This is, as near as I can remember, what the early DIY camera in the nature book looked like. The frames in the foreground were covered with velvet and used as described for crudely setting the focus. The ground glass focussing frame was interchanged with the plate holder when it was needed. In theory it would be possible to make a modern version of this camera but using bellows instead of the pack of velvet cover frames for focussing. While I am not suggesting you do this, it might give you something to think about and perhaps think of a more usable variation.
This was the prototype of my first specialist wide angle camera. It was never put into production as the design was changed so that it ended up being built round the other way (see the AL 5x4 Field Camera in the cameras page of this website) with the lens board moving as you focussed, instead of the camera back. You can clearly see the brass rods, which after focussing, could be locked to maintain the stability of the camera back.
Once you have decided to build your own camera, there are two things you must ask yourself. What sort of picture taking do I want to do? How good am I at making things?
Lets take the second question first. The cameras I will be describing here are going to be made largely from wood. Yes, there will be some metalwork but that need not be a problem. Like anything else, there are ways round any difficulties that may occur. As far as the woodwork part is concerned, again, there is usually more than one way of doing things. To a certain extent, your choice of materials can govern the degree of difficulty involved. This is also something that I will cover later on in the section about materials. The main thing to remember is although it helps, you do not have to be an expert woodworker to build a successful camera.
As far as the metal parts are concerned, get them made for you by a someone who has the necessary skill, like for instance, a friendly model engineer if you cant manage it yourself. Even so, it is amazing what is possible using simply a file, a hacksaw and an electric drill. It is worth buying in things like bellows and focusing racks rather than attempting to make them yourself. Unless you are very skilled, they will not only look good but also work better.
This brings us back to the first question; what do you want your camera to do? Commercially produced large formal cameras, are usually bristling with movements, but do you really want all of them? Does it really have to be a camera that can contort itself into knots? If your interest is photographing architecture, the amount of say, rising front you will need, is governed more by the lens coverage available than the amount it has to slide up and down on the camera front. The same applies to tilting movements, cross front movements and the other swings and tilts found on these cameras.
I tend to like cameras that fold but that increases the complication of building them. There are several designs out there that do not fold. If you are happy with that then they are simpler to make even if more difficult to transport from A to B.
All this boils down you your own building skill level. If the sort of picture taking you are planning does not really need all this complication, why make life difficult for your self at the building stage. The is an awful lot of general photography that can be done with a large format camera that has a moderate rising front, some degree of swing back and a reasonable bellows extension. As we move on through later sections of this website, I will try to cover all this matters. I will describe how to build a basic folding field camera and then move on to more and less complicated versions of the same thing.
If all this is beyond you from a constructional point of view, I must tell you about a book on nature photography I once saw. It probably published in the early 1900s; the first half of the book was devoted to describing how to make a really simple but effective camera. It all started with long rectangular wooden box whose cross section matched the size of the dark slide to be used. The lens and shutter was fixed to one of the small ends and the small end opposite left open. A number of wooden frame-like spacers of varying thickness covered with black velvet filled the interior of the box. When they were all in place and squashed tightly together, they made a light tight tunnel from the lens right through to the back. A ground glass screen in a frame of the same size as a dark slide provided the framing and focussing of proposed picture. This done, it could be substituted with the dark slide to make the exposure. To focus, you added or subtracted the velvet-covered frames, as required, between the lens and screen or dark slide. It all seemed a bit rough and ready, but was a very simple idea and easy enough to make. It must have worked, because that camera provided all the pictures in the rest of the book.
Whatever your design, and however you decide to make it, there are several important points you need to keep in mind. The focussing movement should move freely. You must be able to lock any movements positively. The back and the front standard must be strong. When locked in position, they must not move in relation to one another. If you dont do this, working with the camera could be a nightmare and your results turn out to be a bit hit and miss.
I had this trouble in my first design for a specialist wide-angle camera. I decided to make the lens standard and camera body one unit. This was to achieve the maximum rising front for use with short focus lenses. This meant the camera back moved as focussed took place. This back incorporated a swing movement and the combination of all these things led to a back that was not as rigid as I would have liked. Putting in a dark slide and removing its sheath prior to making an exposure could upset everything. I eventually changed the design, but to make the first camera usable I added the two sliding rods you can see in the picture. After focussed on the subject, tightening locks on the focus and the two rods made the whole thing rigid. Nothing that should not moved when putting in or removed the dark slide.
