Building a Field Camera

Joenail

Joenail

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Joe
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Hello!

I'm at the early stages of building a 5x7 (maybe 10x8) field camera for both wet plate and film. I need something to use when the monorail is too big and bulky. For, say, environmental portraits. It gets awkward when people are waiting around for you to move tables about and get tripod all over everything. Problem is though, I haven't ever spent much time with field cameras, never longer than a half hour or so, so I'm a little unsure of some things. Most I can work out by having a bit of common sense, but I was hoping if some of you could give me a hand with some measurements and things. I'm unsure of how big the back (/box) should be in relation to the film/ground glass size. How much space between the ground glass and the edge of the camera, the size of the hole with the back removed. Yes, let me try to make this a bit more clear.

How big (roughly) do I want to make the back/actual box for 5x7 and 10x8? Or how much bigger it is in relation to the long edge on a 5x4, since the other two can be rare.

Does anybody know of an easy-ish way of sorting out the ground glass/film holdy bit, keeping it lightproof and all. I'm not too worried about little details like them being exactly equal. As long as it just about works.

Generally anything else, any other advice people can give me about building a camera would be appreciated!

Cheers,

J
 
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Im in The early stages of building a 5x4 camera. Working from the front to the back, so far i have made a lens and that's it, I've tested the lens with a makeshift camera, shoe box with a tracing paper focus screen and it all looks sharp (ish) lol. Before i continue i need to work out if its going to be monorail or not. Haven't decided yet.
I have a double dark slide to work from rear to front now so my next step is the rear standard. Im guessing i will make a copy of the film holder and mount my own ground glass on the film plane.
Bellows will be hand made too but the project is on hold due to funding issues. Would be great to see your progress
 
Oooh now that's an idea, I hadn't thought of making a lens! How have you done that? Pics would be good, if possible. Darkslide idea is good too, that would help with getting the glass and film in the same place. Lovely. Apparently it's easier to build a monorail, since you don't have to think about the folding and get a little more leeway with measurements. But then you have to think about movements and sturdiness and different materials. Brass, maybe, to lock everything down a bit tighter.

Here's what I have so far anyway. It's just a prototype-ish thing made from balsa wood and mountboard, but it's gave me a good idea of size and things to worry about and whatnot.

I've cut little run things for the lens to come out here but for the actual thing I'm going to use drawer sliders with a bit of wood across them. No movements planned so far, I think I'll leave that out until I know what I'm doing. Piano hinges will hold and fold the bottom bit, maybe continuous ones so I can have some front rise and fall with some sort of device on the bottom to lock it in place.
2gtrw90.jpg


This is what I meant about the size of the back. The (rough) 7x5 hole here only leaves around 15mm of space to the edge of the camera. I suppose I'll need to make the bellows first to determine how much I'll need.
2h34jzp.jpg


About 50mm added to the end of the bottom bit (I really need to find out the name for that!) for extra support for close-ups. Will be done with piano hinges as well.
2ex6l53.jpg


I think I'm just about there, one more messy one in full wood with the drawer slides and all and I'll get started on the real thing. And yes, thanks Tim, I had a look around there a while ago, lots of useful writings. His are quite a bit more fancy than mine though. For now, at least.

Oh, and apologies for the Lomography sticker :lol:
 
Well regarding the lens, i bought a set of plastic lenses on the net intended for educational use. It was an impulse buy but thought why not try making something with them, i haven't got around to measuring the focal length or aperture for that matter and im not even sure i will.
Im in work at the moment so can't show any images. But its made with two elements, seems relatively wide and has plenty of blur around the edges, so not unlike a lensbaby.
I like how yours is coming on though
 
Tricky69 said:
I've been thinking about it for a while. Not started yet though..

I'd be very interested to see your design/research too :)

I've been whatching this guy for a bit... http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnnyoptic/ He makes his own lenses

Rich
Click to expand...

Oh yes, those look great! I'll have a think about making a lens, definitely something I'd like to try at some point! Although I have an unmarked brass thing I'd like to use for this camera. If I can figure out the size of the circle, that is! If not I'll just stick with the Schneider I have for 5x4.


acs said:
Cut the back to the white edge and make a square removable back, that way you can rotate it for portrait and landscape. This would also give you the option of making a reducing back with similar fixings.
Click to expand...

That's exactly the plan! Thanks for the links though, as simple as it sounds, I hadn't even thought of looking at their actual websites. Silly :bonk:
 
for just over 5x4 with no movement, I've read that some of the Larger Kodak Autograph lenses and shutters will have a big enough circle. I've bought one with this in mind, but not tested it yet.

I've also got a collection of Kodak retinettes and similar, that I bought with the idea of butchering the Copal (i think) shutters off .

the circle and focal length should be guessable with a candel and a sheet of paper - with a lens in between.

I have saved links to this kind of stuff - but I'm not that organised, to know where I stored them :bonk: :lol:
 
You can determine the focal length by holding the lens a few centimetres off of a while wall (or paper or whatever) and pointing it out a window. Move the lens back and forward blah blah until it's focused to infinity, the distance from the lens to the wall is the focal length. It's very simple and easy to measure by rounding up since lenses are almost always a standard length, 150, 90, etc. In large format, that is. Jasun Brunner (from APUG) has a few good videos about it on Youtube. From there I'm sure you can find the imagine circle and widest aperture and whatnot.

Simon, that thing is frying my brain :runaway: Definitely useful though, thank you!
 
Ahhh so im not alone lol! It is a bit mental is it not.
Yeah well I've looked into measuring the focal length but im sure there was somethin not right about my equations. The resulting focal length kept coming out at a different value, I've not built a zoom by the way lol
Just need to concentrate more on the job in hand i think
 
Are you sure you're focusing to infinity? You might be moving slightly each time, might be an idea to try it with the front standard (if you've got that far yet!) and some paper so it can lock in place. Or just compare it with one you know the f/l of already. I don't suppose it matters too much, just nice to know!
 
Well i finally got around to measuring the focal length of the lens i built. Its a 100mm f2
I think that equates to about 28mm in the world of 35mm so should suffice for some landscape work and what have you. It can focus really close too.
As for my camera build its coming on ok. I have the front standard and rear standard made, the focus screen in and double dark slide holder on. Its a monorail of sorts. Made a bellows and just need some fine tuning from here on in.
How's yours coming along Joe?
 
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