'show us your camera or improvised/converted camera'

[Andrew Plume]

ok

this is pinching a thread from over on the Large Format Photography Forum...........................

how about members of this decent forum showing their little cameras on here, if possible the quirkier the better

I'll try and post later this week - in fact some time ahead.............


andrew

[Nigels]

OK, here is the pinhole camera I made;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24301567@N ... 85/detail/

[dave_whatever]

Nice lego box! It got me thinking what might be possible with lego, and 10 seconds with google brought me up this!, and also this

[Andrew Plume]

thanks guys, we need some 'creative cameras/thinking' on here too but there's always your trad cameras to post, too...........?

so, with a wet UK at the moment and no doubt a dreary Bank Hol weekend up ahead, time to get some interesting photos on here.........?


andrew

[IanG]

Back around 1992/3 I was given this camera by a photographer friend, she said it's no use to me - you have it. It sat like this on a mantle piece until May 2010 when I decided on the spur of the moment to try and restore it.

There was no front standard, a broken lens board, bellows that had seen their last days, a broken carrying strap, no focus screen and some missing screws & brass parts. A challenge.

Stripping the camera down to it's components, removing the bellows and all the screws and brass fittings, I cleaned the woodwork, sanded it down with #400 sand paper and then applied two coats of French polish. I'd repaired and polished the lens board some months before while restring a Thornton Pickard shutter so already knew how the camera might look.



With the French polish dry and the Brass work polished the camera was re-assembled. The next stage was replacing the front standard, bellows and the missing parts.

First it was necessary to ascertain the shape and type of fittings needed for the construction of new front standard. Looking in photography books from around 1900 there were plenty of wooden folding cameras most larger or too different, but one Half-Plate camera was obviously very similar, and in addition the space the standard has to fit when folded constrains the overall dimensions, having to fit with the stabiliser bar etc.



The Pembroke Outfit Half Plate camera (1902)



The front standard of a W. Butcher & Sons, Half plate camera, showing how the rise & fall is controlled. However on this Quarter plate camera the brass plate is attached to the standard (the opposite way around) and the knob for tightening is on the bottom of the lens board panel. It was then possible to have a new standard constructed based on information gleaned from these two images and the dimensional constraint mentioned above. A local joiners made the new standard fro oak, cutting a grooved profile to allow the lens board to rise.fall.



This keys into the front of the focus rail.



While the standard was being made I had some glass cut and ground anew focus screen, details can be found here on how to make a screen. Once completed it was fitted it to the back. Now I felt the camera could be fully restored, the largest remaining job was the new bellows and brass fittings.

I drew up a bellows pattern in CorelDraw and printed off the folding templates and stiffening struts. The fabric for the bellows was made light proof with acrylic black paint, and based on how I'd repaired and also made shutter cloth in the past when repairing Thornton Pickard shutters. It took about 2 hours work to make the new bellows but subsequent sets would be quicker.





The camera folds compactly.



Prototypes for the missing brass parts have been made, but two parts need some slight modifications. I have a Thornton Pickard shutter which fits the front of the lens and a new (second) lens board has also been made and fitted with a coated Rodenstock f3.5 Trinar. In addition an adaptor has been made to fit a 6x7 Graflex roll film back.

So a pre 1900 camera can be used with a modern lens & film without compromising the integrity of the camera itself. The only thing holding up final completion is I can't find brass screws small enough here, so it'll have to wait my next visit to the UK & the rain

Ian

[Andrew Plume]

hello Ian

excellent indeed your refurbished little wooden camera - seem to recall you mentioning this little project over on the LFPF

andrew

[Paul Mitchell]

What an excellent write up Ian! really enjoyed reading and seeing the before and after pics, great stuff

[Clive Gray]

This year all the magnolias flowered late and the huge Magnolia Cambellii at leonardslee was in flower in April rather than Febuary, you can't really get a decent shot close to it so this meant dragging the 10X8 to the far side of the lakes and using a long lens in this case the Docter 750mm Apo Germinar.



The camera could loosely be described as a Sinar C, there is everything from Norma to P2 in there.
The end result is not the most interesting of images but there is a fair amount of resolution there

[IanG]

An unusual camera that came with a second Speed Graphic described as two to build one from the parts Unfortunately they were both in poor condition and entirely different models, this one based on a pre-Anniversary Speed Graphic, the other a badly damaged Pacemaker Speed Graphic with the shutter missing.

This non standard pre-Anniversary Wide Angle Speed Graphic appears to have been made as a special order. Graflex supplied part made cameras to outside workshops who converted them for specialist uses, prison & police cameras etc. The front of the body is cut away to allow composing with the frame-finder and a wide angle lens, the range-finder and cam are also set for a lens wider than a 90mm.



As bought for parts



Parts



More parts



Mid restoration, the leatherette had long disappeared so the wood was french polished instead. The bellows where in far better condition than they appear in this image.

The shutter needed a small amount of work, the blind was carefully impregnated with black PVA paint which sealed pinholes while retaining full flexibility. and the mechanism was cleaned and once re-assembled adjusted.



Rebuilding the back



Focus screen assembly



The front bed & focus track



The camera is now fully restored and functions well, it's possible to use a 65mm Super Angulon although a fresnel screen would make focusing far easier.

The second camera was also restored, needing two new rear focus rail tracks. The shutter control area on the side was filled in with papier-mâché and then the body etc re-covered using vinyl cloth. The damaged had looked far worse than the reality.

So my initial dismay when opening the package from the US turned out to be unfounded in the end and I did well from the $60 transaction.

Ian

[Andrew Plume]

This year all the magnolias flowered late and the huge Magnolia Cambellii at leonardslee was in flower in April rather than Febuary, you can't really get a decent shot close to it so this meant dragging the 10X8 to the far side of the lakes and using a long lens in this case the Docter 750mm Apo Germinar.

...

The camera could loosely be described as a Sinar C, there is everything from Norma to P2 in there.
The end result is not the most interesting of images but there is a fair amount of resolution there

...

Clive, I'm assuming you have your 'Ansel Adams pack mule' with you to carry all of this gear............?

andrew

[Andrew Plume]

The camera is now fully restored and functions well, it's possible to use a 65mm Super Angulon although a fresnel screen would make focusing far easier.

The second camera was also restored, needing two new rear focus rail tracks. The shutter control area on the side was filled in with papier-mâché and then the body etc re-covered using vinyl cloth. The damaged had looked far worse than the reality.

So my initial dismay when opening the package from the US turned out to be unfounded in the end and I did well from the $60 transaction.

Ian

another great restoration Ian and an unusual wooden Graflex too - what's the lens hiding inside the Ilex Acme No3, please?

andrew

[IanG]

another great restoration Ian and an unusual wooden Graflex too - what's the lens hiding inside the Ilex Acme No3, please?
andrew

One of my Paragon's probably the 7¼" mainly because I happened to have a lens board that it fitted & the camera. I need to make some new lens boards, surprisingly the camera came with an unused one.

Ian

[Andrew Plume]

One of my Paragon's probably the 7¼" mainly because I happened to have a lens board that it fitted & the camera. I need to make some new lens boards, surprisingly the camera came with an unused one.

Ian

thx Ian, I'd be interested to hear what you think about the Ilex Paragaon's, (I have two fwiw) ?

andrew

[IanG]

thx Ian, I'd be interested to hear what you think about the Ilex Paragaon's, (I have two fwiw) ?

andrew

The truth is Andrew that I don't really know, I bought them around the time I moved abroad, I had one here (Turkey) for my Crown Graphic and never used it in 3 years, I also have a 210 Symmar for my Wista that I bought from an APUG moderator at a bargain price, and hardly used that either, I'm just not a long lens user for my personal work. I've had a 300mm f9 Nikon 20 years bought when the Yen was at it's highest ever pint against the Pound, so extremely expensive, I've used it twice and never used an image It'll get used when I shoot studio work with one of my 10x8's as my coated Dagor has no flash synch, and my main Agfa Ansco came with a lens board that had been used with the same 300mm Nikon lens

However I've begun to take a liking to the 210 Symmar and made some great images with it recently so may return a Paragon to the Crown Graphic kit, I put both in storage in the UK in April.

I'll give them both a good test when I'm back in the UK in October.

Ian

[Andrew Plume]

thanks indeed Ian

andrew