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!
Joining the Body and Front Standard
First, we glue the inner and outer bellows to the body. A few frayed threads around the edges are okay. Then we apply glue to the loose ends of the bellows, and insert the front standard. . .
We apply clamping force until the glue has cured, and we get this! Nearly finished.
A top view of the bellows, at about 10mm draw.
And from the side, at about 35mm draw. The travel of the front standard is really limited by the bellows, or how far you want to push it. It will reach full extension without complaining, though.
Here's the fully assembled roll film adapter, complete with a 6x9 Graflex back.
And mounted on Duo, in portrait and landscape orientations. The darkslide protrudes a little in the horizontal position.
Here's a Polaroid 600SE back mounted on duo, again in portrait and (considerably less sexy) landscape.
That's that - we're done! I did a test shot on FP100C, which turned out fantastic - no light leaks (although it's a very cloudy day) and the focus was spot on. It's not dry enough to scan yet, though.
Nice, yo! And I love that RH8 back with the winder... those are pretty hard to come by, the more common "23" backs have the knobs.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that occurred to me; how difficult is it to remove the lenses and putting them back on?
I found it one day on a stroke of luck while browsing KEH. It also means I can return your RH12 :)
ReplyDeleteAnd not terribly hard if you plan ahead. The camera wasn't really designed for lens interchangeability, so the front standard doesn't just pop out (although it could be designed to, with a little trouble). Instead, you would have to remove the front standard-side of the inner and outer bellows, then undo the retaining rings of the lenses with the front standard fully extended. The most troublesome part would be peeling off the bellows, but if you were to use white glue or even some contact cement (double-sided tape, even?), it might not be that difficult.
The viewing lens (assuming it's a barrel) can be unscrewed by just rotating the lens without any disassembly. It also makes a good portal for cleaning the mirror and ground glass :
Oops, I take that back. The lenses are actually easier to remove than I described.
ReplyDeleteThe viewing lens can just be unscrewed without opening anything up, like described. If you lightly glue the retaining ring to the front standard, you wouldn't have to worry about that floating around inside the camera when the lens is removed.
The taking lens can be unscrewed from inside the camera when a back isn't mounted (and you can remove the retaining ring, piece of cake. No removal of the bellows necessary, if you have a spare retaining ring, for the viewing lens!
"The taking lens can be unscrewed from inside the camera when a back isn't mounted (and you can remove the retaining ring, piece of cake."
ReplyDeleteThat's what I wanted to hear. While the viewing lens can be semi-permanently attached, I'd like the option to take out the taking lens on occasion to shoot it with another system :-)