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8x20 Camera: Stage One Completed

Just finished the first stage of the 8x20 camera build and thought I would post some photographs of the work done so far. The build have been relatively straight forward so far as having just built a 8x10 camera using a similar design quite a few technical issues had already been resolved. The camera is made of cherry wood and aluminium with brass fittings for the rack and spur gears. The chassis of the 8x20 camera is based on the same chassis used in the 8x10 camera with a couple of modifications to simplify the construction and camera movements. Below are some detailed photographs of the chassis, a 6mm stainless steel round rod was used as the shaft that controls the movements of the front and rear standards of the camera when focussing, the shaft fits into a 6mm routed slot in the wooden base and has threaded ends for the 6mm knurled thumb screws. Aluminium angled and flat plates are used to hold the carriages front and rear standards of the camera, the aluminium is 3.2mm thick and is more than adequate in supporting the camera standards, perhaps in the future I will look at testing 2mm stock. To stop the camera base warping an aluminium angled plate runs the full with of the chassis which will also act a connection point for the tripod. 10mm holes have been drilled on the underside of the chassis so access can be gained to the spur gears to tighten up the grub screws when aligning the racks of the carriages of the front and rear standards of the camera. 6mm knurled thumb nuts are used to turn and lock off the shaft, focusing is done on the right side of the camera and focus locking on the left hand side.

8x20 Camera: Detail of the chassis mechanism

8x20 Camera: Top view of the chassis

8x20 Camera: Bottom view of the chassis

8x20 Camera: Top view of the chassis

The front standard of the camera has been simplified from the original design used on the 8x10 camera so as to reduce the amount of surface area contact with the chassis and reduce friction. As noted in previous postings the intention is the create a lean and simple design and all camera movements except for a vertical rise has been removed from the design of the camera. The camera main purpose is landscape photography and over the past two years with very few exceptions the vertical rise is the only camera movement I have used.

The rear standard like the front standard of the camera is a very simple affair with a removable viewing glass system that allows the film dark slides to be inserted. Using a removing viewing glass removes the need to have a complex mechanism to lift the viewing glass if it was left in situ but this system does have it drawbacks as when the viewing glass is removed it is extremely vulnerable to damage and breakage, time will tell if this was a false economy in the design of the camera. The dark slides will fit into a channel so as to make sure there is no light leakage, I was going to use a simpler design using just a couple of retaining points but as I am making the dark slides myself out of wood they may not be perfectly flat and true so I have erred on the side of caution.

When making the camera I was always thinking could the wood be machined thiner so the overall weight of the camera could be reduced and make camera look more svelte but mindful of the effect wind has on large format cameras resulting in blurred photographs that can occur I stuck with the view rigid and sturdy is best even if it added a couple more grammes to the camera.

8x20 Camera: Front Standard

8x20 Camera: Rear Standard

The camera feels relatively light and I would be happy carrying it for a couple of miles, I will weigh the camera when the bellows and ground glass are fitted and it would be interesting to compare it to other 8x20 cameras at a later date. I am going to do another version of the front standard using more aluminium in it's construction using a milling machine for the 6mm slots to raise the lens board which will reduce the weight of the camera further. Fully closed up the dimensions of the camera are depth 170mm x width 616mm x height 384mm, the bellows can extend from 100mm to 390mm which will be more than enough for the lens I will work with.

8x20 Camera: Front View Closed Position

8x20 Camera: Rear View Closed Position

8x20 Camera: Extended Position

8x20 Camera: Extended Position

This has been a really fun project so far and I have enjoyed making this camera, the next stage is to build the film dark slides which is the hardest part of the project. I will taking a break from this build for a couple of months as the 8x10 camera I was building is finished with the arrival and fitting of the bellows and viewing glass and I wish to start taking photographs on location with it which I shall post at a later date. Taking a break also allows you to reflect on the work done and ponder if it could be improved, I have set myself a year to complete the camera so there is no hurry and it will be my reward on finishing my part time MA next year.

8x20 Camera