Adding flash capability to Duo

Due to the number of requests, today I looked into adding flash capabilities to Duo - and it turns out it's a pretty simple affair. If you watched the video on separating the 105mm lens pairs, you'll see that the PC socket gets detached. Here, I reattach the PC socket and ground it to the lens to complete the flash circuit. Click through for the full write-up!

What's New? (Updated March 15)

Successful Calibration
Duo Mk. 3, Graflex RH12
Efke 100PL in HC110 monobath (6 minutes)

I realize that it's been a little while since the last update on things: Here's where we are so far:

$9 and up pledges: Getting shipped at the end of next week, hopefully - I had been waiting on a couple more boxes of FP100C to get started.

Progress on Kits:

• Laser cut parts: Ordered, and being made as we speak.
• Ground glass: Tested three different grinds of ground glass, and settled on the one with the least falloff and hotspot. The viewfinder looks even better than before! These are also in the process of being manufactured.
• Front surface mirrors: Ordered, although there is a 1 week lag time for the specific thickness of glass needed.
• Gears, shafts, magnets, screws, nuts n' bolts: Ordered, and coming soon.

• Infrared testing: Thanks to another generous donation, I'll be running a roll of IR film through Duo to check for IR-tightness. The bellows and wood are certainly very effective against visible light - let's see how it copes against the rest of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• Deluxe engravings: We're bearing down on the March 15th deadline for design submissions - I've laid out all of the ones that were submitted so far. Then it'll be off to the laser cutters.
• Product documentation: A fully detailed set of instructions will be made when all of the parts arrive. I've also drawn up the templates for the viewfinder hood, inner bellows, and outer bellows. You'll find those below.

Templates (Inches)
Viewfinder Hood
Inner Bellows
Outer Bellows

Templates (Millimeters)
Viewfinder Hood
Inner Bellows
Outer Bellows

I'm also glad there were so many responses to the fabric color survey! Look like we're going with black, pewter, port royale, and navy blue. Good taste, people :)

Colors, colors, colors!

Most of the time, you can buy your camera in any color you want - so long as it's black.

Building your own camera provides many options for customization and modification, one of them being choosing the color of your bellows. I will be ordering four different fabric colors for the kits. You will be able to choose your bellows color when you answer the Kickstarter survey for shipping information (this survey will be sent out when the kits are almost ready to ship.

That said, please vote for the four colors you would like to see included in the kits in the survey below. 

Thanks!

1. Black
2. Pewter
3. Deep Forest
4. Port Royale
5. Ribbon Red
6. Dry Rose
7. Navy Blue
8. Hawaiian Ocean
9. Bonnie Blue

What colors do you want to see on Duo? (Pick four)

Duo featured in Portland Monthly

Duo was featured in March's issue of Portland Monthly, visible in the Table o' Contents and featured in the "Trophy Case" (p.26). Awesome!

Prototype 1 is kind of crushing the man in the advertisement - is that agony or surprise on his face?

Regarding Custom Engravings ($299+ and $649+ backers only)

Note: As of March 16 2013, Submissions for engravings are closed.

All Deluxe kit backers and Ready-to-Use Duo backers are entitled to custom engravings on their cameras. Engravings are limited to two locations: the viewfinder hood (the first photo below) and the bottom (second photo below):

Engraving area for the viewfinder hood. Note that this particular engravings was made very light - the actual engravings will be darker and fairly deep, roughly 1mm.

Engraving area for the bottom of the camera. You may choose one of the bottom areas to engrave.

If possible, please send the image in a vector image format, with the area to be engraved highlighted or otherwise noted. Failing that, a regular image is acceptable - I can make the vector layout from that file.

Vector formats accepted: DXF, DWG, Illustrator (.ai), Corel Draw (.cdr) or Illustrator-compatible PDF.
Raster formats accepted: JPEG, PNG, TIFF, etc, etc, etc. . .

Please send your designs to duo.tlr@gmail.com with "Custom Engravings" in the subject line. Any questions or inquires can be directed to that email, or the comments section. Please send in your design by March 15th. If you don't send in a design, the standard engravings on the Basic Kit will be used for your camera (which is also fine). Thanks!

First photo from Duo Prototype 3

Dead Cassette,
Duo Mk.3, f/3.5, 1/30s, FP100C

Prototype 3 Build - Day 9

Today is, potentially, the end of our journey. We'll just tie up the loose ends, and hopefully we'll have a test photo or two by the end of the day!