do the same with what is available to them and to fit their own wishes for their ideal camera instead of just following exactly what made my camera perfect for me. But yes, with the 4x5 I am planning to have that one be much more uniform with a more build along style.
Less than 5 minutes into your video and so impressed by your simple built-in tripod approach, I had to comment. I had thought of doing something like this, motivated by wanting to avoid lugging a tripod and inspired by the old wood field cameras that have legs that attach to a large diameter circular opening in the camera base. The "modern" tripod's weak point is that the camera's entire load is clamped on a very small surface area. Why not use the width of the camera to spread that load around? I had no clear idea how I would design this. Now I know. Your solution is so practical, economical and flexible. Now back to the video.
@@iseolake thanks so much! Yes I knew the camera would be very heavy so I really wanted to avoid a tripod to lug around as well! Also the 11x14 base was just big enough to fit the smallest of the monopods I could find. I appreciate you watching!
using all those arca parts is genius!
Thanks very much! I hope it can make the idea of building cameras much less daunting for anyone interested!
This is one of the coolest things I've ever seen
Thanks very much!
I second that comment!
I can't wait to see the 4x5 build video! I've made a couple basic 4x5's out of lasercut chipboard, and have been wanting to build something with movements, more durability and variability right when I've come across this video. So I'm excited to give yours a build and take some new shots.
Thanks very much! I am working to make the 4x5 open source and fully featured, with instructions for building your own bellows and a simple lens. But it will need to wait until I finish up my master's degree, so I am expecting the project won't start coming out until summer.
What a great build! I really like the way you've solved some of those tricky design problems in novel ways. I hope you enjoy your 11x14 as much as I enjoy mine 🙂
Thanks! I have been loving it so far!
Extremely impressive and elegantly designed on many levels. It could have looked like a janky mess with all the outside-of-intended-pupose parts, but you made it look cohesive. Well perhaps the handle is a little crude looking, but that’s just nipicking. The green bellows and walnut compliment each other in color. It looks like total success to me. Even the bottom with all the bits packed inside is aesthetically pleasing. Nice.
Thanks very much! I had considered getting some kind of an Amplifier Handle, which would be leather and look a little nicer. But I liked the secure feel of the solid metal one in my hand, plus it was already at the hardware store so cheaper and no waiting time!
@@richpence You also get infinity bonus points for making your own bellows. I had notions of building one myself once but when I saw the process I got cold feet. I’ve always wanted a solution to the darkcloth problem and I thought that a bellows with goggles on the end would be cool. Blocking ALL light but without encasing yourself in a hot blanket. I never built it but its one of those things that nags at my mind.
Thanks very much! I actually just filmed a tutorial of the steps for making bellows, I’m hoping it can make the process less intimidating! I am still going to film parts for designing and layout, and then for copying and making fresh bellows from existing broken ones.
This was one of the coolest videos I have ever seen... super cool. Cannot wait for the 4x5 video!
@@ry1sfly thanks for watching! I’m working to make sure the design will good!
I made an 8x10 from a hardwood coffee table, with wooden standards with routed slots. Like you mentioned, the bellows was the most challenging part, with the film holders as a close second. Simple non-standard film holders can be made with a table saw...
Do you find the tripod legs sturdy enough?
D-23 and Ansco 120 developer are both metol only developers which can lower contrast for paper negatives even more. Combined with an MG 00 filter, it can produce negatives with 5+ stops of dynamic range.
That's awesome! I have played around with some simple cardboard film holder ideas.
So far yes I am finding the lens to be plenty strong. The widened design is good for distributing the weight. There is a little kind of spinning torsion that happens, but it has not caused any issues and I tend to keep the camera around kneeling height.
Thanks for the tips! I have been recently getting into some post flashing ideas that have greatly helped. I am still experimenting with different developers as well.
@@richpence I'm going to look into doing something similar to my 8x10 with the legs. Right now I have a 20 lb tripod which is impossible to lug around. Maybe 4 legs?
@@hackaninstant stick to just three legs. Three legs will never have a wobble problem which is why we have tripods for the field and not quadpod tables, there will always be a leg wobbly if you have 4 unless you are on perfectly flat ground, so the weight will be spread onto three legs anyway. Leveling with that forth leg would be a bear but with three it is easy.
Great job sir. A couple of years ago I 3D printed a fully functioning with full movements 5X7 field camera based on Linhof. It took nearly a month to print the parts and all the bits and pieces for the sprung back. The most costly part was the bellows which I had to get made in China. I might remake it with wood this summer if funds allow. Sadly, UK is a very expensive place to have a hobby. You have done a grand job BTW. I would also advise anyone wishing to build an uncommon size camera to make sure that 1: they can get the film holders or build them accurately, and 2: the film sizes are available. I had great difficulty sourcing 5X7 film holders but I managed to buy two six months before I started the project. I knew that I could get the 5X7 film from Ilford which are only less than ten miles from where I live in the N.W of England. There were quite a lot of 12X16.5 cm holders at quite reasonable prices from Japan on the usual auction site, but a lot of the sellers were trying to pass these off as 5X7 (12.5X17.8 cm) and the only way to tell was to look at the photos and try and read the sizes printed on the holder. Apparently 12X16.5 was a popular film size in Japan and not one that the Europeans or the Americans used, so be on your guard.
@@lensman5762 thanks very much. Good to know. I have stuck to 4x5 for the reasoning of easily accessible film holders, and lenses to a certain extent. I think it is the most reasonable format and the cameras can remain quite small.
It is amazing. I just have got an idea to build a 5x7 pinhole camera to be able put a lens on it in the future. I really glad I found your video. Now some ideas boiling in my head.
@@mi3antrop_316 great! Best of luck!
Looking forward to your upgraded version.
It should have some weight loss space.
You should consider whether using a wide-angle lens will cause occlusion underneath?
Rear group: Can tracks be added on both sides of the frame below to adjust the movement of the rear group forward and backward? Add some components to give the rear group a certain amount of left and right translation and pitch angle.
Under the same weight, I would like to add thread adjustment to the front group's pitch adjustment to control the accuracy of the adjustment.
I think this will be my 11x14 for the foreseeable future, I don't see much need for major upgrades or a new version, but I am working on an affordable and functional 4x5 camera design that will be easier for others to make.
For weight saving, there are a few things that can be done. There are some slightly lighter materials than the hardwood Walnut, but they would still need to be strong, as the body exists it is quite minimal as is. The front movement standards could be significantly lighter with other available or a custom made option. upgrading the legs to lighter and stronger carbon fiber would save a little weight.
The bellows would be no problem for wider lenses, but yes at some point the lower part of the base would come into the frame with extremely wide lenses. You can take advantage of the 20 or so degrees of extra rear back tilt and tilt the whole base forward to get a small amount of extra room at the base, but for any lenses that extremely wide a purpose-built camera for those would make more sense.
Yes, movements could be added to the rear group, but it would go against the folding box easel design, so a compact and stable closed package would be more difficult, and much heavier to add in all those functions; something more like a rail camera would be a better design, but at the cost of the portability. A few camera designs do allow for some rear shift and swing, but not very many above the 8x10 format. I have not found any real use for those rear movements on this format the same way that I prefer them on 4x5. For me, 4x5 is the largest I can reasonably enlarge up to larger papers like 20x24 inch, and with much more affordable film, so that format is actually my preference for highly technical high-resolution images that can take use of rear movements. The 11x14 is more for contact printing, and in making interesting images that take advantage of the depth of field and large rendering, so I have not found myself wishing for rear movements.
Certainty geared movements can all be added as needed. They may increase the weight and bulk of the camera, but there would be several options. A set of geared macro rails could be added for lateral shift and rise, and there are some great new 3 way geared heads from Artcise and Neewer.
@@richpence Do you have Facebook?
@@潘少先 yes and I am a part of the large format Photography, Ultra Large Format Photography, and Handmade Film Camera Facebook groups
I am extremely impressed. I would like to see a little more of your 4x5.
@@mattlappinen5029 thanks very much! I will be coming out with more videos and designs for 4x5, likely not until this coming summer.
Woh! This was super inspiring. I've been slowly putting together the plans for a camera minutera and your process in this camera build has me rethinking some aspects. Love how modular and simply sourced all the parts are. I literally laughed when you were like "and these are clothspin springs!" So smart.
@@grifftur thanks very much! I hope you are able to build a great camera for yourself! Those cameras with mini trays and developing, plus a macro positive copy function are very cool.
Genius!!! Great woodwork and solution finding
Thanks very much!
Your design is quite innovative! Very good!😍
Thank you very much!
oh my god, i've only made it 4 minutes in but i cannot describe what seeing this project has done for me, I feel very intensely about trying to recreate something similar to this, the built in tripod legs and overall form factor is scratching an itch i never thought could be scratched, that i viewed as sort of drawback of large format you just had to accept, but this is absolutely beautiful. Thank you for sharing friend.
@@isaiahwood1801 thanks so much for your compliments! I am very glad the video may be useful for you! Good luck if you decide to make your own camera!
thanks can you consider to make 617 panoramic camera. again all the best to the family.
I don’t have a lot of interest in panoramic formats. There are lots of 3D printed 6x17 cameras available online to try and make. A field camera with movements is harder to do.
man you did a great job on the bellows!
Thank you! Like I mentioned it took a good three attempts to get it right!
This should be a kickstarter project
Thanks! I have considered how I can bring some of these projects to life as finished products. Right now I’m too busy to undertake producing finished cameras, but maybe in the future I will!
Mate this is brilliant and beautifully made too.
@@monkeysausageclub thanks very much!
That's a beautiful project. Extremely impressive
Thanks very much!
I absolutely love your work and your camera !! Would be incredible if you can make your project open source.
Also I'm very interested on how you convert to positive your negative you get from the photo paper.
Please continue to post and update us
And just to say, your video is really well made, Thanks !
@@zumpitu thanks very much! This camera is about as open source as it can be for now, I tried to link all of the parts so people can buy their own, but the building of wood or other material parts will be different for what parts and tools people have experience in. For other projects I would like to work on I will make more specific parts and instructions and models.
For getting positive images there are two ways. The easiest is to scan the paper negatives and to invert and clean them up digitally, that’s how the images in the video were made. But for nice prints I make contact prints under an enlarger in the darkroom, I have the most success with Multigrade fiber papers and employ dodging and burning to get nice final prints.
I am currently finishing up graduate school so am not able to post as much as I’d like, but I expect in next spring and summer to have a lot more time.
Nice job. Will be waiting for new tutorials.
Thanks
I have more free time in the summer so I am looking forward to put out more videos soon!
This was an incredibly well put together video. I've been tinkering with moving into large format for a little while and your use of the off the shelf parts is brilliant. Obviously there are tradeoffs, but you explain them well and I'm more motivated to build my own.
I liked and subscribed because I'm very interested in the video you teased about the accessible DIY 4x5 camera (seems more approachable for me getting into large format that 11x14).
Thanks very much for subscribing! Yes 4x5 is a great way to get into large format, and I am very excited about the 4x5 camera project, and am hoping to get it done in less than a month.
@@richpence Hey Rich! Just checking to see if you have an ETA on that next video? I just got a LF lens in the mail today and I'm trying to decide what approach I'll take on the camera build for it. Thanks!
@@DannyZawacki Hi there! Teaching / school has started back up so I am slowing down a bit. The next video will be a bellows tutorial, and hoping that will be done in the next few weeks. Getting time to get my 4x5 design together will likely not happen much until mid October or so.
@@richpence makes sense! I appreciate the update.
@@DannyZawacki Can I ask which lens you have, and what kind of camera you are interested to build? I may be able to offer some advice. If you want a very simple camera to just start making some photos with, I'd recommend taking a look at Morten Kolve's WillTravel 4x5 camera. it's all 3d printed and no movements, but via his Ebay store the camera, fit to your lens, is around $180, he also offers his 3d files totally free if you want to print or order prints yourself. It's a great simple camera to just start shooting on.
GREAT Camera and Build! Do you have a product list of the items used in the making of this camera? Also do you have a video of the woodworking side of the build?
Thanks very much. There is a list of the parts in the description, and within the video itself there are screenshots of the exact Amazon listings I used.
I don’t have any major footage of the woodworking beyond some in progress photos. I needed to build the camera in a timely manner, so I did not have time to set up and record that process.
It is mostly intuitive, I do not make heavy drawings or plans first, I obtain the film holder and the lens, the ground glass, and go from those.
Wow! An abandoned gas station would look great through this! (I jest)
Nice to see it all complete and great work on the video!
haha thanks! I'll for sure have to get a Pro Mist filter or maybe some Vaseline and expired color film. Will have to do a Caffenol/dr. pepper film soup and double cross process.
I would love to see a few videos of you using this camera in more places, circumstances, etc, and showing your progress learning to get the best photos out of it.
I’ll try to do that, thanks!
As I've toyed several times with the idea of building my own 11x14, I'm awe struck by the elegant, yet, simple design of your camera. Just beautiful! Now you've got me thinking, again... Thanks so much for sharing this project.
I hope you will make one! Maybe if there is enough of us they will lower the price of film haha!
Dude. Blown away
@@abelpf1 thanks very much!
Outstanding build. I like your use of that standard photo cage hardware.
Thank you for watching!
@@richpence I made a 4x5 Tachihara copy about 1995. Fun project. Good on you.
I look forward to seeing you build the 4x5; I have a hankering to build a 8x10 using your approach.
I’d be interested to see it! The use of those off the shelf arca parts really lets you be more imaginative in your design. The integrated legs are my favorite part of my camera, but for an 8x10 the would be tough to fit the lens inside.
I love your appreciation of quality. This if the first video of yours I've seen but I can tell the amount of love and consideration you've put into the construction of this lovely camera. It reminds me of working with my grandpa in his wood shop, making everything to not only complete it's task but to look and feel good doing it. You've inspired me with soo many ideas in both my photography and camera construction, I'd never considered making my own large format camera simply for what I thought was a more extreme cost. Thank you for sharing such an amazing project, I can't wait to see more videos from you.
Thank you very much! please subscribe if you'd like to keep up to date on my projects. In the next month I am hoping to get my 4x5 DIY plans and video out, my goal is for anyone to be able to make a 4x5 camera for $200 or less. I am even working on a super simple and easy to source lens.
Awsome job both with the camera and the tutorial. Thank you very much for sharing your project and experience.
Thanks very much for watching!
The way you emphasize the simplicity of using off the shelf parts is wonderful. Having your tripod incorporated into the design must save another several pounds. If you could source carbon fiber fittings you could save on weight, but the cost would be higher. Great job and a very nice descriptive video.
As a student, currently and in the past, I never had the kind of money to own “dream cameras”, like Gibellini and Chamonix view cameras, leicas, Hasselblad X-Pans, so I would try and build them myself. These days, I hope to make the kinds of videos and camera designs that a young me would see and be super jazzed to be able to easily gather the parts, make their own designs, and make a camera over a weekend or quiet summer.
I would love to have custom built and designed every piece, it could certainly be a lot lighter, but I also am a sucker for the speed of getting off the shelf stuff, and also the promise of being able to replace anything easily, or modify for other needs, and start from that design principle. For example, this camera is really just the folding box, and a front standard glued onto bellows, the rest can all be easily removed. If needed to lighten it, I could just make a single frame with an arca clamp to put the front standard on and skip all the movements.
Excellent work Rich. I preflash paper at home with enlarger and 0 filter, electronic flash would also work, anything accurate and repeatable. Make a test strip and use the setting where you first see a shift from paper-white. Then you write that setting on the outside of your paper box to use all the time. If you dial it in to this level then you see the full benefit of this technique and will find yourself hooked on it. You can redo the test strip if you change paper brands but I found if it's the same grade/type of paper then the same setting works for all.
@@ianbabcock5951 great tips! I tested the methods I used in the video to see if there are any options for when I don’t have a darkroom or enlarger available before shooting, or couldn’t have a dedicated space or time to pre flash beforehand.
I think my version of the live pre flash with some more testing would still produce the same result. Since I am using a 00 filter installed inside the lens and sunlight which has a nice full spectrum. The thing to figure out is exactly what ratio of exposure to my metered iso 3 exposure is needed to adequately flash the paper.
@@richpence yeah, if doing it on the fly in the field you can flash it with a Zone 1 exposure. Same thing as 1 step above paper-white.
Oh no, it's another hyper specific niche of photography for my ADHD to fixate on 😂 well I guess I'd better get to designing one...
Haha I’m exactly the same way 😂
Very nice video !
Thanks very much!
Looking forward to the smaller version whenever you decide to make the video I will try making it also
Thanks! I am hoping to get to that project next year along with bellows making.
I've found some great camera bags at thrift stores too.
I have had a little bit of a thrift bug lately! Have been lucky to find some useful stuff!
That was inspiring. Earlier this year I was talking myself into making an 810 in the Chamonix Alpinist style for backpacking. A car-portable easel style rig seems much more attainable for a "first go". Tons of great information and insight here. Utilizing the arca plates is genius: way more attainable than trying to fabricate custom pieces. Great stuff!
Awesome! Thanks very much for watching. I hope you try and build your own camera! Maybe try actually just using a box field panting easel, looking at my Wife’s I believe it could be turned into an 8x10. There are several on Amazon for $80-$160, you’d then have a folding box on legs, to reinforce, add arca for movements, bellows, and figuring out how to route and make the spring back. Maybe easier to just do all from scratch.
You really nailed down the simplicity, usability and still have good look! Looking forward and I hope there will be detailed videos about each part.
Now when everybody are trying "vintage" lenses with 16-24 Mpx sensors squishing more vintage juice out of them ( I've also done that - but this did not fill the void ) . Having such camera will create images that will be totally out of range for digital photography for many years ( and still be in very affordable price! ).
Have You tried convert such camera to the dark room enlarger - with the the DIY strong light source. THANKS!!!
Hi! Thanks for all the compliments! About the enlarger, I actually do plan to make this camera into some kind of enlarger someday with a large light source. But if you look at the section in this video where I show the 4x5 camera that I built, I have actually turned that camera into an enlarger and it worked quite well. In the Ansel Adams video I made last year, there is a section in it about darkroom light sources and I show the kind of light source that I used to do that, I’ll keep it in mind for future videos!
Great build!
@@vangstr thank you!
What a fantastic project. It must have been incredibly gratifying to bring to fruition.
I’m really happy with the result!
This is wonderful. Look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Thanks very much!
What would be the dimensions of the camera packed? What about weight? Excellent craftsmanship! Thank you for the video!
Thanks very much for watching! The camera itself is 26lb and measures 20x21x6.5 inches (11.79 kg and measures 508x533x165 mm) But also remember that you also have to drag around the film holder bag and the bag for the lens and other accessories. But I'm very happy with how the built in tripod legs worked out, that really helps a lot with the ease in taking it around.
@ thank you ! I’m at a point deciding whether I want to build a 8x10 or 11x14 . Or buy 8x10 . I’m not to concerned about price difference for paper between the two but I’m thinking of it would be more portable probably I’ll use it more idk
@@cipriandragoi9166 I think what may help is considering what kind of film you want to shoot on, and then what you'll be doing to make your final images. 8x10 is significantly easier to get film holders, lenses, and the film itself. You can easily get all kinds of film in 8x10, and this becomes nearly impossible on 11x14 and up. So 8x10 is for sure much more supported and is the last stop in size for what you'd consider a standard camera.
Next, how will you make your final prints? do you want to be contact printing almost exclusively? or will you want to use an enlarger? 8x10 enlargers are out there if you want to work all analog. I have hopes to make an enlarging back for my 11x14 for big mural prints. And you may find that 8x10 is much more manageable to dev, scan, and digitally print.
On the other hand, 11x14 or bigger contact prints are really beautiful and create a meaningful size impact in that final form, as well as being able to take a full headshot at 1:1 macro size.
I really enjoyed your video and I admire your unique approach to camera building ! 🙂
Thank you, I really appreciate it!
@@richpence I posted a link to your video on the Large Format Photography Forum too. I hope you're cool with that! 🙂
@@seanmac5507 of course, thanks very much, I appreciate it!
Wow! What a fantastic piece of engineering!
Thanks very much!
Amazing work! Sourcing machined parts to fit the design is what has always hindered me from building my own camera. Love the information and that you shared all of it. Lovely camera!
Thanks very much! I hope this can give you the little push to make your own camera! I want to see more handmade cameras out in the world!
I am so glad that you made a video on this, I saw your original post on facebook and my jaw dropped! I will be respectfully ripping off the tripod base idea for my ULF camera in the future, but first the small cameras need to be made.
Thanks for watching! I’m glad it could be useful!
This is labour of love... Well done!!
@@wichersham thank you very much!
Dude... you are on another level... seriously impressive... I now have to go rebuild the P.O.S. 12x12 .... my mind is spinning ... thank you soo much for the effort in making and sharing this video...
Thank you for watching! Glad I could inspire a new project, haha
Factory lens circle coverage is typically stated at infinity and f22, but may also list a smaller diameter at wide open. Of course, as you open up from f22, the area of acceptable sharpness will also decrease toward the edges so, even though the light "covers" a certain area, it may not be acceptably sharp.
The vignetting on only one corner of the image suggests the lens is not dead center in relation to the back standard. You may not see that at higher f stops, but it will suddenly appear when you open-up.
You might be able to build a frame that fits into the rear standard with an opening that will place your front standard in exact center (at zero on all axis) as a centering jig. but if your lens coverage is barely enough to cover the format wide open, that will leave you with practically zero possible movements without vignetting at apertures lower than f22. ULF lenses are NOT cheap!
Great job! I have started shooting paper negatives with a Calumet C2 "Black Beast" 8x10 camera that weighs around 30 lbs by itself, so I think your weight of 26 lbs for 11x14 is fantastic!
@@Kinemechanica thanks very much for the info and compliments! Yes I am for sure more limited than I expected for landscape/infinity focus with the 360mm lens.
One improvement I have made was to accurately measure and then etch lines into the metal parts so that the front standard can be easily centered when setup. I still believe the movements will prove useful for any closer focusing subjects and portraits.
Really interesting video and excellent work. A really interesting and different approach to building/assembling a LF camera. As soon as I saw it I wondered how you would produce the bellows and front standard. It was a complete surprise how you built the FS. Would never have occurred to me but then I am no way an engineer. The bellows ? Respect ! I'd have wimped out and ordered a set. Great work though and an excellent video !
Thanks very much for watching! And there may be hope yet, I am making good progress on a bellows video, showing the full process from designing to building.
I love your design and the design approaches behind like the by design "integrated" transport box, the simplicity of the tripod and the Arca Swiss rail usages.
I am myself in the middle of an own 30x40cm ULF camera build with the following similarities and differences to your path and design:
- I sourced several repro, projector, ... lenses (all without shutter) and put them on Linhof and Toyo plates (adapter).
(Note I: Toyo is my primary 4x5'' / 9x12cm camera.)
(Note II: I started with lenses, as they are the element you can not do yourself.)
- I adapted repro camera shutters (75 +90 mm hole) driven by 24V DC. And I have already the key element of an own shutter (125mm hole) following same repro shutter design. Just programmed an SOC shutter steering for those shutters.
(Note I: I do not expect to be fast than max 1/30th... but even an 1/8th will be good - an shutter tester build in parallel will show.)
(Note II: As the lenses and the shutters are also for use with the Toyo 4x5'' / 9x12cm, I focus at moment my work here)
- For the frame of camera I used 20x20mm aluminium system (us.item24.com US page) cut by supplier on my lengths.
- The film holders will be also based on that material as frame + fiber glass . Here I still change and advance the design inside the frame.
(Note: Seeing the film holder prices and limitations, I try to build those myself)
- Ground glass holder is out of same material and uses like you (to be sanded) acrylic plus an Ebay frensel ;-)
(Note: sing the same construction like for the film holders, I expect no focal plane difference issue by design)
- For the front standard I use the standard Toyo having all free axes moves geared + swing and tilt.
(BTW: My reuse approach could have also worked with a Sinar, Arca, Cambo, Linhof, ... front standard)
- Aside of the frame holder, will be the bellows the most challenging. I plan a bag bellow design out of artificial leather.and other fabric.
- The camera stand on an a normal tripod (an old heavy duty aluminum Gitzo).
Notes:
- The 30x40cm my design focus on x-ray film (or paper) in that max size.
(Note: I want to use the camera also for 24x30cm due to availability of moma x-ray film up to that size and lens availabilities in wide-angle area.)
- Lenses with 600mm + reasonable bellows extension for foutdoor is the limit.
Outlook:
- If this all works fine I consider to use to build / dual-use the 30x40cm for an 50x60cm or 60x60cm together with 800/900mm lenses up to ~ 1:1. But this is far future as being an other beast.
- After the nicer/brighter weather and photo season of 2024 I hope to have the 30x40cm ready for next spring. That includes also a transport case - here your design is very clever-- and a scratch free development method for double side coated x-ray film. Here I have ideas but it is to early to say if it will work.
Wow, thanks for all the details, it is very nice to read about your build!
Using the aluminum extrusion is a good idea, I did similar with the 4x5 camera that I showed in the video, that with then some laser cut black acrylic. I have considered making a couple new enlarger / copy stands out of the same aluminum rail.
For the Bag Bellows, I suggest using blackout curtain liner fabric. It is white, and a bit thick but it is sturdy and should be flexible and hold up to the bag bellows movement very well. Then use a simple piece of black cotton for the inside. Leather is very nice, but the fabric may be simpler to work with and a lot of money saved.
Is there anywhere that you are posting updates? I'm interested to see how you get along with the film holder construction, my suggestion would be to make that part first, then to design your spring back and exact camera sizes relative to that.
@@richpence Good point. Indeed I am thinking since a while about having my construction work posted. But I am not there yet... have not even pictures of my stuff... ;-). But you gave me an other trigger/reason to work on this. I'll keep you updated.
@@FrankTitzeArtShorts great! I look forward to seeing more!
this is so damn cool! great work!
Thank you!
I use the same loupe for my monorail 4x5, a fantastic cheap alternative to the photography specific ones that cost a surprising amount. Awesome video, really cool project
@@assortedwhatnot3282 I have used many of the Carson loupes and I find them to work great! Thanks very much for watching!
What a great camera. I would love to build one for myself. This is well thought out and I love how portable it is. Any plans to share plans/drawings?
I’m happy to answer any questions you may have, and measure out and explain how I worked, but I actually do not have any drawings or plans because I did not make any. When building in wood, I always measure everything off of the parts I have in front of me. For cameras it is a balance between the known exact parts that are critical, and then designing fluidly around those to make everything work. The most crucial sized parts are the exact dimension of the film holder, and then building the ground glass frame and the spring back to perfectly match and fit. The same goes for any lens mount. Then I gathered all of the off the shelf arca rail parts, and the rest of the design was just measuring to what felt like it would fit best for all of those parts to work and collapse into itself. But the parts you collect and find may be different from the parts I have made. Maybe some day I will draw up exact plans of stuff like the spring back, but also I am not totally sure that the design as I have made it is exactly the best possible for expecting others to make from plans, it could likely be simplified and optimized for more people to be able to make. That’s kind of why I didn’t make a really strict step by step of the building for this video, since I haven’t optimized the recipe and steps to be able to show them exactly, there was a lot of trial and error for the making of this camera.
So cool! Great work on the camera and the images!
You may have already figured out the lens coverage question, but if not, I did a little digging out of curiosity.
According to the lens data provided by Nikon, the 360 will cover 415mm at f6.5 which is just shy of 420mm, which is the diagonal of 11x14. In your video, it appears that you may have had a little bit of front rise, which could account for the clipped corners.
It's also worth noting that the data also notes that the same lens covers 494mm at f22. So, stopping down will give you more room to breathe. I hope this is helpful. Thanks for sharing your work on UA-cam!
Thanks so much for the info! I actually had a pretty significant amount of rise for some shots, and those were between f11 and f18, so that explains it! Great to know. I will leave the wider apertures for portraits or still life with little movements (the longer lens distance should help with the coverage) and will stop down more for landscapes. What I really need to do as well is to really accurately measure out when the front standard is exactly centered and note / etch marks for setting up the camera to perfect center.
@@richpence Right on man! I bet the prints look amazing in person. There is just nothing better than ultra fine detail from a big format like that.
@@ArthurFellig thanks! And yes as long as I can keep the dust out of my contact prints!
Awesome job! I saw your post on FB and forgot about the project. I just so happened to chance upon this video while scrolling.
I have that same lens, but have only ever used it for 4x5. It’s so cool to see it reach its maximum potential on 11x14
I am VERY excited about the DIY 4x5 video you mentioned towards the end. I had a sort of “d’oh!” moment when you went over the individual components that make up your camera; how had I never thought to do that before?
Anyway, nice work! Looking forward to seeing more of what you’re doing
+1 to your wife as well. There are many cool projects that do/don’t exist largely due to the support (or lack thereof) of friends and family.
Thanks very much for watching! Yes I am very grateful to have a supportive wife and friends! I have been really enjoying the lens, and a few days ago I sat down and etched in all the centering marks and it turns out I have been putting the lens with a slight bit of rise from what I thought was centered, there is plenty of coverage.
I was just shooting on my original homemade 4x5 yesterday, testing a diy large format lens I’m working on. And seeing all the places I can improve on the new one has gotten me excited to keep working on it! It will be mainly 3D printed then added onto the base parts I showed. But for those who don’t have a 3D printer I am looking into various online printing companies, and want to keep the price of ordered parts around $60 or less. The ground glass (including a fresnel) will be sourced and bellows will be made from material. And I’m hoping for the camera with ordered 3D prints to still be less than $200.
This is insanity!!! Congratulation to this masterpiece of a camera
Thanks very much! I hope I can inspire others to make their own dream cameras!
Really cool and I'm really curious on that 4x5
I am excited for it and working on it right now, it will involve some 3d printing, but that is something that anyone without a printer can send off to various companies online to have prints made for them. The rest of the parts will be collected from amazon, and the bellows made by the user, my goal is for the whole camera to be under $200 total (potentially including a super simple lens I am working on)
Great attitude and delivery.
Well worth watching!
I’m glad you enjoyed!
I'm so interested. Thank you for all ideas!
Thanks for watching! I would love to see more big cameras in the world!
Awesome detailed video! I saw your post on a Facebook page a while back about this camera, so cool seeing a video about it!
I was in Zion with my 4x5 last month and I’m working on my own video about my photos from there
Awesome! I’m looking forward to your video!
maravilloso trabajo! Una cámara preciosa.
¡Muchas gracias!
Incredible build! Love the problem solving.
Thanks! That to me is the fun part!
Great job, it seems easy to do. I like the way the bellows turned out.
Thanks very much! Bellows and a few of the wood cuts were the hardest thing to do, but most of the time was spent on really figuring out all the dimensions.
I'd love a plan for a 6x17 bellow camera
Wouldn’t it make more sense to just buy or make a roll film back for 4x5 or 5x7 cameras?
@@richpence Of course we will need a film back, but I once saw a camera like this and it is flatter than a standard camera with an adjustment
Nice work building your own ULF. It is well thought out and I love the built in tripod. You might find a larger dark cloth well work better especially when you are in a bright environment. Well done sir
Thanks very much! I have some bigger cloths I can use, but I like that the small one fits easily in the bag, and in the summertime heat it does not get as hot underneath. I know I can have white fabric on the outside, but I am in Phoenix AZ, so it does not help much in 110 degrees. I’ll take any kind of breeze I can get under the cloth! Plus the lens is quite bright at f6.5, so have been bright enough so far.
This looks so good. I'd be very intrested in a video about your process making contact prints from paper negatives
Thank you! I will see about making a video on that! I have actually made a video going over some more advanced contact printing processes in my Making Large Negatives in the darkroom Video that is already up if you'd like to take a look, it has lots of contact printing in the process.
Dang, super cool man! Looking forward to the 4x5 video.
Thanks very much! Today I am sitting down to work out much more of the design of it!
wow thanks for sharing !
@@adrienpayet thanks for watching!
i would love to see this with color film
I would too! I’m fairly unlikely to shoot any though, it is around $30 per sheet, and most of all it is quite difficult to process at this size. Maybe someday! I think 8x10 film and cameras is more feasible for shooting large format color film. If you have not yet, check out Ben Horne’s UA-cam channel, he shoots 8x10 color film almost exclusively.
Really really amazing job. Well done! You might already know this, but the Nikkor W 360mm has an image circle of about 494mm. On 11x14 this gives you roughly 1 inch of movement in any direction before vignetting occurs. I suspect excessive movemens may have caused the vignetting on your Zion image. Looking forward to more videos.
Thanks for watching! Yes that is correct, I was giving too much movement, but another problem is that I hadn’t yet really measured and etched the rails to know that I am starting from perfectly centered! Which I have done now, so now I will be starting from a better place.
Glad you got that sorted. Looking forward to what you can do with the camera.
@@renepirolt thanks very much!
It would be interesting to take pin-hole images with this format.😊
@@johnbowyer6902 pinhole would be a quite interesting project for a big camera! The design could be a lot more simple and compact.
Amazing! Beautiful work! And thanks for the in-depth demonstration!
Thank you for watching!
Awesome content! I work on my first large format camera and you give me so much inspiration ! I ll share my ideas too! Thank you
Great! I hope it goes well and thank you for watching!
Great built. I like how U use off the shelf parts
Thanks very much! Also I appreciate your projects on your channel, Great Work!
Love this! Really cleverly put together and the wood looks beautiful!
Thanks very much for the compliments! I recently moved to Arizona / western US from the Eastern US, and I’m amazed at the nice hardwood selections you can find here even in Home Depot.
@@richpence Very cool!
While watching, I had an idea for an "upgrade", for connecting the dark cloth to the camera. Instead of using the clamps, perhaps either of these two options work (and leave the need to carry clamps)
1. Velcro. Having it stitched onto the cloth, with the other parts on the wooden frame. The only downside would be the noise of taking the velcro off (might be an issue in nature)
2. Metal rings on the dark cloth, that you can hook on little latches on the wooden frame
@@MickBenjamins good ideas! I like the metal hook one, Velcro to me is just not a very attractive material compared to the rest of the camera. I think what maybe I would like is some fabric strips with riveted snap buttons at the top corners inside the box since I am considering a similar method for making some adjustable straps for the bellows droop issue.
@@richpence Very cool! Looking forward to future updates on this :-)
Thank you so much for your effort to create this video and build this wonderful camera. Its such an inspiration to slow down more while taking pictures.
Thanks very much for watching! I appreciate it!
This was fascinating to watch. Your intuitive understanding of camera construction, understanding of how light travels and your ability to source material from just about anywhere make me want to go out and explore this for myself. I currently have both a Sinar and a Graflex 4x5. Thinking about making a hybrid build between both of these cameras with extra features designed into a single unit. So many things to think about. Your post processing skills and add in video explanations were very helpful. Subscribed and liked to assist you achieving 1000 subscribers 😊
Thanks so much for watching and for the compliments! I hope you do make or customize your cameras to work well for you, maybe save some money for more lenses or film along the way! I was just using my DIY 4x5 yesterday to test a diy large format lens I’m working on. But I realized that my old camera is not as great as it could be, so I’m looking forward to finishing my next project of the affordable 4x5 camera, so I’m hoping that will be out later this summer!
Absolute genius! Bravo-Well Done! Thank you for sharing this!
Thank you very much for watching!
Brilliant work thank you.study Adams and Weston old analog guy here. Picture on sir
@@ML-rm3vk thanks for watching! I have studied both quite a bit, you. Can see an earlier video I made all about the third book in Ansel’s series The Print.
Congratulations. Excellent work. Thank you for sharing.
@@franzscaramelli2651 thank you for watching!
Will there be a video of the production process?
Is there a particular part you are referring to? My intention is for this video to be able to act as the sole reference for how I built this camera. I was focused on problem solving and getting the camera completed on schedule so I did not film the bulk of the woodworking save some of the photos I share at 38:51. My hope is for anyone interested in building an ultra large format is to go about making their own ideal camera with it’s own production and dimensions that fit their needs and material and production abilities, take inspiration from the mechanisms and design I used, but not just make a copy. I will be making a full video about designing and producing of camera bellows in the next few weeks.
Great job on this unique camera. Really clever design choices.
Thank you very much!
Thank you for sharing. This has been a goal to build my own camera. Thank you for the review and your work on sharing your build
@@bonnevillegarage thanks for watching! I hope this can be useful for your own build!
@richpence do you have any video close-up photos of your back frame and spring plate?
@@bonnevillegarage Yes I have some more closeup photos and behind the scenes of the building. If you are on Facebook, join the Large Format Photography and Handmade Film Camera groups. I have posted many photos about this camera. Also if you are on instagram my username is Richpence like my youtube channel. I have posted more photos about this camera, but also you can feel free to send me a message asking any specific questions and I can take more photos of parts of the camera.
@richpence thank you again for sharing such amazing talent
Nice video ! Miss you buddy!
Thanks, man, I miss you too!
Incredible! I just found my new project! What you’ve done is really impressive. Can’t wait to watch more of your vids
Also that list you’ve provided is gold!! I’d love to know more about the bellows. When do you think that video might come out?? 🎉
@@Squeegeecleanthanks very much! I have recorded a large part of the building process videos for bellows, but still will need to record the design side of things. Realistically I won’t be able to get to it until after April when I am finished with graduate school.
Congratulations on the realisation of the optical bench! Looks like you're back in 1800! I have no experience of optical bench with large format film, but only with Hasselblad 500CM. I just remember that I got to see up close an optical bench (I don't remember if Linhof or Sinar or another brand) of a friend of mine in his photo studio. Impressive to notice the great detail and dynamics of the shadowed parts of your photos. For the filter, instead of having it internally, why not have a slide on the front optics so that you can also use other filters, red or blue? About the fall of light at the edges depends on the optics? For a larger format print than film how do you do it? Do you digitise the negative and then print on plotter? Anyway my compliments for the construction.
Thanks very much! I will try and answer your questions. For the filter, I worked with what I had available. I knew I would be using darkroom photographic paper as my negatives, so I had to use that specific filter type. Some also use regular yellow or orange filters for the film, but the issue is the size of my les. The Filter thread is 95mm, a odd and very large size, so filters are hard to find, and when you do find them, they are extremely expensive. My solution worked for what I need the camera to do, and the filter is always easy to remove in just a minute, and the filter is the exact best kind in my opinion for the negatives I am making. The paper itself is darkroom paper, so it is actually designed to not be sensitive to RED light at all, and inside of a camera it is extra sensitive to blue and UV light, so the filter is helpful. The filter will also work quite well on black and white film to darken a blue sky slightly. I would only really need to remove it for shooting color film or paper. Yes the lens light falloff is a matter of the lens I have, and giving too much movement up to see the mountains level. If the lens were to be centered and the whole camera tilted up it would cover the whole image. For prints I still make them in the darkroom! I sandwich a new sheet of paper under the face down negative and use an enlarger to shine light through the negative. This process is called "Contact Printing". If you look at my video "Making Analog Alternative Process Negatives in the Darkroom: Ortho Litho Film for Cyanotypes" You can see my darkroom and several versions of contact printing in action.
@@richpence Thanks for the reply. I know very well that square filters for large diameter lenses are expensive! On the other hand they have the convenience of removing or inserting without having to dismantle the optics. I have no experience with prints from very large format negatives but only 120 from Hasselblad. Yes, I had heard of the contact printing technique, but if they ask you, for an exhibition or for home furnishings, for a larger print than the negative, what do you do? I was curious to know having seen your very high quality negative from which, for example, a 2 m x 2 m print can be produced. I don't think there are enlargers for that type of prints for which the only solution is digital scanning and sending the file to a service. I watch the video of your darkroom
For the filter, Since I do not currently have any traditional film (Regular ilford hp5 is available in 11x14 sheets but it is $375 for 25 sheets), and do not plan to make any color negatives, so having the filter live inside the camera actually makes shooting more convenient. Good question about print size. My first response would be to simply stand firm on keeping the size the way it is. I don't have any issues with digital technologies, I use them a lot and of course did make high resolution scans for this video, but for my artwork I tent to want it to stay within what is possible with analog process. To me the direct connection between the end print, and the cameras on location is important. If I absolutely had to enlarge the negatives further, there are a few options. 1. I could turn this 11x14 camera into an enlarger by making a large light source and negative holder that attaches to the back of the camera, which stays upright and points at the wall. Then a large roll of darkroom paper is cut and a large print made on the wall, this is called mural printing and has been used to make extremely large darkroom prints. Another options would be to make a good contact print, then to take a high resolution image of it onto 4x5 film, or some other format that has more common enlargers, then make bigger prints traditionally.
@@richpence I saw the video of your work in the darkroom. The orthochromatic technique is interesting. As well as pointing the enlarger towards the wall for larger format prints, but are there sensitive large format papers? In 1975 I dabbled in b/w printing with the Durst enlarger but then gave up due to lack of time.
@@clabart There are still many large format papers available in both color and black and white. Cut sheets go up in size to 30 inches x 40 inches (75cm x 100cm) and rolls are available in a variety of widths, the biggest being 56 inches wide (142cm), normally with 100 foot lengths (30 meters)
"Boo!" - cue micro jump scare 😅This is an epic project
Haha sorry for the scare, thanks for watching!