This is a replica of the sort of camera people built for themselves. It is slightly more sophisticated than the most basic type in that it has a removable slide for holding the light sensitive material which in this case would have been a wet plate and is interchangeable with a ground glass focusing screen. The board lying in front of the box is the lens panel which has yet to be pierced to take the brass mounted lens on the top left of the picture. This again is slightly unusual in that it has a limited focussing mount so sliding the two halves of the box in and out would only have provided a rough focus while the knob on the lens does the rest.

This was my first attempt at camera building. Its appearance was loosely based on the Speed Graphic; a very popular camera of that era. It is cobbled together from bits of old broken cameras and any new pieces were laboriously made out of metal scraps that happened to be lying around. At this stage I could only manage basic woodwork and knew how to use a metal saw and file rather badly The focussing rack, part of the baseboard and side struts came from an old broken folding plate camera. In spite of my lack of expertise I managed somehow to make the whole thing look quite respectable, provided it was not examined too closely. The main thing was that it worked and the only things I actually bought for it was the lens and shutter and a set of bellows.

It may seem pointless to some people, but in spite of all the advances in camera technology over the last few years there are still people out there who want to build their own cameras. In the earliest days of photography, walking into a shop and buying a camera was not an option. If you did not feel up doing it yourself, then a friendly cabinet-maker could knock you up one. Simply a couple of neat wooden boxes, one of which slid inside the other to adjust the focus of a lens screwed to the front of one of them. The light sensitive material placed at the back of the box opposite the lens to produce the negative. Provided the fit of the sliding boxes was good enough and no light apart from that coming through the lens got in, you were in business. Not very practical but that is how it all started.

Nowadays, there are several reasons for the DIY approach. In a bid to escape the inexorable march of digital technology, some people want to revert to a more hands on way of taking their pictures. They feel a lot of the fun has gone out of picture taking and want a more hands on approach than modern technology allows. The trouble is that the larger format gear they crave is no longer readily available at a price that is easy to afford. This not a new situation and has been going on for some time. I discovered when I was young and starting to be interested in photography that the price of a good lens and shutter was about all I could manage. Therefore, the camera to go with it had to be homemade to keep the overall cost down. In spite of my lack of skill with tools and coupled with a general absence of know-how I still managed to make a camera which worked well enough to produce cover shots for a magazine.

Another reason for building your own gear is that if you have been trying to use a real vintage camera found in a junk shop like an old field or hand and stand design, then they are often too shaky and imprecise to work well with modern lenses and shutters. You can of course try to strengthen the weak areas of the old camera but in the process will destroy what might otherwise have been a valuable piece of gear. Collectors will only buy equipment that has not been modified and is in original condition. It can often be worth starting from scratch and building something based on the old camera, but improving on its areas of weakness rather than messing about with something that exists. That is how I came to design my own range of cameras.

The final very good reason for building your own camera is that it gives you the chance to make something that fits any particular picture taking needs you may have. People who specialise in Landscapes need something that is lightweight to make it easier to carry over long distances. Architectural enthusiasts will need a camera that will work well with wide-angle lenses and have lots of movements. Close-up photography demands long camera extensions and so on. What you want your camera to do is then down to you.

I hope the information that is to follow will be helpful for any one deciding to take the plunge and becoming a DIY camera builder it is not as difficult as it may seem.

Below I have included a reduced sized plan at this stage to show you a basic Field camera. It could be built in various sizes and I have made both a 5x4in and a 6x9cm version. It provides most of the movements that are likely to be required for general use and in spite of an appearance to the contrary is not so difficult to build. I shall give full advice as to how this may be done at a later stage.