Dean Jones
New member
Any thoughts about a 4x5 SLR? Your input would be most welcome..........
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~razzle/4x5_SLR/4x5_slr.html
http://homepages.ihug.com.au/~razzle/4x5_SLR/4x5_slr.html
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At last my 4x5 SLR?
- Thread starter Dean Jones
- Start date
Klaus Esser
pro member
Great stuff, Dean!
There were some SLR in 4x5" or even 5x7" on the market in the last 80 years.
All very clumsy . .
Doesn´t a simple mirror attached to the filmholder almost do the same job? A 4x5" you wouldn´t typically use to shoot action pictures anyway, do you? ;-)
What about shift/tilt?
btw.: a GREAT site!!
best, Klaus
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Congratulations Dean!
This is a wonderful project and we want to keep abreast of every step on the way. I hope you will make this thread into a running blog on your efforts to tame this beast!
Any chance you will get some movements?
Asher
This is a wonderful project and we want to keep abreast of every step on the way. I hope you will make this thread into a running blog on your efforts to tame this beast!
Any chance you will get some movements?
Asher
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Peter Gowland glamor photographer and camera builder, built a neat fixed lens reflex camera.
From Canada we have had the inventiveness of Ed Warner in a camera club who built wooden reflex 4x5 cameras!
"A very small number of our members delight in making their own cameras. Ed Warner is one of this select group. The first camera he showed was a 4x5 SLR made from fine mahogany cut and hand planed by Ed to the desired thickness. The mirror is flipped up with a lever. Ed used a small magnet inside the camera to hold the mirror up for the exposure.
He modified a film holder to make a ground glass used to accurately position the adjustable back for exact focus. To aid in focussing, Ed mounted a simple lens and rubber shade in a small wooden block which fits onto the viewing hood.
The most expensive part of the camera is the lens with its built-in shutter. Other mechanical components came from Ed's junk box - the remains of various cameras and other instruments beyond repair."
Then there's the 4x5 Graflex SLR.
It's a 4x5 single lens reflex with a focal plane shutter with shutter speeds up to 1/1,000 of a second. I plan to use it as a studio portrait camera although a lot of very famous pictures were taken with one of these hand held by people like Margaret Bourke-White and Dorothea Lange. Source is a electicedge.com here
Read more about ithere .Peter Garland said:
From Canada we have had the inventiveness of Ed Warner in a camera club who built wooden reflex 4x5 cameras!
"A very small number of our members delight in making their own cameras. Ed Warner is one of this select group. The first camera he showed was a 4x5 SLR made from fine mahogany cut and hand planed by Ed to the desired thickness. The mirror is flipped up with a lever. Ed used a small magnet inside the camera to hold the mirror up for the exposure.
He modified a film holder to make a ground glass used to accurately position the adjustable back for exact focus. To aid in focussing, Ed mounted a simple lens and rubber shade in a small wooden block which fits onto the viewing hood.
The most expensive part of the camera is the lens with its built-in shutter. Other mechanical components came from Ed's junk box - the remains of various cameras and other instruments beyond repair."
Then there's the 4x5 Graflex SLR.
It's a 4x5 single lens reflex with a focal plane shutter with shutter speeds up to 1/1,000 of a second. I plan to use it as a studio portrait camera although a lot of very famous pictures were taken with one of these hand held by people like Margaret Bourke-White and Dorothea Lange. Source is a electicedge.com here
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Of course for $3800 you could have bought a Wisner handbuilt 4x5 SLR
* Between-the-lens Copal shutter with flash sync.
* Interchangeable multicoated high-resolution Tessar-type and telephoto lenses from 150mm to 400mm.
* More compact and lighter than the original.
* Rotating Back
* Rack and pinion bellows focusing
* Varnished natural cherry body with brass hardware, genuine burgundy kid leather viewing hood and focusing bellows, leather handle.
* $3850, with choice of 150mm, 180mm or 210mm lens included.
Well, cry your eyes out, you will have to put back the money in your pocket! The camera is no longer available. You can however buy 3-5 Graflex 4x5 SLRs for the same price!
Now for a modern camera, lets see what Dean has to offer. I, for one, am very interested in this work.
Asher
* Between-the-lens Copal shutter with flash sync.
* Interchangeable multicoated high-resolution Tessar-type and telephoto lenses from 150mm to 400mm.
* More compact and lighter than the original.
* Rotating Back
* Rack and pinion bellows focusing
* Varnished natural cherry body with brass hardware, genuine burgundy kid leather viewing hood and focusing bellows, leather handle.
* $3850, with choice of 150mm, 180mm or 210mm lens included.
Well, cry your eyes out, you will have to put back the money in your pocket! The camera is no longer available. You can however buy 3-5 Graflex 4x5 SLRs for the same price!
Now for a modern camera, lets see what Dean has to offer. I, for one, am very interested in this work.
Asher
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Dean,
I like the way the camera looks. Actually, 7lb is not all that bad as the weight will damp anf vibration. How much wieght could you get off it and when will you have one ready to let out?
How short a lens can it take? I'm wondering because the mirror box has to be limiting. 210 mm with that extension might just get it into focus but perhaps not at infinity? What about a 90mm? I guess it's impossible!
Can the back rotate?
Any chance of front movements?
The camera seems pretty handsome!!
I guess it will be mostly for portrait?
Thanks for sharing and keep working!
Asher
I like the way the camera looks. Actually, 7lb is not all that bad as the weight will damp anf vibration. How much wieght could you get off it and when will you have one ready to let out?
How short a lens can it take? I'm wondering because the mirror box has to be limiting. 210 mm with that extension might just get it into focus but perhaps not at infinity? What about a 90mm? I guess it's impossible!
Can the back rotate?
Any chance of front movements?
The camera seems pretty handsome!!
I guess it will be mostly for portrait?
Thanks for sharing and keep working!
Asher
Dean Jones
New member
It actually has interchangeable twenty four inch bellows too..... I'm just working on how to keep them under control. No rotating back as the body is not square. I'm hoping it will do more than portrait, currently it is set up to focus at 8-12 feet with the 210 and much the same with a 180 Xenar...what I really need to incorporate the bellows is a 240mm.
Let's also consider the mirror aspect...this camera uses a mirror that's coated on the upside, same as all SLR's. These things are mighty expensive, so what compensation do I make when using a cheaper mirror that is coated on the underside like the one on your bathroom wall?
Say it's 2mm thick, does that mean I must space the film plane 2mm farther back than normal, or if it's on a 45 degree angle is that 1mm?
If I decide to make another camera of this type, obviously my prime consideration would be keeping the price to a minimum and the mirror is probably the most expensive part.
Has anyone gone down this road before? I have posted this same question on the Large Format Photography forum, but I figure Asher would love a scenario like this to think about!
Cheers, Dean.
P.S Asher you are a world of knowledge.........!
Let's also consider the mirror aspect...this camera uses a mirror that's coated on the upside, same as all SLR's. These things are mighty expensive, so what compensation do I make when using a cheaper mirror that is coated on the underside like the one on your bathroom wall?
Say it's 2mm thick, does that mean I must space the film plane 2mm farther back than normal, or if it's on a 45 degree angle is that 1mm?
If I decide to make another camera of this type, obviously my prime consideration would be keeping the price to a minimum and the mirror is probably the most expensive part.
Has anyone gone down this road before? I have posted this same question on the Large Format Photography forum, but I figure Asher would love a scenario like this to think about!
Cheers, Dean.
P.S Asher you are a world of knowledge.........!
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Will Thompson
Well Known Member
And waited somthing like a year or two for it to be built!
Carsten Wolff
New member
Dean,
Looks suspicioulsy/audaciously like an old Arca-Swiss 4x5 SLR body.....which is of course rare as hen's teeth.
Now, if you sprayed it pink I might be interested
I've checked out your 6x17 "Obsession"; luv it!
I myself made a 6x17/5x7 (75mm lens) underwater housing that uses Hinge and Scheimpflug principles, well, sort of....using an external scale that indicates filmplane tilt, but it is essentially a P&S.
So, perhaps I'll visit you one day in Adelaide if I may....It'd be an interesting exercise going the 6x17/5x7 UW-SLR route, if it were feasible.....
However, I think it would be, although technically not all that challenging, too complex, budget wise.
.....Any commercial billboard UW photographers out there?
Carsten
Looks suspicioulsy/audaciously like an old Arca-Swiss 4x5 SLR body.....which is of course rare as hen's teeth.
Now, if you sprayed it pink I might be interested
I've checked out your 6x17 "Obsession"; luv it!
I myself made a 6x17/5x7 (75mm lens) underwater housing that uses Hinge and Scheimpflug principles, well, sort of....using an external scale that indicates filmplane tilt, but it is essentially a P&S.
So, perhaps I'll visit you one day in Adelaide if I may....It'd be an interesting exercise going the 6x17/5x7 UW-SLR route, if it were feasible.....
However, I think it would be, although technically not all that challenging, too complex, budget wise.
.....Any commercial billboard UW photographers out there?
Carsten
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Carsten,
Do you have links to your camera building work?
Nicolas Claris, for one, prints very large megaprints pictures for boat shows that occupy whole walls.
I'm interested in such a camera as long as it has rise and shift and if possible tilt too.
Asher
Do you have links to your camera building work?
Nicolas Claris, for one, prints very large megaprints pictures for boat shows that occupy whole walls.
I'm interested in such a camera as long as it has rise and shift and if possible tilt too.
Asher
Carsten Wolff
New member
Thanks, Asher,
I haven't got a homepage, but can email pictures.
I haven't got a homepage, but can email pictures.
Asher Kelman
OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Hi Carsten,
Can you give us an update? You should get a free online account to link your pictures for you here!
Asher
Can you give us an update? You should get a free online account to link your pictures for you here!
Asher
Carsten Wolff
New member
Asher and others,
I've put two pics I had from the workshop in an album on here:
http://carstenwolff.spaces.live.com/
Since then I've added the shutter release, a finder (ex-Nikonos 15mm finder with a panorama mask) and tripod socket and paint-job. Things still to sort out are tilt-scale calibration and the shutter speed dial, which is hard to operate underwater. For this reason I might have to re-design the port assembly.
Will write a little post once I've finished all the calibrations and the has had a field run.......
thanks for your interest,
Carsten
PS: Sorry, Dean for seemingly highjacking your thread a bit. I'll start a separate thread on further developments. In the meantime, interested parties may pm me off-thread for updates.
I've put two pics I had from the workshop in an album on here:
http://carstenwolff.spaces.live.com/
Since then I've added the shutter release, a finder (ex-Nikonos 15mm finder with a panorama mask) and tripod socket and paint-job. Things still to sort out are tilt-scale calibration and the shutter speed dial, which is hard to operate underwater. For this reason I might have to re-design the port assembly.
Will write a little post once I've finished all the calibrations and the has had a field run.......
thanks for your interest,
Carsten
PS: Sorry, Dean for seemingly highjacking your thread a bit. I'll start a separate thread on further developments. In the meantime, interested parties may pm me off-thread for updates.
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