My Canada camera

[Ian Grant]

A trip to Canada earlier this month led to some thought, I didn't wasnt to take my LF gear as it was a family get together for a wedding but I wanted something reasonably light weoght and versatile. I also wanted some movements something I miss when shooting MF with my Mamiya 645 or TLR cameras.

So I spent a few hours making this camera utilising the trackbed, guides and front standard from a quarter plate Speed Graphic. It;s actually a protoype for a dual 5x4 and 6x17 camera I plan to make. I used the front standard from a 5x4 Pacemaker Graphic so I could use lens boards and lenses I already use on a Super Grahic.

The bellows were taken from a Speed Graphic camera I erviced and restored the week before, I'dfittednew Chinese belloews. W will make new bellows for this camera over the winter meanwhile I removed some of the ptches and quiclky recovered this old set.

Here's some of the parts prior to assembly and finishing.

I'll posts some images made with it once I;ve printed them, the negatives are very sharp.

Ian

 

[Pete Askew]

That made very nice hybrid, Ian. Do you plan an interchangeable insert on the rear?

 

[Ian Grant]

Do you mean different 120 formats with this camera Pete ? Not really.

With the next one definitely, I'll have a 5x4 insert and a 6x17 as well. I'll be using another quarter plate PAcemaker trackbed but a Super Graphic front standard as it allows more movements. I was told it wouldn't fit but a lot of grinding and it did. I'll modify heavily to allow the use of Wista/Linhof lens boards.

The camera I've shown here can focus to 6ft with a 203mm f7.7 Ektar, I want the 5x4/6x17 camera to be able to use 75mm (possibly 65mm) to 203mm lenses as I use a 75mm as standard for 6x17 (as you saw with my Caorsi). I want to rationalise, I visited Olympia in Greece once with a Super Graphic (5x4), Gaoersi 6x17, Yashicamat 124 and a Canon DSLR plus a few lenses. Since then they've tightened up on the size of the back-pack you can take in.

There's just a chance I may change my plans as I bought an MPP MkIII quite cheaply just before leaving for Canada and it came with most of a second camera but none of the back. I could use most of this to make an even more versatile camera. I always let the subconscious decide.

Ian