5x7 film holders
Again, I'll accept offers on everything, so just let me know.
15 December 2013
Hello everyone. If you're reading this, maybe you are interested in buying something. I have a variety of older cameras, accessories, lenses, and other miscellaneous for sale. I'll do my best to remove the pictures of the items once they are sold. Anything that doesn't get moved out by the end of the year will most likely be donated to get rid of it. Let me know if you are interested in anything either by finding me on twitter (@chrisfecio) or through comments here - I'll do my best to respond as soon as possible. Everything is open to offers, so just let me know.
5x7 film holders
bellows - no visible light leaks, would be great for building your own 8x10 camera
8x10 to 5x7 reducing back
Kodak Anastigmat No. 36 - 12 inch f/4.5 in lens board without shutter.
5x7 film hangers - 8 total
A variety of film holders ~20. most are wooden
4x5 rubber tanks for developing using hangers
graflex film pack adapters
Bulbs
polaroid 80A
Land Camera flash
Exposure meter
Super Shooter Plus - does not work, even with fresh batteries. Maybe you can fix it?
Polaroid Wink Light
books
The next three are all the same, the box, cover, and inside the calendar
Small pamphlets
Using the View Camera
D76 - 3 expired in 2007 and one exp in 2011. Because they are powder, they should still work fine.
Canon TX
case for Canon TX
ricoh 50mm f/2
ricoh sigma 28mm f/2.8
Mamiya 16
Canon FD lenses: 80-200 f/4.5
Canon FD mount: Sigma 24mm f/2.8
Side view of sigma lens
Canon FD mount: Sigma 75-250mm f/4.5
Reels - 2 new in box
Tank without lid and multiple reels.
Voigtlander Vitomatic Ia
Front
top view
The case is taped together
Again, I'll accept offers on everything, so just let me know.
5x7 film holders
Again, I'll accept offers on everything, so just let me know.
22 October 2012
Hello everyone. I know it has been a long time since my last post. I've been busy working on a few things, and my blog is now moving over to my new website. I'll be keeping this one alive so that the past isn't lost, but all new posts can be viewed on the new blog: http://www.christopherfecio.com/blog/
Thanks again for all the follows; feel free to bookmark my new site to keep up to date.
Thanks again for all the follows; feel free to bookmark my new site to keep up to date.
19 February 2012
Do It Yourself Ground Glass
A couple weekends ago I went and visited NYC. What started out as a trip to visit a friend who moved there a few months before ended as a journey to bring home a new (old) camera. It began one day while searching through the 8x10 camera listings on eBay. I never really thought that I would buy one, especially since I already had plans to build one. But, as the process advanced and I continued to draw up and change plans, I thought it would be helpful to look at a finished camera in order to better understand how the gears were set up and how the knobs moved and tightened different parts of the camera. I found a beautiful old Gundlach Korona on the Bay, and I added it to my watch list. Days later it was ending and in a spur of the moment decision, with 6 second left, I tossed in a bid. I was bidding on my phone, and the page told me it was sending my bid, but I was nervous that it might not go through in time. When it finally refreshed, it said the item had ended and I was the high bidder. I was immediately filled with mixed feelings: did I really need this camera? Did I really just spend that much on a camera? And, mostly, what the hell was I thinking?
Long story short, the seller was located in Brooklyn, NY, and since I already had plans to visit that weekend (the listing ended on a Tuesday night) I asked if I could meet him somewhere and pick it up to save myself the cost of shipping and to save him the trouble of trying to safely package it and get it to a post office. After a couple changes in plans while there, I eventually picked it up and fell in love immediately. It was a wooden goddess.
The only problem with the camera was that it didn't have a piece of ground glass in the 8x10 back. For anyone who doesn't have experience with large format cameras, the ground glass is a piece of frosted glass that the image is focused on before burning it into the film. It is 100% necessary, so I had to either buy a piece of glass or somehow make a new one. Buying one would mean going on eBay and spending a minimum of $70. And to me, spending that much for a piece of glass just seemed ridiculous so I started researching how to make my own. One of the first websites that I was directed to was an APUG (Analog Photography Users Group) thread that was basically a step by step process of how to make one using Silicon Carbide grit and any old piece of glass. I recently threw away a pile of old picture frames and had saved the glass (I was thinking of starting wet plate, but that's on hold for now) so I made sure it would fit the back. It was perfect. I clipped the corners and it was ready.
I found the Silicon Carbide grits from a company called Kingsley North Inc. after searching on Google for Lapidary supplies (the silicon carbide is also used for sanding and smoothing stone/gravel). I decided to get both sizes recommended on the APUG thread (400 and 600) because the piece of glass was so large and I wanted the finish to be as fine as possible. The only downside to ordering was that it only came in 1 pound boxes; it ended up being so much more than necessary to make a single ground glass. It cost me $21 for the two pounds and shipping (the grit was only $4.85 for each box and the shipping was the rest). Days later, a package arrived in the mail.
Aside from the silicon carbide grit, the only other things that are necessary to make the ground glass are a cup of water (I didn't have a cup on hand so I used a small stainless steel developing tank - it seemed more fitting anyway), some wet/dry sandpaper to smooth out any rough edges on the glass, and a smaller square of glass to use as a grinding tool. It is very important that all the edges of the grinding piece (mine was approximately 3x3 inches) are extremely smooth so that it doesn't scratch the ground glass as you are spreading the grit.
I am going to assume that the amount of grit that you place on the glass is completely up to the person doing it, so I sprinkled a little onto the surface and sprayed a bit of water on. Make sure that there is enough water, otherwise the grit is much too rough to spread. The process reminded my of playing in the sand on a beach - not enough water and it wasn't usable, but too much and it was just runny and also unusable. Use the 400 grit first to lay down a base layer. After grinding for a couple minutes, I added a little more grit and a little more water to give a second coat. After about 4-5 minutes you should completely wash everything off the glass, front and back, and then dry it fully. Do the same to the smaller grinding piece.
As you dry off the surface, you will notice that the surface will begin to appear frosted. This is a good sign. I'm not exactly sure why it looks transparent when wet and much less so when dry, but it's really neat. After the glass is completely dry, sprinkle on the 600 grit and add water. Grind it in the same manner as previously stated, adding a second sprinkle and more water after a couple minutes. In my case, there were a couple areas that weren't fully covered after the 400 grit so I made sure to get those areas with the 600 so it was as even as possible. After 4-5 minutes with the 600 grit, I washed it off and dried it. Holding it up to the light, it was very even, and looked good enough to use.
I was so excited to see if it worked in my camera, so I loaded it into the 8x10 back. It looked as though it 100% belonged there and it gave me a real feeling of pride that I had done such great work on it.
It was dark out so I couldn't take the camera outside to see how it worked, so I just attached the back and set it up in my living room. It looked good, and seemed bright enough. The next morning I set up the camera and pointed it out the window into the daylight. I was so happy; it looked amazing. Here's what I saw:
All in all, it took me less than an hour to do everything, and cost me less than $30. That's already a more than 50% savings over what a ground glass would cost, and I have enough materials to make at least 8 more (that's how many pieces of glass I have left). There is probably enough grit left to make at least 25 more in the 8x10 size. More in 4x5.
The next step is to CLA the lens - I'll be working on that today and tomorrow. After that, the camera should be more than ready to get out into the world.
And no, I haven't given up on making my own camera. The plans are still in the works, and the more I play with this camera, the more I understand exactly how it works. It also gives me ideas of things I can change to make it more user friendly. Well, here goes nothing.
I learned everything here so if you have any questions or if I missed anything, the APUG thread might be helpful to look at: http://www.apug.org/forums/forum216/78392-making-ground-glass-focus-screen.html
Long story short, the seller was located in Brooklyn, NY, and since I already had plans to visit that weekend (the listing ended on a Tuesday night) I asked if I could meet him somewhere and pick it up to save myself the cost of shipping and to save him the trouble of trying to safely package it and get it to a post office. After a couple changes in plans while there, I eventually picked it up and fell in love immediately. It was a wooden goddess.
The only problem with the camera was that it didn't have a piece of ground glass in the 8x10 back. For anyone who doesn't have experience with large format cameras, the ground glass is a piece of frosted glass that the image is focused on before burning it into the film. It is 100% necessary, so I had to either buy a piece of glass or somehow make a new one. Buying one would mean going on eBay and spending a minimum of $70. And to me, spending that much for a piece of glass just seemed ridiculous so I started researching how to make my own. One of the first websites that I was directed to was an APUG (Analog Photography Users Group) thread that was basically a step by step process of how to make one using Silicon Carbide grit and any old piece of glass. I recently threw away a pile of old picture frames and had saved the glass (I was thinking of starting wet plate, but that's on hold for now) so I made sure it would fit the back. It was perfect. I clipped the corners and it was ready.
I found the Silicon Carbide grits from a company called Kingsley North Inc. after searching on Google for Lapidary supplies (the silicon carbide is also used for sanding and smoothing stone/gravel). I decided to get both sizes recommended on the APUG thread (400 and 600) because the piece of glass was so large and I wanted the finish to be as fine as possible. The only downside to ordering was that it only came in 1 pound boxes; it ended up being so much more than necessary to make a single ground glass. It cost me $21 for the two pounds and shipping (the grit was only $4.85 for each box and the shipping was the rest). Days later, a package arrived in the mail.
Aside from the silicon carbide grit, the only other things that are necessary to make the ground glass are a cup of water (I didn't have a cup on hand so I used a small stainless steel developing tank - it seemed more fitting anyway), some wet/dry sandpaper to smooth out any rough edges on the glass, and a smaller square of glass to use as a grinding tool. It is very important that all the edges of the grinding piece (mine was approximately 3x3 inches) are extremely smooth so that it doesn't scratch the ground glass as you are spreading the grit.
I am going to assume that the amount of grit that you place on the glass is completely up to the person doing it, so I sprinkled a little onto the surface and sprayed a bit of water on. Make sure that there is enough water, otherwise the grit is much too rough to spread. The process reminded my of playing in the sand on a beach - not enough water and it wasn't usable, but too much and it was just runny and also unusable. Use the 400 grit first to lay down a base layer. After grinding for a couple minutes, I added a little more grit and a little more water to give a second coat. After about 4-5 minutes you should completely wash everything off the glass, front and back, and then dry it fully. Do the same to the smaller grinding piece.
As you dry off the surface, you will notice that the surface will begin to appear frosted. This is a good sign. I'm not exactly sure why it looks transparent when wet and much less so when dry, but it's really neat. After the glass is completely dry, sprinkle on the 600 grit and add water. Grind it in the same manner as previously stated, adding a second sprinkle and more water after a couple minutes. In my case, there were a couple areas that weren't fully covered after the 400 grit so I made sure to get those areas with the 600 so it was as even as possible. After 4-5 minutes with the 600 grit, I washed it off and dried it. Holding it up to the light, it was very even, and looked good enough to use.
I was so excited to see if it worked in my camera, so I loaded it into the 8x10 back. It looked as though it 100% belonged there and it gave me a real feeling of pride that I had done such great work on it.
It was dark out so I couldn't take the camera outside to see how it worked, so I just attached the back and set it up in my living room. It looked good, and seemed bright enough. The next morning I set up the camera and pointed it out the window into the daylight. I was so happy; it looked amazing. Here's what I saw:
All in all, it took me less than an hour to do everything, and cost me less than $30. That's already a more than 50% savings over what a ground glass would cost, and I have enough materials to make at least 8 more (that's how many pieces of glass I have left). There is probably enough grit left to make at least 25 more in the 8x10 size. More in 4x5.The next step is to CLA the lens - I'll be working on that today and tomorrow. After that, the camera should be more than ready to get out into the world.
And no, I haven't given up on making my own camera. The plans are still in the works, and the more I play with this camera, the more I understand exactly how it works. It also gives me ideas of things I can change to make it more user friendly. Well, here goes nothing.
I learned everything here so if you have any questions or if I missed anything, the APUG thread might be helpful to look at: http://www.apug.org/forums/forum216/78392-making-ground-glass-focus-screen.html
07 January 2012
The Beginnings
Last spring/summer I visited a couple photographer friends in Minneapolis, MN, and the one day we found ourselves at an estate sale. Estate sales always have big promises of awesome cameras and great deals; most end up being duds and there isn't much of value or use. But, for once in my life, the Estate Sale Gods looked down on me with favor and presented me with a plethora of old camera parts, negative holders, and fun photography things. I was overwhelmed with excitement as we descended into the basement of the house, and was taken aback when I saw all the beautiful items sitting on tables and shelves. My attention was immediately directed toward a table of lenses and large format camera parts. There were pieces of ground glass, camera backs, sets of bellows, and other various parts, as well as a box of different size negative holders. The friend I was with, Tim Ho, an amazing digital and film photographer, had been at the house a week or so prior and talked about all the awesome things for sale; when I saw all the items, I was overcome with excitement.
I ended up looking through the different parts, in order to try to find a matching set that might easily fit together as a camera. I was hoping for 8x10 parts, but instead settled on a back that would fit an 8x10 camera, but was setup for 5x7 film holders. I figured that I could always start small and if I decided 8x10 made sense some time in the future, all it would take is a different back, rather than a different camera. The jump from 4x5 to 5x7 isn't that great, but it does offer a bit of size, and it would make sense to mess around with a workflow for glass plates with the smaller size and then move up to 8x10 once I had a real system in place (more on glass plates in the future).
The set of bellows seemed to be from an old 8x10 camera, as the opening at the rear was much too large for 5x7 and not quite large enough for 11x14. They hadn't been used in a really long time and were a bit stuck together. I asked Tim to hold on end and I would extend the other to make sure they could still easily expand and contract. As I started stretching them, the woman running the sale gave me a terrified look as if she was afraid that they would be ruined. I told her I would be buying them either way (even if the bellows weren't usable, the front and rear elements would be good to use in any camera I could build). She seemed relieved and I stretched them the rest of the way with no trouble. The outside corners do show a bit of wear, but they are light-tight and must be double lined because the inner structure looks perfect.
On one table in the middle there were a bunch of lenses. I looked through them and chose the one that I thought would fit my project the best. It is a Kodak No 36 Anastigmat 12 inch lens. It has stops all the way from 4.5 to 45 so it would be fast enough for wet plate (debatable) but could be stopped down for landscape work with film. The lens board ended up getting chipped on my flight back home from Minneapolis, but it isn't the right size anyway so I am going to be building a new one to put the lens in. I almost regret not buying a few more of the lenses that the lady had (I can't remember exactly what they were), especially since I didn't know a great deal about large format lenses back then, and some of them might be more useful.
Jump forward almost a year, and I'm finally getting around to actually making something from those parts. I picked out some Cherry wood to use as the frame, and I found a local place where I can get brass for the finishings. The only items I have left to get are the hardware (screws, nuts, etc) and the rack, gears, and knobs. I'm going to build the basic structure and then order those parts when I know exactly what I'm looking for. I'll be borrowing most of my design from field cameras, while incorporating as many movements as I can. The front rack is going to fold up to lock and hold everything in place. When folded down, it will provide enough extension to allow for focus at infinity and (if everything goes as plan) close-up portraits. I don't have a lot of bellows to work with, so it might not provide for as much portrait work as I might like - we'll see.
My design is mostly drawn out and I will begin working on some scrap wood soon to get a hang of the saws and particular cuts I'll be making. Cherry is too expensive to jump right in and screw up. I'm keeping track of everything that I spend money on for this camera, so I should be able to provide a simple list of how much it could cost to build your own 5x7/8x10 camera. My goal is to keep it under $250, so we'll see how that goes. If I wanted to spend more, I would have just gone to a local antique store and bought the 8x10 that they have sitting behind the counter; I've seen it there for over 20 months, so it doesn't seem like anyone else wants it.
I know I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but if all goes as planned, I might be able to turn this woodworking/building into some sort of business and I can spend less time sitting behind a desk and more time enjoying something I love. I'll take it all in stride though.
Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, feel free to share!
I ended up looking through the different parts, in order to try to find a matching set that might easily fit together as a camera. I was hoping for 8x10 parts, but instead settled on a back that would fit an 8x10 camera, but was setup for 5x7 film holders. I figured that I could always start small and if I decided 8x10 made sense some time in the future, all it would take is a different back, rather than a different camera. The jump from 4x5 to 5x7 isn't that great, but it does offer a bit of size, and it would make sense to mess around with a workflow for glass plates with the smaller size and then move up to 8x10 once I had a real system in place (more on glass plates in the future).
The set of bellows seemed to be from an old 8x10 camera, as the opening at the rear was much too large for 5x7 and not quite large enough for 11x14. They hadn't been used in a really long time and were a bit stuck together. I asked Tim to hold on end and I would extend the other to make sure they could still easily expand and contract. As I started stretching them, the woman running the sale gave me a terrified look as if she was afraid that they would be ruined. I told her I would be buying them either way (even if the bellows weren't usable, the front and rear elements would be good to use in any camera I could build). She seemed relieved and I stretched them the rest of the way with no trouble. The outside corners do show a bit of wear, but they are light-tight and must be double lined because the inner structure looks perfect.
On one table in the middle there were a bunch of lenses. I looked through them and chose the one that I thought would fit my project the best. It is a Kodak No 36 Anastigmat 12 inch lens. It has stops all the way from 4.5 to 45 so it would be fast enough for wet plate (debatable) but could be stopped down for landscape work with film. The lens board ended up getting chipped on my flight back home from Minneapolis, but it isn't the right size anyway so I am going to be building a new one to put the lens in. I almost regret not buying a few more of the lenses that the lady had (I can't remember exactly what they were), especially since I didn't know a great deal about large format lenses back then, and some of them might be more useful.
Jump forward almost a year, and I'm finally getting around to actually making something from those parts. I picked out some Cherry wood to use as the frame, and I found a local place where I can get brass for the finishings. The only items I have left to get are the hardware (screws, nuts, etc) and the rack, gears, and knobs. I'm going to build the basic structure and then order those parts when I know exactly what I'm looking for. I'll be borrowing most of my design from field cameras, while incorporating as many movements as I can. The front rack is going to fold up to lock and hold everything in place. When folded down, it will provide enough extension to allow for focus at infinity and (if everything goes as plan) close-up portraits. I don't have a lot of bellows to work with, so it might not provide for as much portrait work as I might like - we'll see.
My design is mostly drawn out and I will begin working on some scrap wood soon to get a hang of the saws and particular cuts I'll be making. Cherry is too expensive to jump right in and screw up. I'm keeping track of everything that I spend money on for this camera, so I should be able to provide a simple list of how much it could cost to build your own 5x7/8x10 camera. My goal is to keep it under $250, so we'll see how that goes. If I wanted to spend more, I would have just gone to a local antique store and bought the 8x10 that they have sitting behind the counter; I've seen it there for over 20 months, so it doesn't seem like anyone else wants it.
I know I'm getting a bit ahead of myself, but if all goes as planned, I might be able to turn this woodworking/building into some sort of business and I can spend less time sitting behind a desk and more time enjoying something I love. I'll take it all in stride though.
Any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, feel free to share!
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