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.