Pete Askew
Admin
In response to Hamish's DIY camera challenge I decided to build a simple large format camera, similar in design to some of the early 19th century designs. I'd thought first of making it out of wood but with sheet plastic material I can do it in the studio without making too much mess. I was planning on calling it a Brown Boxy but unfortunately I could only find black, red or yellow plastic. Here are a few 'during construction' shots to record progress.
So, given that the deadline is approaching fast, yesterday evening I made a start on my DIY camera. On Saturday, after reviewing the materials available locally, I bought a couple of sheets of low density (actually fine 'blown'), black plastic sheet (15 Euros) from a DIY store here in Potsdam (guttagliss hobbycolor - Gutta international). So far all of the joints have been cemented using adhesive but I might tape some with black 'Gaffa' tape as well in case the joints leak light. The lens was originally intended to be an old reprographics camera lens I've had lying around for years but I recently bought a pre-1920 Hicro Hess-Ives Corp. 250 mm f1:8, large format lens on German eBay from Poland (3.50 Euros!) and that will be easier to fit as it has a collar intended for a wooden panel (and a shutter!). The rest of the design specification is obviously still top-secret at present as there are industrial spies everywhere these days!!
So, given that the deadline is approaching fast, yesterday evening I made a start on my DIY camera. On Saturday, after reviewing the materials available locally, I bought a couple of sheets of low density (actually fine 'blown'), black plastic sheet (15 Euros) from a DIY store here in Potsdam (guttagliss hobbycolor - Gutta international). So far all of the joints have been cemented using adhesive but I might tape some with black 'Gaffa' tape as well in case the joints leak light. The lens was originally intended to be an old reprographics camera lens I've had lying around for years but I recently bought a pre-1920 Hicro Hess-Ives Corp. 250 mm f1:8, large format lens on German eBay from Poland (3.50 Euros!) and that will be easier to fit as it has a collar intended for a wooden panel (and a shutter!). The rest of the design specification is obviously still top-secret at present as there are industrial spies everywhere these days!!
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