First Large Format Trial this Week!

One of the main hurdles I'm going to face with this large format camera project is getting my hands on a lens, shutter mechanism, and lensboard to attach to the front of the camera. Most all of the examples of homemade cameras I'm finding online involve the person either buying a used lens/shutter combo on eBay, or coming into a lens through a friend or other avenue. Seeing as how I don't have $100+ to buy these things, my camera is most likely going to start out with a pinhole on the front for making images.

As anxious as I am to start building the camera, it's going to take some time to complete. In order to kickstart the Caffenol (instant coffee) developer portion of my project sooner, I have decided to build a smaller in size, large format pinhole box camera. That might sound a tad confusing, so long story short I'm going to build a small box with a pinhole to make and develop some images now. There is plenty of testing to be done with the Caffenol developer so I'd like to start that as soon as possible.

What this all means is that I'm going to be building a simple camera this coming week! The plans for this camera can be found on the website http://www.withoutlenses.com/articles/how-to/how-to-build-a-4x5-pinhole-camera.

I think the only piece I don't currently have from the list is the 4x5 film holder, but I'm hoping a trip to www.jeremiahsphotocorner.com will solve that. Stay tuned, images hopefully soon-ish to follow!