Prototype update

Over the last week while still waiting for the gear stock for the geared focus I played with the camera pretending I was taking pictures and found some issues, the most important being too much flex in the front standard. So I redesigned it to beef it up a bit. I also re-designed some other parts to reduce the machining required to make them and to strengthen the frame. Now I need to wait for brass stock to arrive to remake some of the parts. Grrr. On the up side, the gear stock arrived and I figured out how to economically make gears, so that's a hurdle I got over. The next challenge is the gearing rack. For the prototype I used off the shelf gearing rack, but it's unreasonably expensive for a production run, so I need to find either a cheaper reliable source of make it myself.

Prototype (almost) operational!

This weekend the prototype became almost operational. It can take pictures ( I took one picture on expired Polariod 57 film), but I'm still waiting for the focusing gears I ordered last week and there are a handful of other parts still missing. The wood and brass is not finished (the wood will be stained a bit darker and covered with satin poly and the brass will be polished).

The bellows came out very nice. As a matter of fact, I will very likely offer a semi-universal 4x5 tapered bellows kit first (and very soon). It's "semi" universal because the customer will be able to choose the size of the large & small ends by cutting the ends at various folds but the extension will obviously depend on where it's being cut. As such, you may not get the extension of your original bellows. The bellows may also not fit cameras with very thin bellows because it may not allow them to fold, nor will it fit cameras with non-square bellows or cameras with belows that taper off center. Full instructions to make sure the bellows resulted would be useful to you will be provided. But stay tuned, details will follow soon.


Here are some pictures of the prototype.

Prototype update

Here are some more picture of the prototype coming along (please note that as with the other pictures, some of the parts are temporarily mounted as there are still missing parts such as spacers, re-inforcements, plates, etc). One of the pictures shows the camera at full extension, the other it shows the camera at full front raise. The other good news is that I finished the first draft of the bellows design, and I sent out the stifeners to be cut. If I get them back today, I could have a functional camera by the end of the weekend!

New pictures of the prototype

More of the prototype pictures with the usual disclaimer (the components may be rough cut, unfinished, aesthetically challenged, subject to change in the final product, parts were assembled with missing components (spacers, washers), aluminum rivets were used for convenience and so on).

The pictures are provided only as an idea on where I am with the project and how the camera will look in general. Any details should be ignored for now.

The bed and the back parts of the prototype are complete.

This weekend I finished the back and the bed (rear and front rails) for the "functional" prototype. By that I mean that the look of the parts will likely change (they are way to "squarish" right now) , but all the critical dimensions and functional elements are completed. This prototype will be completed into a functional camera to actually take into the field to test. My guess that will happen in the next 2-3 weeks.

There are a few design issues to be resolved (like the rear frame for the bellows and the bellows itself and the flat knob for the front standard shift/swing lock) but I don't expect these to be major issues.

This is very exciting!

Note : Please disregard the rough cuts in some places and the slight misfitting, some of the parts were "corrected" by hand because I didn't want to cut them again after addressing the design issues.

Getting close to finalize the design!

For the last few month I've been working to refine & finalize the design as well as setup for a small production run. Between the iterative process of making parts, testing them for function and fit, re-design and repeat, making fixtures for the CNC mill, trying out different materials and different designs for the numerous parts the camera is made from, calibrating the tools (bandsaw for resawing, planer, jointer, lathe), etc it kept me pretty busy.

But for the wooden parts I'm getting really close. Here is the last run of the wooden parts. There are still some fixes to some of them that need to be done, and then the parts need to be made again. Hopefully the next run will be the one to be assembled into a complete camera prototype.

The parts in the picture are for the most part just pressed fit and/or arranged on top of each other. The only part that was glued was the rear standard box. As you can see, there are for the most part not finished, and the next version will have a lot more rounded corners on the camera back. The wood is mahogany and it will be the wood to be used for the first production run.

I resolved some of the issues that bugged me for a while, like the spring system for the ground glass holder and the way to mount the bellows to the front standard. There are a few problems left, like mounting the bellows to the rear standard, the tripod mount, small various problems on how parts will be assembled (the problem being that the intended customer will likely not have access to taps, dies or any other tools beyond basics).

But I'm getting there.

Trip to the lumber yard!

The other day I found out there is a decent lumber yard near my house. So, after my trip there I picked up some wood to try, will make a camera of each to see how it machines and how it behaves. This doesn't change the decision to go with mahogany for the first production run, it's just a test to see what other woods would work. From left to right, tigerwood, padauk, walnut, zebrawood, purpleheart and yellowheart. Except for the tigerwood, closeops of the grain are below.