My 10x8 camera build ... ongoing!

Marley's Ghost

Marley's Ghost

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Well it all started nearly four and a bit years ago when I decided to have a crack at building a 5x7 camera ... went to all the trouble of researching and making a 5x7 set of bellows. I started with the bellows because if I couldn't make a good set then there was no point in making any other parts!
Well the bellows turned out rather well, but my Kodak Specialist dropped into my hands so to speak shortly after I built the bellows ... so I shelved the project to get on with shooting that.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I was really starting to get the itch to try 10x8 and having cut my teeth on a 5x7 bellows I made ... I think ... an even nicer job of a 10x8 set. Unfortunately the fates weren't smiling on me, and the pressure of my job ... coupled with trying to turn out weekly episodes of my YouTube channel - and a health issue that limited my ability to walk without lots of pain - caused a big case of photographic 'burn out'. I pulled up the drawbridge and shot very little ... or just digital for a while. Sometimes a rest is a good thing.
Anyway the film cameras have been out again and I'm feeling a renewed energy for large format ... and I pulled the 10x0 bellows from its safe storage and decided to crack on! If anyone wants to see my two channel episodes on making bellows they are here and here.

As luck would have it, a little while ago my large CO2 laser cutter got a power increase - I blew a tube and a power supply - and so fitted a more powerful tube and matching larger power supply. Here's the laser ...


All this leading to me being able to munch through 9mm ply like lightning - so I decided that that would be my building material of choice.
It made short work of bellows frames

The spare glue on the bellows seam cleans up well with a bit of isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud ...

Frames fitted ...



I finger jointed the front and rear standards ... here they are glued but not cleaned up yet ... ultimately I'll use black stain and gunstock oil for finishing. You can see the 'optical bench' part ... that is the focus mechanism taking shape ... all based on CNC machine parts ... taking a leaf out of Intrepid's book



The focus unit nearly complete ... the rails are over length and I'll have to prime up me angle grinder and chop those stainless steel rails ... a hacksaw won't even scratch them!




To be continued
 
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If you can make bellows, you can make anything. I’m seriously impressed I can do nothing but marvel at you people who can do this stuff.
 
jhotopf said:
Great to see you back.
Click to expand...
Thanks ... this is a return to enjoying photography again for me. I am in a state of 'soft retirement' picking and choosing work rather than being a wage slave ... and this is allowing me do do stuff for 'me' again :)
 
Currently juggling with getting some swing on the rear standard design ... the Intrepid one for example seems rather limiting ... and while it's light ... I quite fancy having a bit more movement. I resigned that my home brewed 10x8 won't be a featherweight :)
 
So been making slow but steady progress.
The swing back 'feet' are made and mounted on the camera baseboard.
Still not convinced I'll use the 1/4 duralumin bar I have handy for rear standard supports. but this shows the rear standard more or less in position with the front standard propped up for the pic.
Possibly 1/3 of the way through the build!
Camera 4.jpg
 
You could try fitting an intrepid 8x10 back to that if you want a relatively easy solution to that part of it.
 
jhotopf said:
You could try fitting an intrepid 8x10 back to that if you want a relatively easy solution to that part of it.
Click to expand...
Good suggestion ... but I've already built 5x7 spring backs and ground the focus screens for them ... so a 10x8 shouldn't be much of a challenge :) Plus I have a few locking ideas I want to try out.

I have a new 10x8 film holder to build a back around ...
 
For the front and rear swing/shift it’s possible to use arca style plates to get very sturdy and light movements , I modded the front std of my mk1 Intrepid mk1 108 , it takes all the wobble out , it works because there is a lot of rise used to centre the front std giving room to add the plates - it’s not all wood but very effective, will try and post a pic tomorrow.
 
So propped everything together with the prototype rear standard supports and it looks like a camera ... yay. The rear standard supports were simply a proof of concept ... and I mow need to sit down with my CAD program and design the final product. The lens board area has been made deliberately large to accommodate very large barrel lenses and various test bed shutter types.
 
Just built some mark two rear standard supports that are much more the thing ... only taken me three prototypes to get what I want!

Luckily 9mm ply is cheap, and by trial and error I'm getting what I want! Camera has lockable and centred rear tilt and swing ... and also unusually rear rise ... this is a by product of thicker bellows that give me a taller than normal 'folding position' for the rear standard.
 
If you're able to enable some forward/back movement in your rear standard it will make focussing a lot easier but this is progressing well. Quite amazing what you can do with a laser cutter and plywood.
 
Nas said:
If you're able to enable some forward/back movement in your rear standard it will make focussing a lot easier but this is progressing well. Quite amazing what you can do with a laser cutter and plywood.
Click to expand...
I tend to mount my LF cameras on a focus rack ... so I kinda designed this to be used this way.
I may well make another of these out of hardwood at some point ... plywood is a brilliant prototyping medium ... and if it was good enough for the de Haviland Mosquito and Vampire ... it's good enough for me :)
 
Marley's Ghost said:
Well it all started nearly four and a bit years ago when I decided to have a crack at building a 5x7 camera ... went to all the trouble of researching and making a 5x7 set of bellows. I started with the bellows because if I couldn't make a good set then there was no point in making any other parts!
Well the bellows turned out rather well, but my Kodak Specialist dropped into my hands so to speak shortly after I built the bellows ... so I shelved the project to get on with shooting that.
Fast forward a couple of years, and I was really starting to get the itch to try 10x8 and having cut my teeth on a 5x7 bellows I made ... I think ... an even nicer job of a 10x8 set. Unfortunately the fates weren't smiling on me, and the pressure of my job ... coupled with trying to turn out weekly episodes of my YouTube channel - and a health issue that limited my ability to walk without lots of pain - caused a big case of photographic 'burn out'. I pulled up the drawbridge and shot very little ... or just digital for a while. Sometimes a rest is a good thing.
Anyway the film cameras have been out again and I'm feeling a renewed energy for large format ... and I pulled the 10x0 bellows from its safe storage and decided to crack on! If anyone wants to see my two channel episodes on making bellows they are here and here.

As luck would have it, a little while ago my large CO2 laser cutter got a power increase - I blew a tube and a power supply - and so fitted a more powerful tube and matching larger power supply. Here's the laser ...


All this leading to me being able to munch through 9mm ply like lightning - so I decided that that would be my building material of choice.
It made short work of bellows frames

The spare glue on the bellows seam cleans up well with a bit of isopropyl alcohol on a cotton bud ...

Frames fitted ...



I finger jointed the front and rear standards ... here they are glued but not cleaned up yet ... ultimately I'll use black stain and gunstock oil for finishing. You can see the 'optical bench' part ... that is the focus mechanism taking shape ... all based on CNC machine parts ... taking a leaf out of Intrepid's book



The focus unit nearly complete ... the rails are over length and I'll have to prime up me angle grinder and chop those stainless steel rails ... a hacksaw won't even scratch them!




To be continued
Click to expand...

May I ask where you got the pinion screw and nut holders?
 
Of course :)
From Amazon ... IIRC about £11.00 for two sets of 300mm helical screws, nut and bearings (stainless helical screws- brass nuts).
I obviously have a spare set which is handy.
 
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