Long Live the miniature viewcamera!

[Kate-The-Great]

It's been 14 years since the unique Hasselblad Arcbody was discontinued, but for me the dream of a portable, feature-rich rollfilm view camera lives on.

I've been building simple 4x5 cameras for personal use for about 6 years now and now time has come to take things "to the next level"


Early, terrible concept sketch




The beginnings of something interesting



Stay tuned

[philipus]

Very cool!

[geesbert]

Cambo Actus DB, maybe?

[chiek]

I like these compact designs. but Why don't use hasselblad flex/arc body ?
used flex body price is approx US$1.5K. I think it is lower than making body. design, make mockup, machining, and test… It's terrible 

[Theodoros]

Cambo Actus DB, maybe?

Yeah.... that looks very promising indeed, but why MFDB on it? ...a mirrorless FF (like the Sony) should be up to the task just fine... LV is a bit of problem with CCD MFDBs and the larger image area can restrict movements with some MF lenses. The only benefit I find for using an MFDB on Actus, is if it is a multishot one... but again, that could be solved if a maker comes with a "true color" FF mirrorless...  

[Kate-The-Great]

I like these compact designs. but Why don't use hasselblad flex/arc body ?
used flex body price is approx US$1.5K. I think it is lower than making body. design, make mockup, machining, and test… It's terrible 

I genuinely enjoy designing & building things so this is a fun project for me.

Besides, Hasselblad Flexbody has too many restrictions with movements. Arcbody is great, but the cost with lenses can get very high.

The Cambo Actus DB is interesting, but a bit bulky with the rails & bag bellows. I've gotten particular about portability.

This is only half about me wanting a viewcamera; half is just wanting a project    I often have to design/prototype/fabricate small intricate parts for work- having some personal projects keeps things fresh and helps boost my Solidworks skills

[ASSEMBLY]

What is it that you do, Kate?

I'm not a Solidworks person, but operate in similar 3D worlds.

I love your determination. Keep up the good work!

[Kate-The-Great]

What is it that you do, Kate?

I'm not a Solidworks person, but operate in similar 3D worlds.

I love your determination. Keep up the good work!

Thanks!

I'm head of operations at a small electronics company. Part of that involves helping the R&D team with final engineering for products (tweaking their designs for reliability, optimizing BOM etc), as well as production process management. I've been occupied the past few days designing a welding jig that will allow us to bring some previously outsourced fabrication in-house; hopefully later this week or over the weekend I'll have some time to look at the camera design more. Making everything as compact as I'd like it while still having sufficient front movements is a challenge but I have some ideas

Most of my CAD work to date has actually been 2D (Back the Drawing Board for Windows; great affordable App if you have a Surface Pro or the like) and I was doing pen-and-paper drafting for a long time before that but now that I'm collaborating closer with R&D at work I'm getting more into Solidworks too.