ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 มิ.ย. 2024
- Thanks very much for watching! I am very excited to share this project and to see what everyone thinks about it. Please let me know in the comments what questions and suggestions you have, and if you’d like to see more videos featuring the 11x14 camera. I’m really interested in getting as many people into hands on analog photography as possible, and my next goal is to make an accessible and easy to build 4x5 camera, that includes making the bellows, and putting together a cheap but capable lens, again with amazon parts and a little 3d printing. Feel free to subscribe if you are interested to see that!
I forgot to go into detail about price in the video and I hope that providing the screenshots with the materials will help in putting together some parts lists and ideas. Calculating it out now, the camera itself cost round $850 for the parts and pieces of the camera itself ($480 in parts from amazon and lens mount adapter from eBay, $50 in bellows materials, $60 for ground glass, $200 in wood since I got slightly pricier walnut from home depot, and $30 in other general hardware from home depot), the only other required parts are a lens (my lens was around $700, but there are much cheaper projector style lenses that will cover ultra large format) and film holders (you of course can make your own film holders from wood or even foam or plastic sheets, I appreciated the quality of the Fire Studio holders so bought 2 of those for $250 each, worth every penny) along with any other shooting accessories like the cable releases, level, and loupe.
For any curious, here is a Basic list of the parts I used for the focus and movements, none of it particularly brand specific, since they are standard arca parts for the most part they are made under many different brand names(I searched and picked what I felt was the best price or shipped as fast as I wanted it):
Arca Plates:
2x 400mm double rails (the long focusing rails)
1x 350mm single rail (connecting the two 400mm focusing rails)
1x 300mm single rail (the base of the rise/fall bracket)
2x 250mm double rails (the vertical sections of the rise/fall)
1x 180mm single rail (attaching the two L brackets together holding the pan/tilt head)
Sunway Photo 2-way pan/tilt head
2x arca L-brackets
5x 120mm Arca Clamps (these 120mm ones, that are shown in the screenshot in the video, are some of my favorites, always very affordable and available from multiple brand names)
Occasionally I would need some extra or longer ¼-20 camera mount screws.
I plan to make a shorter dedicated video on making bellows in the coming months. The bellows start as drawing or measured plans, there are some online tools that you can find to help. The drawing will outline the overall non-folded lengths of the four sides of the bellows and then lines with spacing added to show each of the individual ribs of the folds of the bellows. This drawing should then be printed onto a thick paper or cardstock, I use a Bristol board and in my case since the bellows are so large I glued an extra sheet of Bristol on after printing on my home 13x19 photo printer. Then, each of the ribs is carefully half cut out, taped to keep in place, and then fully cut out and separated into the four walls. The materials are the blackout vinyl (two layers of it in my case to ensure it is light tight) which is spray adhesive to the Bristol boards with an overlap on one side, then I used a simple green polyester tablecloth, which I tacked to my work table to keep it taut. Then the sprayed vinyl and Bristol sheet is adhered to that cloth, then folded, and the final edge overlapped and adhered down, then the whole unit is folded.
In regards to the paper negatives, my paper is Standard Ilford Multigrade RC Darkroom Paper, and it is developed for 3 minutes in standard Dektol paper developer. The addition of the 00 darkroom printing filter, which can be found by searching for multigrade filters set on ebay or b&h, significantly helps in the dynamic range of the paper. Particularly I am happy with the highlights, no longer worrying that they severely blown out and pure white.
Thanks again for watching and reading, and please share your questions and comments down below!
00:00 Introduction
01:45 Built in Tripod Legs
03:54 Opening the Camera and Front Standard
08:16 What's in the Bag
10:55 Film Holders
12:59 Custom 00 Filter in the Lens
14:00 Sourcing the Lens Mount
15:12 Focusing the Camera
16:33 The Spring Back
22:05 Leveling the Camera
23:29 The Focusing Mechanism
24:40 Light Meter Phone App
27:30 Experiments for Metering and Exposing Paper Negatives
30:51 Using the Camera in Zion National Park
32:29 Making the Bellows
35:32 Plans for an accessible DIY 4x5 Camera
38:08 Packing up the Camera
38:54 The Woodworking
40:42 Notes on Sourcing Parts and Modular Design
41:50 Extra Hardware
42:15 Storing the Legs
42:56 Conclusion - บันเทิง
![พบรัก - INK WARUNTORN [Official MV]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/n2wjOYVC38Y/mqdefault.jpg)
I would love to see a few videos of you using this camera in more places, circumstances, etc, and showing your progress learning to get the best photos out of it.
I’ll try to do that, thanks!
Genius!!! Great woodwork and solution finding
Thanks very much!
Congrats on the camera. As an impoverished student I once built a 6cm x 9cm view camera incuding the bellows! Boy so stiff. Crazy project but it worked. Film holders in that size existed then. Mucked around then with 6.5 x8.5 inch on an old Thorton Picard body. Beautiful antique wooden film holders that I still have. My last wooden 4x5 sits on a shelf gathering dust. I'm tempted (just a little) to try it again with paper negs. About ground glass: I ground my own using an abrasive powder that was used to hone microtome knives that are used to cut histopathogical tissue sections. Two bits of glass of the correct chosen size (you get a spare in this process!) Some powder between them, water to make a thin slurry annd rub them against each other on a firm flat surface (larger heavy glass IIRC is ideal) with firm pressure until the whole surface is ground to taste. Replenish the slurry as required. Tip #2: a small central spot of grease or oil on the ground face clears the glass to allow critical focus on what is the aerial image. Thanks for the vid.
Awesome to hear about your homemade cameras! Yes I am familiar with the hand grinding process for ground glass, I have done it a few times before for 4x5 cameras, it works very well, and if needed to be sourced locally one can use fine valve grinding compound from an auto parts store, it is a similar ultra fine abrasive powder but pre suspended in a paste form and handy tube. Though these days, I am really a fan of frosted or even hand ground acrylic, with a fresnel lens added it is very bright, and the main advantage is it will not break and shatter and cut up your bellows when it is eventually dropped or hit with something.
This was an incredibly well put together video. I've been tinkering with moving into large format for a little while and your use of the off the shelf parts is brilliant. Obviously there are tradeoffs, but you explain them well and I'm more motivated to build my own.
I liked and subscribed because I'm very interested in the video you teased about the accessible DIY 4x5 camera (seems more approachable for me getting into large format that 11x14).
Thanks very much for subscribing! Yes 4x5 is a great way to get into large format, and I am very excited about the 4x5 camera project, and am hoping to get it done in less than a month.
Love the ingenuity! The finished camera and the pictures taken with it are beautiful!
Thank you very much!
That was inspiring. Earlier this year I was talking myself into making an 810 in the Chamonix Alpinist style for backpacking. A car-portable easel style rig seems much more attainable for a "first go". Tons of great information and insight here. Utilizing the arca plates is genius: way more attainable than trying to fabricate custom pieces. Great stuff!
Awesome! Thanks very much for watching. I hope you try and build your own camera! Maybe try actually just using a box field panting easel, looking at my Wife’s I believe it could be turned into an 8x10. There are several on Amazon for $80-$160, you’d then have a folding box on legs, to reinforce, add arca for movements, bellows, and figuring out how to route and make the spring back. Maybe easier to just do all from scratch.
man you did a great job on the bellows!
Thank you! Like I mentioned it took a good three attempts to get it right!
This is insanity!!! Congratulation to this masterpiece of a camera
Thanks very much! I hope I can inspire others to make their own dream cameras!
Incredible build! Love the problem solving.
Thanks! That to me is the fun part!
Dude... you are on another level... seriously impressive... I now have to go rebuild the P.O.S. 12x12 .... my mind is spinning ... thank you soo much for the effort in making and sharing this video...
Thank you for watching! Glad I could inspire a new project, haha
I love your appreciation of quality. This if the first video of yours I've seen but I can tell the amount of love and consideration you've put into the construction of this lovely camera. It reminds me of working with my grandpa in his wood shop, making everything to not only complete it's task but to look and feel good doing it. You've inspired me with soo many ideas in both my photography and camera construction, I'd never considered making my own large format camera simply for what I thought was a more extreme cost. Thank you for sharing such an amazing project, I can't wait to see more videos from you.
Thank you very much! please subscribe if you'd like to keep up to date on my projects. In the next month I am hoping to get my 4x5 DIY plans and video out, my goal is for anyone to be able to make a 4x5 camera for $200 or less. I am even working on a super simple and easy to source lens.
This is wonderful. Look forward to seeing what you come up with next.
Thanks very much!
As you stop down more, you'll get less vignetting. It's pretty standard to end up at f/45 - f/64 with an 11x14 camera doing landscapes. Yep, there will likely be wind movement of foliage. Otherwise, you might consider a 480mm lens. You can save money by getting something like an APO Nikkor in a barrel. At 1 second exposures, it's not hard to use a lens cap for exposure. A Nikon 450m would also be a great option.
Great to know, thanks! It seems like researching further the 360 is really only just covering 11x14 wide open with basically no movements, but stopping down gives a bit more room. I will keep this in mind, and the shots at Zion that I show are between f11,18, so I was helping myself a little, but am interested to see what those very small apertures can give!
@@richpence Really great job on the camera and video, btw!
@@peterdesmidt8742 thanks very much!
As I've toyed several times with the idea of building my own 11x14, I'm awe struck by the elegant, yet, simple design of your camera. Just beautiful! Now you've got me thinking, again... Thanks so much for sharing this project.
I hope you will make one! Maybe if there is enough of us they will lower the price of film haha!
I look forward to seeing you build the 4x5; I have a hankering to build a 8x10 using your approach.
I’d be interested to see it! The use of those off the shelf arca parts really lets you be more imaginative in your design. The integrated legs are my favorite part of my camera, but for an 8x10 the would be tough to fit the lens inside.
Awsome job both with the camera and the tutorial. Thank you very much for sharing your project and experience.
Thanks very much for watching!
This is a beautiful build! Look forward to the bellows and 4x5 videos in the future!
Thanks for sharing, subscribed!
Thanks very much for subscribing! I am excited to get those projects out by summers end!
Amazing! Beautiful work! And thanks for the in-depth demonstration!
Thank you for watching!
Amazing work! Sourcing machined parts to fit the design is what has always hindered me from building my own camera. Love the information and that you shared all of it. Lovely camera!
Thanks very much! I hope this can give you the little push to make your own camera! I want to see more handmade cameras out in the world!
I really enjoyed your video and I admire your unique approach to camera building ! 🙂
Thank you, I really appreciate it!
@@richpence I posted a link to your video on the Large Format Photography Forum too. I hope you're cool with that! 🙂
@@seanmac5507 of course, thanks very much, I appreciate it!
I'm so interested. Thank you for all ideas!
Thanks for watching! I would love to see more big cameras in the world!
Nice job. Will be waiting for new tutorials.
Thanks
I have more free time in the summer so I am looking forward to put out more videos soon!
Very nice video !
Thanks very much!
Wow!!! That's incredible ❤
Thank you for watching!
New to large format, your video has helped tremendously!
Thanks very much! I hope you can build your own camera!
Wow! What a fantastic piece of engineering!
Thanks very much!
Dang, super cool man! Looking forward to the 4x5 video.
Thanks very much! Today I am sitting down to work out much more of the design of it!
You can make those paper negatives positives, you know. 1) Develop but do NOT stop or fix, 2) Rinse 3) Still in the safelight, put in a bath of copper sulfate and table salt, about 15-20 grams of each per liter IIRC, this will bleach out the silver that's developed only. 4) Rinse 5) Bath of dilute ammonia, just straight up grocery store unscented or anything windex, lots of rocking and agitation, this washes away the bleached stuff. 6) Rinse 7) Expose to bring room lights for like 1 full minute 8) Develop again, and then fix etc as normal. Be sure to thoroughly wash away any and all ammoniacal silver, as it can become explosive if left to dry back into a powder in concentrated amounts in one place. I have no idea if this is okay for the environment or how to dispose of things properly, , probably not, I only tried it on a few pieces of paper and not as a regular process.
Thanks for the info! I have always been very interested in reversal processing of papers, and black and white films. I have even tried it a few times with a hydrogen peroxide 40% solution as the bleach. It did work, but the result was not great and stained the paper, and I was very put off by the harshness and toxicity of the chemistry. I have not heard of the Copper sulfide bleach, I will look into it. From the sound of it though it does not sound like a very pleasant process from a chemical safety and environmental standpoint (explosive parts and all! haha) I do often think about trying it again, but I do also really appreciate the usefulness of having the p[aper negatives, at least for these kinds of landscapes, being able to make contact prints with dodging and burning and such is really useful. Of course one of the reasons I designed the camera to reach 1;1 scale is so that I could potentially photograph one of the negatives directly like a process copy camera and make a positive that way.
Wow! An abandoned gas station would look great through this! (I jest)
Nice to see it all complete and great work on the video!
haha thanks! I'll for sure have to get a Pro Mist filter or maybe some Vaseline and expired color film. Will have to do a Caffenol/dr. pepper film soup and double cross process.
awesome project, awesome video ! this is BALLERS af
Thanks very much!
I can't be the only one wondering whether you're taking orders. A very clever design.
Haha I have gotten a few questions about that. For now this one is the one and only from me, I’m in Grad school so have no extra time for taking orders. But maybe someday I will open up to some orders. My main goal is to give everyone as much as I can for them to built their own cameras!
Awesome detailed video! I saw your post on a Facebook page a while back about this camera, so cool seeing a video about it!
I was in Zion with my 4x5 last month and I’m working on my own video about my photos from there
Awesome! I’m looking forward to your video!
This looks so good. I'd be very intrested in a video about your process making contact prints from paper negatives
Thank you! I will see about making a video on that! I have actually made a video going over some more advanced contact printing processes in my Making Large Negatives in the darkroom Video that is already up if you'd like to take a look, it has lots of contact printing in the process.
You should definitely get a 6inch level for this camera. The longer the level the more accurate
Good idea! I will get one to add to the kit
Amazing Build, and thanks for sharing your knowledge....
Thank you for watching!
What a fantastic project. It must have been incredibly gratifying to bring to fruition.
I’m really happy with the result!
Nicely done thanks for sharing
Thank you for watching!
Awesome content! I work on my first large format camera and you give me so much inspiration ! I ll share my ideas too! Thank you
Great! I hope it goes well and thank you for watching!
Fantastic video, very inspiring! Glad it came up in my recommendations, keep up the good work! Cheers from Sweden!
Thank you very much for watching!
The way you emphasize the simplicity of using off the shelf parts is wonderful. Having your tripod incorporated into the design must save another several pounds. If you could source carbon fiber fittings you could save on weight, but the cost would be higher. Great job and a very nice descriptive video.
As a student, currently and in the past, I never had the kind of money to own “dream cameras”, like Gibellini and Chamonix view cameras, leicas, Hasselblad X-Pans, so I would try and build them myself. These days, I hope to make the kinds of videos and camera designs that a young me would see and be super jazzed to be able to easily gather the parts, make their own designs, and make a camera over a weekend or quiet summer.
I would love to have custom built and designed every piece, it could certainly be a lot lighter, but I also am a sucker for the speed of getting off the shelf stuff, and also the promise of being able to replace anything easily, or modify for other needs, and start from that design principle. For example, this camera is really just the folding box, and a front standard glued onto bellows, the rest can all be easily removed. If needed to lighten it, I could just make a single frame with an arca clamp to put the front standard on and skip all the movements.
Great job. Thank you.
Thank you for watching!
Great built. I like how U use off the shelf parts
Thanks very much! Also I appreciate your projects on your channel, Great Work!
Very cool! I’ve been debating trying to make a 4x5 pinhole camera and this might inspire me to actually do it lol. Great job!
Amazing! I wanna get people building as many cameras as they can!
This is really helpful. Thanks!
You’re welcome, thanks for watching!
Very well done!
Thanks very much!
Great attitude and delivery.
Well worth watching!
I’m glad you enjoyed!
You really nailed down the simplicity, usability and still have good look! Looking forward and I hope there will be detailed videos about each part.
Now when everybody are trying "vintage" lenses with 16-24 Mpx sensors squishing more vintage juice out of them ( I've also done that - but this did not fill the void ) . Having such camera will create images that will be totally out of range for digital photography for many years ( and still be in very affordable price! ).
Have You tried convert such camera to the dark room enlarger - with the the DIY strong light source. THANKS!!!
Hi! Thanks for all the compliments! About the enlarger, I actually do plan to make this camera into some kind of enlarger someday with a large light source. But if you look at the section in this video where I show the 4x5 camera that I built, I have actually turned that camera into an enlarger and it worked quite well. In the Ansel Adams video I made last year, there is a section in it about darkroom light sources and I show the kind of light source that I used to do that, I’ll keep it in mind for future videos!
this is so damn cool! great work!
Thank you!
Trank you very much, beautiful work 👍
Thank you for watching!
YES! = Very well explained.
Thanks very much!
ha. Very cool but I read it as Ultra LEGO Format Camera. Still, very cool.
Haha sorry to disappoint! Maybe I will make a camera out of legos and use the name!
This is amazing stuff! awesome engineering as well! very nice!
Thank you very much!
Yuo are brilliant, hats off
Thank you!
Really cool and I'm really curious on that 4x5
I am excited for it and working on it right now, it will involve some 3d printing, but that is something that anyone without a printer can send off to various companies online to have prints made for them. The rest of the parts will be collected from amazon, and the bellows made by the user, my goal is for the whole camera to be under $200 total (potentially including a super simple lens I am working on)
Respect et admiration. C'est fantastique!
Merci!
Nice video ! Miss you buddy!
Thanks, man, I miss you too!
Genius!
Thanks!
I've found some great camera bags at thrift stores too.
I have had a little bit of a thrift bug lately! Have been lucky to find some useful stuff!
Thank you for your video!
Apologies for the long-winded and poorly written comment... :P
I recently made myself an 8x10 camera, and it was fascinating seeing similarities and differences in your design.
The idea behind my camera was primarily cost reduction.
I like your use of off-the-shelf Arca hardware for your front standard; makes the camera behave more similar to a traditional view camera. I see no issue in using a sliding focus VS. a rack and pinion.
I agree wholy on your sentiments of the bellows and film holder situation being the most difficult.
Because of my stubborn cheapness, I made my own film holder instead of buying one. It functions, but is a rough affair, and I hope to remake it using a router.
It's impressive you made a tapered bellows! Mine is square. I also went with a blackout curtain material (fabric) for the exterior and have it bonded with a black fabric for the interior using fusible webbing.
I am very interested to hear more about your blackout material, please do a video!
Have you thought of making your own ground glass, or would it be too fragile and heavy for your purpose? I found it to be quite simple and allowed for fine-tuning of the ground glass texture/granuality.
I'm curious if you know what focal length the fresnel screen should optimally be, I have some but not attached. In the future I hope to make a condenser lens focusing screen like what may be found on some SLR cameras (impractical but it'd make me happy)
Your choice to use an existing large format lens is smart. My camera has an old Beseler 14" f3.5 projector lens, and I adore its rendering but despise the lack of a shutter and iris. I plan on implementing a Waterhouse stop and Packard ideal shutter in future.
Funny that we did the exact same thing to attach the rotating back! Some threaded inserts and some knobs works well enough!
Good idea to use the monopod legs!
Mine is currently a legless slug, but I plan on adding 8 legs >:D It's rear and front standard are only attached using the bellows, so I need each to have their own adjustable legs.
Thank you again for the video!
Hey thanks so much! I really appreciate hearing about your camera! I'll try and answer each of your points.
I have found the push pull focus to work totally fine, it is almost surprising how much fine control you can gain just with your fingers.
for film holders, One of my other design ideas behind buying (at least one if you can) standard holder really is important so that you can have an example of the "standard" international holder size. I was surprised to learn that 11x14 actually does have a recognized standard size, so it was important to me to be able to build my camera to fit that standard. For your 8x10, it may be a good idea to get at least one standard holder, even if a kind of old or beat up one, so that you know your camera can use other such standard holders when you can get them. Luckily 8x10 holder are a bit more available and easier to find, and having an example of construction and materials is much easier with a hands on example.
About the Bellows, I've also made some using the white blackout curtain liner material. I like that it has a white appearance, but I found it ended up quite thick. I will be working on the video in the next few weeks! I have a few projects that are needing many sets of bellows so I will be able to get the video done soon. I really only have the free time to work on videos like this during the summer as I am currently in Graduate school for my Masters in Fine Art.
I have made my own ground glass a couple of times for 4x5 cameras, and you are right about the niceness of being able to fine tune, but for the 11x14 being so big I really did not want to take the risk of glass that big breaking. I really like the security of the acrylic. Also the price and time saving is hard to beat, for example for the 4x5 design I am working on, I want to remove as many obstacles as possible for people making their own, so simply ordering a piece of acrylic and some of the handheld office Fresnel magnifiers for $15 total is hard to beat, and that is enough for 4 sets of ground glass, which I will experiment with carefully sanding the acrylic further with grinding compound or sandpaper.
Speaking of the Fresnel lens, that is a great question, I don't know the focal length, I did not test and the listing does not say. I was just happy to find one big enough easily available for $30 on ebay!
I for sure splurged on the lens, but I set out knowing I would really be investing a lot of time into the camera, and hopefully a lot more in using it for all shooting situations. I had considered a few projector style lenses for around $200-400, and ultimately decided that the extra $300 for a modern nikkor in a great shutter (I think it's my most accurate leaf shutter in my collection) was more than worth it. However, a small teaser! for the DIY 4x5 plans I am modeling right now a super cheap lens design for simple scientific experiment double convex lenses available on amazon for around $15, they are a bit soft on the edges, but they do provide a bright and sharp center. I will design them with a simple shutter and to 3d print to fit on a linhoff style lens board, they even sell the lenses at focal lengths of 200, 300, and 500mm in a set for $15 total.
The threaded insert back just makes more sense for simple DIY building! Much easier to design and build and easy to fix.
Wow sounds like you are making a spider! I may suggest 6 legs though, or really I'd suggest just getting 2 tripods. 4 legs will almost always wobble! but # legs never will! that's the advantage of three. Right now on amazon there are some very nice twist lock leg tripods for great prices, for example a 74 inch one by CAMBOFOTO is on sale for only $40. So unless you will be building your own legs, getting two tripods may be your best option.
Cheers!
@@richpenceThank you for your thorough response to my lengthy comment!
I'll try getting a hold of an 8x10 holder to compare.
The white blackout curtain is certainly on the thicker side, but not too much so. I'm able to get about 3.5 feet of bellows draw and it folds up down to about 4 inches. Yours seems much more compact.
I'll make sure to keep an eye on your channel for any upcoming videos. I understand it is difficult to find the time.
3 legs is certainly the sensible answer but, I'd like to try my 8 legged spider monster :P . I think I can make it self-leveling.
Thank you for your time!
@@Toad_Hugger best of luck on your camera!
You should try some type of graduated ND filter to retain detail in the sky. I’d be interested in the results
That’s a good idea, it can be tricky to find filters for such a big filter diameter (95mm) but perhaps one of the big square filter kits makes an adapter to fit.
@@richpence that’s what I was thinking is just tape a big square one on there or something
Nice and interesting design. As far as fall off, I belive 450mm is the standard lens for a 11x14
Thanks for the comment! I simply got a little overzealous with the rise on my images, but you are correct. Larger formats always remind me that the diagonal mm measurement of any given film frame is the same as it's 'standard' lens. For example the diagonal of 135 film is 43mm, so most choose a standard between a 40. 45, or 50mm, and maybe a 35mm on the wide end, only Pentax has been brave enough to make a lens at the "true" standard focal length with their FA 43mm f1.9 Limited (I am a Pentax fan). But back on topic, the 450 is the standard lens because the diagonal of 11x14 is around 450mm, so as long as the lens can cover that it will be ok. The Nikkor w 360mm is wider, (Around the same as a 35mm focal length on 135 film) but the image circle is 495mm at infinity at f22, so it does cover. I just simply overstretched the rise and did not check the lens coverage carefully enough, the bigger format means that my spare 35mm or so of rise does not go as far as it would on say a 4x5 camera. Something to get used to, and I also really need to measure and calibrate / mark my rails to know when I am starting from exact center for full coverage.
So cool! Great work on the camera and the images!
You may have already figured out the lens coverage question, but if not, I did a little digging out of curiosity.
According to the lens data provided by Nikon, the 360 will cover 415mm at f6.5 which is just shy of 420mm, which is the diagonal of 11x14. In your video, it appears that you may have had a little bit of front rise, which could account for the clipped corners.
It's also worth noting that the data also notes that the same lens covers 494mm at f22. So, stopping down will give you more room to breathe. I hope this is helpful. Thanks for sharing your work on TH-cam!
Thanks so much for the info! I actually had a pretty significant amount of rise for some shots, and those were between f11 and f18, so that explains it! Great to know. I will leave the wider apertures for portraits or still life with little movements (the longer lens distance should help with the coverage) and will stop down more for landscapes. What I really need to do as well is to really accurately measure out when the front standard is exactly centered and note / etch marks for setting up the camera to perfect center.
@@richpence Right on man! I bet the prints look amazing in person. There is just nothing better than ultra fine detail from a big format like that.
@@ArthurFellig thanks! And yes as long as I can keep the dust out of my contact prints!
Awesome.. I'm just starting out with my 11x14 build and find this video very helpful. Although my planning is slightly different to yours I am curious what focal-length Fresnel lens you got?
Awesome, best of luck on your build! And I’m honestly not sure what the focal length is, it is not listed on any of the selling pages, and I didn’t think to measure it before installing in the camera. I can say that the one I got works very well. The options are quite limited, so I just went with one that looked right and was a good price available new. Searching for the 300x400mm or 320x400mm ones seem to yield similar results, and you could even reach out to the seller and have them cut you a custom one, I’m sure they could tell you the focal length.
for the name I propose: BFC
Big Fucking Camera.
Haha maybe add Heavy in there somewhere.
I'd love a plan for a 6x17 bellow camera
Wouldn’t it make more sense to just buy or make a roll film back for 4x5 or 5x7 cameras?
@@richpence Of course we will need a film back, but I once saw a camera like this and it is flatter than a standard camera with an adjustment
Congratulations on the realisation of the optical bench! Looks like you're back in 1800! I have no experience of optical bench with large format film, but only with Hasselblad 500CM. I just remember that I got to see up close an optical bench (I don't remember if Linhof or Sinar or another brand) of a friend of mine in his photo studio. Impressive to notice the great detail and dynamics of the shadowed parts of your photos. For the filter, instead of having it internally, why not have a slide on the front optics so that you can also use other filters, red or blue? About the fall of light at the edges depends on the optics? For a larger format print than film how do you do it? Do you digitise the negative and then print on plotter? Anyway my compliments for the construction.
Thanks very much! I will try and answer your questions. For the filter, I worked with what I had available. I knew I would be using darkroom photographic paper as my negatives, so I had to use that specific filter type. Some also use regular yellow or orange filters for the film, but the issue is the size of my les. The Filter thread is 95mm, a odd and very large size, so filters are hard to find, and when you do find them, they are extremely expensive. My solution worked for what I need the camera to do, and the filter is always easy to remove in just a minute, and the filter is the exact best kind in my opinion for the negatives I am making. The paper itself is darkroom paper, so it is actually designed to not be sensitive to RED light at all, and inside of a camera it is extra sensitive to blue and UV light, so the filter is helpful. The filter will also work quite well on black and white film to darken a blue sky slightly. I would only really need to remove it for shooting color film or paper. Yes the lens light falloff is a matter of the lens I have, and giving too much movement up to see the mountains level. If the lens were to be centered and the whole camera tilted up it would cover the whole image. For prints I still make them in the darkroom! I sandwich a new sheet of paper under the face down negative and use an enlarger to shine light through the negative. This process is called "Contact Printing". If you look at my video "Making Analog Alternative Process Negatives in the Darkroom: Ortho Litho Film for Cyanotypes" You can see my darkroom and several versions of contact printing in action.
@@richpence Thanks for the reply. I know very well that square filters for large diameter lenses are expensive! On the other hand they have the convenience of removing or inserting without having to dismantle the optics. I have no experience with prints from very large format negatives but only 120 from Hasselblad. Yes, I had heard of the contact printing technique, but if they ask you, for an exhibition or for home furnishings, for a larger print than the negative, what do you do? I was curious to know having seen your very high quality negative from which, for example, a 2 m x 2 m print can be produced. I don't think there are enlargers for that type of prints for which the only solution is digital scanning and sending the file to a service. I watch the video of your darkroom
For the filter, Since I do not currently have any traditional film (Regular ilford hp5 is available in 11x14 sheets but it is $375 for 25 sheets), and do not plan to make any color negatives, so having the filter live inside the camera actually makes shooting more convenient. Good question about print size. My first response would be to simply stand firm on keeping the size the way it is. I don't have any issues with digital technologies, I use them a lot and of course did make high resolution scans for this video, but for my artwork I tent to want it to stay within what is possible with analog process. To me the direct connection between the end print, and the cameras on location is important. If I absolutely had to enlarge the negatives further, there are a few options. 1. I could turn this 11x14 camera into an enlarger by making a large light source and negative holder that attaches to the back of the camera, which stays upright and points at the wall. Then a large roll of darkroom paper is cut and a large print made on the wall, this is called mural printing and has been used to make extremely large darkroom prints. Another options would be to make a good contact print, then to take a high resolution image of it onto 4x5 film, or some other format that has more common enlargers, then make bigger prints traditionally.
@@richpence I saw the video of your work in the darkroom. The orthochromatic technique is interesting. As well as pointing the enlarger towards the wall for larger format prints, but are there sensitive large format papers? In 1975 I dabbled in b/w printing with the Durst enlarger but then gave up due to lack of time.
@@clabart There are still many large format papers available in both color and black and white. Cut sheets go up in size to 30 inches x 40 inches (75cm x 100cm) and rolls are available in a variety of widths, the biggest being 56 inches wide (142cm), normally with 100 foot lengths (30 meters)
Very ambitious and ingenious project, what inspired you to go down this rabbit hole? Thanks for making a very entertaining video on it!
Thanks very much! haha I always worry a long video like this will be very boring, but just hope to be useful for anyone who may be interested in making their own large format camera, hoping to preserve and bring this side of analog photography into the current day. Mainly it started like most analog photographers, being obsessed over gear, wanting that leica or hasselblad x-pan, or large format camera, but being a broke community college art student just discovering analog photo, I wouldn't come close to affording any of these cameras, so I decided to start building them myself. And now that I have learned a bit more about building and about teaching as I work to get my masters of art to teach college photo, I really just want to make the kinds of videos that an 18 your old me would be excited to see, and excited to explore photography further.
I admit when I saw the length I almost skipped it in my feed but then I thought if it’s too slow I’ll play it at a faster speed. Glad I clicked the video and I didn’t need to play it at all faster speed - good luck to you, liked and subbed…
Wow, thanks very much for the compliment! I would not hold it against you to play the video at 1.5x speed! I know I can drone on a bit.
Would you share your plans / drawings for the camera
I’m happy to answer any questions you may have, and measure out and explain how I worked, but I actually do not have any drawings or plans because I did not make any. When building in wood, I always measure everything off of the parts I have in front of me. For cameras it is a balance between the known exact parts that are critical, and then designing fluidly around those to make everything work. The most crucial sized parts are the exact dimension of the film holder, and then building the ground glass frame and the spring back to perfectly match and fit. The same goes for any lens mount. Then I gathered all of the off the shelf arca rail parts, and the rest of the design was just measuring to what felt like it would fit best for all of those parts to work and collapse into itself.
Wow, I can't wait for that 4×5 camera, the only problem is, I cannot 3d print anything, would there be any alternative?
Thanks for the comment! That is for sure something I am considering. I will be sharing the off the shelf parts, and the general dimensions and ideas, and a separate video for making bellows. Similar to the 11x14 camera, there is always the possibility of making the parts out of wood, or perhaps some kinds of foam or plastic sheets, or metal frames as I've done myself. The challenge there, again similar to the 11x14 camera, is that without knowing exact tools. materials, and skills folks have, it will not be relevant make super specific dimensions and drawings to share. I already have the "problem" that people are interested in ordering cameras from me or wanting to get 'plans' to build the exact cameras that I design, but I simply do not have the time right now to become a camera production company (haha maybe some day) And that is where 3d printing ends up being really useful. However, to answer your concern, I am going o include and take advantage of the large array of 3D printing outsourcing options. There are reputable sites now where you can easily upload a pre-designed 3d file and they will give you an instant price, and from what I have tested so far, I am hoping to get the required parts for the camera to ring up as a combined $40-60 using these. My goal is for someone to be able to build such a camera with ordered parts for $200 total and have a great working camera (the only other parts needed would be a lens and film holders, which are quite commonly available) Note as well that to my knowledge the most affordable new 4x5 camera on the market, the very cool intrepid 4x5 is $390. Which for that price, you could buy a decent 3d printer for $150, and then make yourself a couple 4x5 cameras. Also, many local colleges and public libraries have 3d printers on site for very good prices. So the idea is that, if someone wants to just go from the general ideas and structure, then they should totally go for it and make their own unique design to fit the standard parts, and I will explain the ways to do that in my video. But if someone wants the exact camera and fitted bellows that I am designing and making, then they can get the 3d files and bellows design files and order / print the parts, and then make the bellows by hand (this saves tons of money). Anyway sorry for the long reply, and I appreciate your comment!
Will there be a video of the production process?
Is there a particular part you are referring to? My intention is for this video to be able to act as the sole reference for how I built this camera. I was focused on problem solving and getting the camera completed on schedule so I did not film the bulk of the woodworking save some of the photos I share at 38:51. My hope is for anyone interested in building an ultra large format is to go about making their own ideal camera with it’s own production and dimensions that fit their needs and material and production abilities, take inspiration from the mechanisms and design I used, but not just make a copy. I will be making a full video about designing and producing of camera bellows in the next few weeks.
Diese Methode im Freien für Fotos in absoluter Größe auf Platte zu bannen ist schon recht ambitioniert, sehr anfällig und von vielen starken Faktoren Abhängig, nicht mehr mein Ding. Hast du dir die Kamera aus Teilen zusammengebaut? Recht sperrig und kostspielig.
Hallo, vielen Dank für deinen Kommentar! Ich werde versuchen, darauf zu antworten, und bitte um Entschuldigung für eventuelle Missverständnisse. Es gibt Herausforderungen bei der Verwendung von Dunkelkammerpapier und solch großen Formaten in der Fotografie, aber ich habe den Prozess und die Möglichkeiten immer genossen. Die Kamera habe ich teilweise selbst gebaut, zum Beispiel das Holzgehäuse, den Federrücken und die Balgen habe ich selbst hergestellt. Die Auf-/Ab-Bewegung und alle Metallteile habe ich von Amazon bezogen. Ich werde prüfen lassen, ob Untertitel in anderen Sprachen übersetzt werden können und es könnte hilfreich sein, die Videobeschreibung zu übersetzen.
Good skills on this build. Can't help thinking it'd improve usability of the front tilt if you swapped that 2-way head for some sort of geared 2-way head - ideally then you could apply tilt one handed, less fiddly maybe. Similarly I think you can get geared macro focussing rails based on arca rails/clamps for the focus. I suppose that's the beauty of this design though is you can replace and upgrade various parts as and when required.
Thanks for the thoughts! Yes, the modularity is the major principle of the design, so if I do want to swap out for a geared head I always can (though they can get really pricey, it is hard to beat the $80 two way head) , maybe even one with a corded movement so that it can be moved from behind the ground glass. One handed operation would be great, but I’ve actually found that the 11x14 ends up being so big that focus movements like tilt and swing really are best done slowly with moving then checking then adjusting, a bit of walking back and forth since the camera is too big to reasonable stay behind the ground glass with my current setup. And yes I actually really like the geared macro rails, and I am planning to use a couple of them in my affordable DIY 4x5 plans similar to the one I have already made and showed toward the end of this video. I like them and for 4x5 the fine adjustment is more useful, plus the affordable ones are around $18, which is just as cheap if not cheaper than most arca rails + a clamp.
@@richpence Yeah hard to beat 80 bananas, although new stuff seems to come out of China all the time now so one to keep an eye on. I expect you can use a bit of rear tilt on your camera too right? How are you finding the quality of the Fire Studio holders BTW? Hard to find a lot of info on them, mixed reviews on old forum posts etc etc.
@@daveparry9928 yes I built in some extra room for back tilt if needed. And I like the film holders, they have been working well for me. Certainly if I were to pay myself even cheaply for my labor and materials, I doubt I could beat the price at $250, they are half the price of any competition. For 8x10 I would certainly grab the graflex or other commercial used options that are only around $70, but 11x14 is niche enough that I am fine paying the premium.
@@richpence Just a final word on the vignetting you mention - if you cut off the four corners of the ground glass/acrylic screen - just say 10mm is enough, then if you peer through each one in turn you can check for vignetting before you shoot. Through each corner hole you should be able to see the lens' open aperture - it's then immediately apparent if you've run out of image circle or the bellows are sagging because you won't be able to see it the aperture.
@@daveparry9928 This is a great tip, thanks! I've seen clipped ground glass on lots of cameras, I have never actually used it though. It is a good idea. This may sound silly, But could it work from the other side? At least with this lens on such a big camera, I have been able to check for bellows droop by simply peering through the lens side and visually being able to see the ground glass frame in focus, and when the bellows are drooping in front. I did not think to try the same thing for image coverage, and possibly I would still be able to see the corner through the lens even if the image somehow is not? worth a test before I open up and clip the focusing screens (though since the screens are acrylic I suspect I could also just use a drill and cut a 1/4" or so hole at the corners pointing toward the lens)
Good video btw I can't believe your wife let you record that extra footage without ironing your shirt first. 👔
Haha it is just a studio work shirt!
@@richpence ... I was very impressed with the building of you camera. Definitely looking forward to what you come up with for your 4x5 version. Looking to get into large format myself.
@@huf67 Stay tuned! I am able to be most productive on video projects in the summer. Right now I am working on a design for a super simple lens that can be made from new parts and will work for 4x5 cameras, that will come out close to tandem with the 4x5 build.
Oh no, it's another hyper specific niche of photography for my ADHD to fixate on 😂 well I guess I'd better get to designing one...
Haha I’m exactly the same way 😂
It appears the image circle coverage of your lens is for an 8x10 format. 11x14 is just a bit too large for your lens.
I have learned that my lens only comfortably covers 11c14 (450mm circle) with small movements at f22 (where it gets a 495mm circle). So I was a little overzealous with my movements. What I need to do pronto is set up and etch lines in the rails for when the lens is exactly centered as a starting point, then I should be safe (in my shots at Zion the lens was off center to the right in addition to being to much rise)
I believe it was a compounding of mistakes on my part. The lens does have a 495mm image circle at f22 which should cover the 450mm 11x14 circle just fine allowing for 20mm of small movement (Where as I shot between f11 and f18) and I was not centered to start, being a little to the right and too aggressive with the rise. My next step is to sit down and etch the rails with marks for knowing when it is perfectly centered to start and to not do too aggressive movements, maybe clipping the ground glass at the corners to check.
What was total to make large format camera?
I list many parts and prices in the description, along with showing the screenshots of prices.
I spent around $850 USD on the camera, that does not include the lens or the film holders, but everything else. Some money could be saved in several places. The wood was a nice Walnut, but a different cheaper wood like Poplar would work, maybe even some kinda of ply wood or plastic sheets would work. The metal parts can be reduced. I wanted to have as much movement and focusing distance as possible. But for regular focus and movements those pieces could be fewer and smaller.
I noticed you shot this in 48fps! Did you also use a 270° shutter speed? If you did shoot this in 48fps did you notice a difference/benefit to the footage?
Hey thanks for noticing! I am a bit of a filmmaking nerd on the side. This was shot in 180° 4k 24fps in 12 bit cDNG raw on the Sigma FP (except for one shot accidentally in compressed .mov, you can see the switch to the better footage at 2:24 in the beginning of the video). The reasoning for the 48 fps render is actually to smooth out the various cross fade transitions and zooms into the stills, such as those of the images shot at Zion at 31 minutes. I have found that in the rendering and compression those zooms feel jittery at 24fps. If you go frame by frame you can see that I locked the recorded footage to double every frame (I had to do some trickery to not have the frames blur and interpolate the in-betweens), but that transitions and zooms are advancing smoothly every frame. This is a super picky thing, but I like the results. My camera can shoot higher frame rates, but only at 1080p, which at 12 bit cDNG still looks really good. So I have experimented with shooting 48fps at 360° Which has the interesting effect of a 'smoother' version of the identical motion character of 180° 24fps, with the added bonus of capturing great full motion footage and the option of 2x slow motion with just slightly more motion blur, which in practice still looks good. In fact, you can even implement a frame skip into the 48fps 360 footage to skip every other frame, and it will be identical to 24fps 180.
@@richpenceOh wow! Thanks for the super in-depth response!
That’s actually a very creative and interesting way to fix the jitter of 24p.
I’ve tried shooting in 48p on my bmpcc 6k but I can never *quite* get it looking natural so when I saw the 48p on this I was intrigued.
I love the look of the footage overall, the CDNG from the fp looks really nice.
Thanks very much! I'm very happy with the FP, it's a quirky but affordable and neat camera. The cDNG footage is really great and the only disadvantage is the file size. I can do around and hour 45 minutes of 4k onto my 2tb ssd. Interesting though that every frame is an 8 megapixel dng raw image, so it's cool to be able to pull stills from and works great for timelapse. All I really do for grading is a Color Space Transform based on ArriLog 3 to rec. 709, then just tweak some of the raw settings.
Maybe try shooting the 48fps at 360 degree shutter and see how you like that. I enjoyed that it felt very cinematic still in it's motion blur but just that little bit smoother to make it pop.
@@richpence I’ll definitely give the 360° a go instead and see how I like it.
Also woof, that’s a lot of video files. I always shoot Q5 on my pocket 6k so I’m used to getting 4ish hours on 24p using 1TB cards… and I thought *that* took up a lot of storage! I can’t imagine shooting cDNG instead.
I have actually started doing a very similar colour workflow. I use a colour space transform to go from BRAW to 709 and then just do minute tweaks from there.
What I do for most footage is actually to grade it, in a kind of general way and export it to .mov files and save those. There is some software to compress the raw footage to a much smaller size so I will use that too until I need space.
God dammit... This was not the video I needed to see. I'll let you know how it goes
Haha good luck!
That lens probably won't cover 11x14 at infinity wider open than f22, likely why you got dark corners in that shot from Zion
That is a great point. I was doing a fair bit of rise and shooting around f16, I didn’t realize how little movement I have with the lens at wider apertures, I’m too used to my 4x5 lenses with their huge image circles.
@@richpence you need 450mm to cover 11x14, your Nikkor has 494 or so at 22 ... that's not a ton of room for movement, and even less when you're wider open. Check the corners of the ground glass at shooting aperture and you'll see if you've got coverage
@@AdamFriedberg That is true. Another thing I need to do is to is to set up and etch marks into my rails to know when the front standard is perfectly centered to start, it seems that overall my lens was also a bit left in addition to being high at Zion.
@@richpence I noticed when it was set up for your video it didn't look centered ...
nikon and nikor are pronounced like nippon or nipple. almost all english speakers get this wrong
It's hard to lose the habits of our accents, haha
And Nikor is actually spelled Nikkor. 😊