tribal-warrior
Member
So recently, I had an idea to build an extremely basic and very cheap but workable large format camera. It won't have typical view camera movements like tilt, shift, swing etc. I was actually inspired by this video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW4dhOJVfzk&t=330s
Extremely basic as you see but I wanted to take it a step further and have two standards with the front one movable for adjusting focus (though once again done on the cheap.) Though I may take a different approach to the ground glass. Ive never laid my hands on a film holder before but I would assume that the slot where the film slides in is very thin? I had an idea to place some ground glass in this very same slot in the dark slide for composing and focusing. That way, the GG would be on the very same plane as the film (when it's replaced with film.) Though I guess the glass would probably be too thick to fit inside? I guess one could try wax paper instead!
For the two standards, I could cut wood to size or use something already made like two drawers or some cigar boxes. And have some material like black velvet draped over the top between them and raised with some kind of raised support to prevent it from sagging. On second thoughts, that wouldn't work - the raised support would have to be collapsible (too tricky to implement) so I'd have to make a bellows instead. I admit I'm really lost for ideas about the movement of the front standard and how to achieve this. I admit I'm not a handyman or a craftsman so it would have to be something very basic....possibly something that's ready-made but designed for a different purpose. Obviously, the movement would preferably have to be dampened with some resistance to make focusing easier. Though then again, once with a 35mm SLR with macro lens and extension tube, I used a row of sticks / pencils etc on the ground to roll the camera back and forth for focus. It was crude but it worked fine.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW4dhOJVfzk&t=330s
Extremely basic as you see but I wanted to take it a step further and have two standards with the front one movable for adjusting focus (though once again done on the cheap.) Though I may take a different approach to the ground glass. Ive never laid my hands on a film holder before but I would assume that the slot where the film slides in is very thin? I had an idea to place some ground glass in this very same slot in the dark slide for composing and focusing. That way, the GG would be on the very same plane as the film (when it's replaced with film.) Though I guess the glass would probably be too thick to fit inside? I guess one could try wax paper instead!
For the two standards, I could cut wood to size or use something already made like two drawers or some cigar boxes. And have some material like black velvet draped over the top between them and raised with some kind of raised support to prevent it from sagging. On second thoughts, that wouldn't work - the raised support would have to be collapsible (too tricky to implement) so I'd have to make a bellows instead. I admit I'm really lost for ideas about the movement of the front standard and how to achieve this. I admit I'm not a handyman or a craftsman so it would have to be something very basic....possibly something that's ready-made but designed for a different purpose. Obviously, the movement would preferably have to be dampened with some resistance to make focusing easier. Though then again, once with a 35mm SLR with macro lens and extension tube, I used a row of sticks / pencils etc on the ground to roll the camera back and forth for focus. It was crude but it worked fine.