Custom-Made Large Format Camera

	Lens:		Graphex Optar 135 mm f/4.7
	Exposure Control:		Manual
	Maximum shutter speed:		1/400th sec
	Dimensions (inches, WxHxD):
	Weight (without batteries):

To purchase a large format camera is very expensive. But with this type of camera you can buy the lens, shutter, and aperture in one package.

The body of the camera is just a light-proof box that contains the film. The film has to be held the correct distance from the lens to make the object in focus, but for my purpose, the camera just has to focus at infinity, which is just the focal length of the lens.

So this is how I designed a custom made large format camera. I bought the lens arrangement and just built a box that would have to be light-tight and hold one sheet of film that was 4 inches by 5 inches. Even though the 135 mm lens is considered telephoto for a 35 mm camera, it is actually a wide angle lens for this camera since the negative is so large. The shutter speed was a little slow but I couldn’t change that. Its big disadvantage is the single shot versus taking a whole roll of film.

I decided to make the camera out of 1/8” fiberglass, which made the camera weigh about 3 pounds. The camera lens is tripped by moving a mechanical lever on the side of the lens. I had to use a motor-driven cam to pull a cable that would trip the camera. The motor was geared to about one revolution a second and the cam was made from some stock nylon. The timing circuit that you see in the photos is mostly for the Konica FS-1 that I attached to the top of the large format camera. I did have a timing circuit for the large format camera but just to turn off the motor after it made one revolution. The camera was tripped shortly after separation.