Really Large Format
What could be better then a 4 x 5 neg you ask? Well how about an 8 x 10 neg! Now wouldn't that beat all! You know that fine fine fine grain you get in your contact sheets? Well how about getting that with a decent image size? That's why 8 x 10 appealed to me. Well that and I like to try to do hard things. Nothing like a challenge. So I looked around the web and found some plans for building cameras.
The first three links are about building medium and large format cameras. The fourth is a great site for learning how to make your own bellows and the fifth is the guy who will machine parts for your lens and shutter.
Link 1
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Link 2
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Link 3
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Do It Yourself Bellows
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Large Format Information
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SK Grimes
Did I use any of them though? Nope, I faked my own.
Here is my first 8 x 10 camera.
Pretty clunky huh? Not to mention that it weights a ton being that it's made out of oak. However this camera cost me almost nothing to make. A friend that has scraps donated the wood, I made the bellows and a few other parts came from that scavenged stat camera I mentioned before. My lens is a 210 mm, f9 barrel lens. If you take a closer look at the bottom picture on the left you'll see that my bellows is held on the camera with nothing more then illustration board and wood screws. I lined it with black felt to make it light safe but this is a very low tech solution. It really pisses me off how they charge thousands of dollars for something that could be made easily. Are you really trying ot make me believe that there is that much of difference between a 35mm camera and a 4 x 5? or even a Hassleblad? You could pay thousands for a medium or large format camera and I can't believe they are that much more exspensive to make.
Any way back to the fun stuff. I still had a few hitches here. My lens had no shutter. I considered using the lens cap on off method for a shutter but then decided there was no way that was going to work. So I headed back to e-bay. I found a Lafayette shutter pretty cheap that worked fairly well. Its no where near perfect but since I use those Dyna-lites I can shoot at a high shutter speed that is accurate enough to pull a good exposure.
Now I had to figure out a way to mount said lens to the shutter. There are places that for a great deal of money will machine you parts and other do dads to attach your lens to your shutter. Since I had no freakin' idea if this camera would even work I didn't want to spend any serious money on it. So I looked at it and figured out my own solution. I also do a little silver work. I made the little collar you see sticking out of the shutter so that it would fit inside the lens. It's very tight on both ends and while the lens does rotate it won't come off unless the camera is dropped. I use the back cell of the lens to hold it onto the lens board which a friend of mine was kind of enough to have made for me out of aluminum (he's an engineer who has a machine shop at the company he works for). However if I didn't have him I still could have made the lens board out of wood for pennies.
Still I wasn't set. It seems that 210mm isn't enough of an image circle for 8 x 10. As you can see from this shot that I took with it.
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The last photo on the right is a close up of the picture in the middle. You can see that although the subject looks brain dead the focus is clear and the grain almost nonexistent.
What I am currently trying is using the 210mm lens with the optics taken out of the back cell. The image area is full 8 x 10 but I don't know yet if removing the back cell effects the image. I might get something like I did with the 300mm.
My ground glass is a piece of plastic that I got from the stat camera. I cut it down to fit and then I took a measurement from the inside of the film holder to try and get the focus point between the ground glass and the film holders at the same level. I used a piece of wood taped to the plastic so that the film and the ground glass would be at the same point. I got lucky as you can see from the above shots and got it the first time.
The two pictures above not only show you the ground glass and how it attaches (a very high tech solution, rubber bands) but you can also see some other detail. The wood strips that position the ground glass (or in my case ground plastic) and some of the interlocking system I came up with to keep light out when the film holder is in place. And if you look you'll see two sets of screws on the top and bottom of the back standard. Originally my idea was to be able to unscrew and take off the back so I could turn it side ways and do horizontal as well as vertical pictures. The problem was that the frame for the back end and the insert wasn't quite square so it didn't fit when I turned it. I'll have to pay more attention to that when I remake the camera.
Developing Large Format Film
I've been tray developing for the 8 x 10 negs. I don't see any other way to do it. The only problem I've had with it is that I keep missing the water bath and put the film straight into the developer first. So far it hasn't mattered. The negs come out even and clear. I only have two 8 x 10 negative holders though so I can only take and develop four shots at a time. Once I get this all worked out I guess it's back to e-bay for more film holders.
Here's how I've been setting up the developing. I set up three trays, I really should have four but it would mean I need to buy another three trays and frankly I don't feel like it. Anyway I set up three trays. The first one has the water bath, the second one has the developer and the third one has the stop bath. I have my digital alarm clock (red numbers) at an angle so it isn't facing directly at the trays ready to go. I set the loaded film holders on a stool between the two. Ok now you're going to laugh, but hey it works. What I do is unload the film holders in the dark. Then when I'm ready I plug in the clock and hit the set button so it starts at 1:00. Then I try for the wash but usually miss (I have to get some of that glow in the dark tape) So straight in the developer it goes. I agitate by lifting up the back corner of the tray just a bit and then every minute shuffling the negs through the stack order (bottom on top, then next to bottom on top and so on until I cycled through hem all). After that straight into the stop bath. After the negs have been in the stop bath for a while I open the dark room door just a bit. Now I dump out the water (that I never used damn it!) from the first tray and pour in fixer. When its time in the fixer the negs go and it's all down hill from there. I haven't had much trouble with scratches thankfully but I try to be very careful when I shuffle the negs and switch trays...
I haven't really gotten a great image yet from the 8 x 10 but that's because I've been testing it more then taking pictures with it. As you saw from the images I've posted they are just exposures more then anything else. And yes that is me in the photos but no I'm not drunk or stoned :-) Once I get things worked out and I'm more confident of the whole procedure I'll start trying to take pretty images.
The one thing I will think hard about for my next home made camera is the tilts and swings. Most of my photography is of people so the tilts and swings aren't very useful. In fact once when I was using my 4 x 5 they ruined a few negs. I must have leaned on the camera and tilted the back standard forward a little. I didn't notice it on the ground glass but the very bottom and top of the image were now out of focus. I'm considering leaving them out of the next design or at least leaving them out of the back half of the camera...
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