Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Cameras, Lenses and Shooting gear => Topic started by: pniaouris on September 08, 2012, 05:29:38 am

Title: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 08, 2012, 05:29:38 am
   I started , on May of 2010 to make my own tilt/shift device . After the first attempt what was a hobby became an impegnative project , and after four prototypes , I reached the final one . (http://www.flickr.com/photos/pavlosfotosathgr/7950609606/in/photostream)
  It uses Medium Format lenses , but can mount 35mm ones under certain circumstances , I use it with 35mm film or APS-C digital cam , can shift 15mm all directions for each standart , and tilt limited only by the lens covering capacity . Weight 1,7 kgs . Not bad I think .
  For the whole project this  flickr set of mine provides all the info about it .
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pavlosfotosathgr/sets/72157624108080127/
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: wolfnowl on September 09, 2012, 04:31:59 pm
Congrats!  I trust it was worth the effort for you...

Mike.
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Joe S on September 10, 2012, 12:18:31 am
Nice project!
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Alan Smallbone on September 10, 2012, 04:38:26 pm
Very nice, well done.

Alan
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Tony Jay on September 10, 2012, 07:11:52 pm
Impressive!
Congratulations.

Regards

Tony Jay
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Sareesh Sudhakaran on September 10, 2012, 11:14:33 pm
Excellent work! Thanks for sharing!
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Fritzer on September 11, 2012, 10:42:35 am
Brilliant , I love well done DIY !
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Rob C on September 11, 2012, 11:15:21 am
Brilliant , I love well done DIY !


I also liked lenses with real depth of field scales! Remember them, Mr Nikon? Having said that, Nikon's old colour system also sucked: they should have used proper numbers.

Nice work indeed, and well worth the effort, I'd think!

Rob C
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 11, 2012, 01:53:13 pm
  Thanks for the comments guys .
Here are a couple of test fotos . One with controls at 0 point , and the same with lens tilted 15 degrees to the right . The lens is a Mir 26  3,5/45 at f/16 in both cases .
   I hope I'll be soon able to produce a limited series of the system , rated at about 400 euro for the full version .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 11, 2012, 01:59:50 pm
  These are some older fotos made with previous prototypes
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 14, 2012, 12:55:06 pm
  This is a Mir 1B (with mount and focusing helicoid removed) , mounted on the 'Geometry' , and focused to infinity .
There's obviously no space between camera and lens for mounts to hold the bellows , so the only solution I've thought of , is to use a black foam rubber  ring , 25mm thick as a bellows , with no mounting . I'll post fotos as soon as I'll have made it .
  Also , Monday 17 , I'm going to visit an ancient theater and I hope I'll have more than one opportunity to show what this baby is capable of .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: FredBGG on September 15, 2012, 12:15:26 pm
Here is my project

I just bought a Canon 85mm 1.2 that was broken for pennies and tore it apart and built it into the front end of a Fuji gx680 that I will be using on my d800
so I can tilt shift. For focus control really, no perspective control due to the limits of the image circle.

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8041/7988741559_de38d5d41f_c.jpg)
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8310/7988739731_0183a91afd_c.jpg)
Early "design stages" ;)

What is cool is that the front end of the Fuji gx680 is really easy to remove.

Just these two screws here.

(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8317/7988741913_40c2530332_c.jpg)

The base to mount the Nikon is easy too. you just need one of these and a block of billet aluminum.

(http://www.collectiblecameras.com/images/P/mamiya_PAe.jpg)

Then you need to modify one of these wide angle bellows by Fuji for the Fuji gx680.

(http://www.capturetek.com/media/jpg/h9935-00-web.jpg)
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 15, 2012, 05:02:24 pm
  Hi FredBGG ,
  Congrats , fine work . For tilt/shift movements you  just have to put a medium format lens on . Russians are economic enough , but you can also use a lens from a broken folding camera or an enlargement lens for 6X6 to 6X9 .
   Good shots .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: FredBGG on September 15, 2012, 05:10:08 pm
The Fuji gx680 lenses work on the rig for shift as well as tilt shift.

You have to use them manual stop down and the widest is a 50mm.

With the 85mm 1.2 canon you can use tilt shift, but you always have to shift after tilting in order to center the image circle.

Dreamy images.

IF you are interested in the front end of a Fuji gx680 there is a guy on ebay .. astrosmith .. who on and off has broken gx680 bodies for very cheap.
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 16, 2012, 11:42:55 am
  Thank you for the info FredBGG
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 17, 2012, 02:16:05 pm
    Here are some fotos shot with 'Geometry' . Lens is the Mir 1B  at f/8 , tilted just a bit to help for the DoF . Pentax K10d used as a back .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 25, 2012, 10:59:23 am
   Here's a fresh one . I shot it yesterday with the use of "Geometry" . The lens is a Vega 12 2,8/90 ,tilted and stopped down to f/16 . If you look carefully you'll observe that focus is not on points of the same distance from the lens but on points belonging to a plane that is obligue to the lens axis (roughly the plane of the table) .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Deardorff on September 25, 2012, 11:20:36 am
It's obvious you enjoy the playing around and making things.
As for a View Camera, it would have been less expensive to buy an old Calument 400 series with a lens, 6 film holders and a meter. Then you could shoot 4x5 film.
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on September 25, 2012, 12:38:23 pm
   A Large Format Camera was a dream for me when I was younger . What stopped me from buying one was the cost but also the sheet film processing . This , and the weight was too much for me . Imagine now . Anyway , making a functional and good looking machine ,which mounts lenses I already had , and my dSLR  , and gives such results , was a challenge I couldn't resist . As about the cost , making a couple of copies for some friends of mine at a very reasonable price , will give me back a big part of the money I spent for the development of this machine . Anyway I like both milling the parts and assembling work . And last but not least , realising this project was a great experience , and I feel my shots with this machine are literally hand made .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on October 10, 2012, 01:14:15 pm
  Here are some fotos I shot the last few days . They are all shot with "Geometry" , a Pentax K10d and the Mir 28B 3,5/45 at f/16 . The back standard is tilted 10 degrees back as a starting point ,then the front is tilted forth by controlling the focusing .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on November 09, 2012, 02:38:33 pm
  This is one more foto of the " Geometry " . Isn't it wild ?
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: SunnyUK on November 15, 2012, 10:55:59 am
"wild" doesn't start to describe it!  ;D

Excellent results. I salute you for your tenacity and skill.
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on January 08, 2013, 12:13:23 pm
   Converting the "dSLR to View Camera Conversion ", to a 6X9 cm View Camera . "Geometry " is proved to be a nice platform for any kind of experiment .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on March 06, 2013, 02:56:45 pm
   A first batch of three machines is made . The first is a 6X9 version ( or 6X7 depending on the roll film back used ) and the others are SLR versions . The lenses here are a Meopta Largor 135 /6,8 for the 6X9 version and Mir 26b 45/3,5 and Mamiya C 35/3,5 for the others . Other usable lenses are , for the 6X9 version any 6X9 folder lens , and for the SLR versions , any Medium Format or enlarging lens , here shown the Volna 3 MC 80/2,8 , the Vega 5y 105/4 , Astron 75/3,5 (not as good ) and the EL Nikkor 50/2,8 , that is good only for makro work as due to the focal length , it can't focus infinity on an SLR .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on October 27, 2013, 04:18:19 am
  Here is a link to the ( brand new ) site with all info about the machine .
  http://bluescargo.gr/geometry/
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Fine_Art on October 27, 2013, 09:57:11 am
Excellent project. I have always wanted to make a DSLR bellows camera.
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on October 27, 2013, 01:48:11 pm
  Thanks Fineart .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: BernardLanguillier on October 28, 2013, 01:24:08 am
Out of curiosity, do you intend to sell this?

And if yes, at what price?

Thanks.

Cheers,
Bernard
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: jjj on October 28, 2013, 05:36:49 am
I just bought a Canon 85mm 1.2 that was broken for pennies and tore it apart and built it into the front end of a Fuji gx680 that I will be using on my d800
so I can tilt shift. For focus control really, no perspective control due to the limits of the image circle.
I thought the Canon 85MM 1.2 would be good for this as I gather you can use this lens on a MFDSLR as it has a large image circle - for a 35mm camera.
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: jjj on October 28, 2013, 05:37:47 am
   A first batch of three machines is made.
Nice collection. You've done a very impressive job there.
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: pniaouris on October 28, 2013, 01:01:42 pm
 Hi Bernard , the price is 400 euro , without camera and lens of course . Hi jjj , thank you very much for your comment .
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: NancyP on October 28, 2013, 03:43:35 pm
Saturday I went hiking and then to a church dinner (mmmm....pulled pork) and tractor show. Present were many farmers who no doubt use modern equipment but whose hobby is reviving and preserving old farm equipment. I must say, these were OLD and beautifully kept tractors, some brought on flatbeds, some driven from farm to show site. There also seemed to be a fair amount of "how did you fix that?" chat between the tractor owners. No doubt that most of these tractors were capable of dragging a manure spreader or other light duty. The joy is in the repair and refurbishment, not in the "end product". Remember, farmers are the original DIY people.

That seems akin to the "build your own T/S" project. Here's another of many T/S project pages: http://cow.mooh.org/projects/tiltshift/
I rather like "plunger-cam" myself for best use of a not-so-glamorous household tool.
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: leuallen on October 28, 2013, 09:39:10 pm
Hi Nancy

It seems I've turned into a tractor nut. I have shot scads of tractor pulls and plowing bees, one just this last Saturday. Around here (Central Illinois), the tractors must '59 or older and I've seen quite a few from the 30's. Farmers do lavish a lot of love on these old machines. One guy here has an Allis Chalmers that is simply beautiful. It has been restored as if it were a half million dollar classic car.

Larry
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: NancyP on October 29, 2013, 01:15:09 pm
This tractor show was in Labadie MO. It also featured a few "attachments" and other refurbished items. Some cornhuskers, a manure spreader, and best of all a log mill were in evidence. Have you been to the farm equipment museum near Vandalia, west of Effingham, visible from I-70?
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: leuallen on October 29, 2013, 03:40:57 pm
Nancy,

Never been the farm museum or even knew about it. Will check it out. The Pontiac, Il Threserman's Reunion is neat, lots of old steam tractors, saw mill, blacksmith, and so on. Got good pictures there this year.

Larry
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: NancyP on October 29, 2013, 05:35:56 pm
American Farm Heritage Museum, close to Greenville IL and visible on the south side of I-70.
http://www.americanfarmheritagemuseum.org/
I keep meaning to take a field trip there - I live about an hour away in St. Louis MO
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: leuallen on October 29, 2013, 08:39:06 pm
Nancy, thanks

Larry
Title: Re: The poor man's View Camera .
Post by: Deardorff on October 30, 2013, 11:11:05 pm
An old Calumet 4x5 monorail, lens, film holders, dark cloth and tripod can be had for around $500. The ground glass is big enough to be seen easily and the control is there in a camera made for the job.

Some have even used backs they can mount their digital cameras on.