As mentioned in an earlier article about my home built 6×12 panoramic camera, I said that I was considering constructing an even wider panoramic camera, a 6x17cm camera. Well here it is!

I have retained some tried and tested materials and construction methods, namely plywood construction and a basic box shaped body. This time however I cut the body from a sheet of 6mm plywood rather than buy a box pre made and then modify it to suit.  I departed from my original construction method, by lining the interior of the camera body with adhesive foil which was then sprayed matt black rather than coating the exterior with foil and spraying matt black.

 

Basic construction – The first steps

The film chamber was constructed in a similar method to my 6×12 camera,(this was made from a surplus picture frame), I used backing paper from a used 120 roll film to ascertain the dimensions of the film guide, I wanted it as wide as possible whilst still supporting the film. Every surface of the film plane had to be perfectly flat and smooth to ensure the film emulsion did not get damaged when being moved across it, the outer edges were curved down to prevent damage to the film emulsion.

Having completed the initial construction, the film chamber was given a coat of matt black paint. The next stage was to cut a hole in the front centre section of the camera to allow the lens to project into the camera body. A smaller box section was then constructed, this would be fixed to the front of the camera body to hold the lens. Tests were made with paper negatives to check for correct lens to film plane distance. It was at this point I discovered that the Georg Leitmeyer 90mm Angulon (a Schneider Angulon rebranded by the looks of it) that I had obtained would not fully cover a 6x17cm image area – somewhere at the back of my mind I thought it would just about cover the area required, hence I had to purchase an alternative lens – this being a Schneider 90mm Super Angulon.

I made the film advance shafts from steel bolts that were ground at one end to form a T that would locate in the film spool to enable the film to be advanced, holes were drilled in the top of the camera body to accept the winder shafts. Steel washers were fitted inside and outside the body to provide further protection against light leaking into the film chamber and causing fogging. The lower film spool retaining guides were again made from steel bolts inserted through the base of the camera body. A steel spring and washer were used to provide downward pressure to hold the winder mechanism inside the film spool.

Film winder

Originally the camera back was designed to be thinner than my 6×12 cameraback and again fit inside the camera body to form a light tight seal, subsequent tests revealed that the thinner back construction did not provide an adequate seal, as a result the camera back was modified to overlap the camera body by 10mm all round – this has proved to be much more sucessful.

Modified camera back – note red window for frame registration

Camera back with cutouts for winder knobs

The winder knobs were constructed from a section of wooden broom handle – they were trimmed down, drilled to accept the winder shaft and fitted with brass caps.

Interior view with film transport in situ

My original plan had been to use the natural wood finish for the camera, but after some consideration I decided to opt for matt black instead since it highlighted the brass fittings and gave the camera a better overall look.

The finished camera

Initial test for light tightness, focus, film advance, frame spacing and coverage were made using Fomapan 100 and 400 film. This was when I discovered the suseptability of scratching with Fomapan film, hence the reason for adding an additional protection layer – in this case the reverse side of 120 film backing paper to both film guides. Indicators in the form of small white beads have been fixed to the camera to give an approximate guide for framing the image. Also a quick release plate has been fixed to the bottom of the camera for ease of fitting the camera to a tripod. Once these final details had been sorted it was time to take some proper photographs! Some samples are shown below.

Some final thoughts.

My initial plan was to reuse my Schneider 90mm f6.8 Angulon as used on my Intrepid 4×5 and my home built 6×12 cameras, unfortunately it only covers just over a 5 inch (125mm) circle of coverage, hence the need to use a Super Angulon as these have a much larger circle of coverage – in addition this negates to a large degree having to use a central density filter to even up exposure across the image.

The lens has been set using hyperfocal distance to obtain maximum depth of field at a minimum aperture of f11, although I generally use a minimum aperture of f22.

Also 6×17 proportions do not work for every subject, it is better suited to landscapes and wide vista photographs. Another major consideration is that a 120 roll of film will only yeald 4 frames per roll, so no room for error. For those who are interested the frame numbers used on a 120 roll of film, are the central set and using numbers 1, 4, 7 and 10.

All things considered I have had a great deal of fun (and some head scratching!) constructing my 6×17 camera and I can now look forward to taking plenty more photographs with it.

Sample Photographs

The camera mentioned in the title came about as the result of a comment made to me by a good friend of mine.

It all started when I was directed to the fact that a local large format camera maker was producing what could only be described as a half dark slide for 5×4 film dark slides. The concept enables the user to take 2 images approximately 6×12 cm on a single sheet of film.

I took a look at the item and it got me thinking. I could see a couple of issues, firstly keeping track of which position the half slide was in when making an exposure, secondly taking care when taking both 6×12 cm and full 5×4 inch images in the same session, thirdly the cost of half a dark slide and finally the availability of 5×4 film.

Whilst I like the 6×12 format, I felt that there must be an alternative. Since I already have 2  pinhole cameras that make images in the 6×12 format an idea started to emerge. How about building a camera and using a large format lens that I already own? Another point worth mentioning is that a manufactured 6×12 camera of any quality comes with a hefty price tag, so a homemade camera made a lot of sense if it could be built inexpensively.

A short while after, the idea still floating around in my head, I happened to be in our local branch of The Works with my wife, I spotted a large plywood box that had been discounted due to a minor fault and voila! The basis for a 6×12 film camera.

Using my Noon 6×12 pinhole camera as the inspiration and basic template for the new camera, I set about making the main body of the camera – this involved cutting the newly acquired wooden box approximately in half and reusing a section for the top plate and create a solid rectangular body.

Perhaps I should mention at this point that I rarely commit measurements and drawings to paper, I tend to work it out in my head then start work! This is what is commonly called ‘My rule of ish’

Having previously fitted the lens I intended to use to my 5×4 camera body and set the focus to infinity I measured the overall depth that was required for the new camera to enable the lens to be focused at infinity.

The next stage was to create the film chamber, (this was made from a surplus picture frame), I used backing paper paper from a used 120 roll film ascertain the dimensions of the film guide, I wanted it as wide as possible whilst still supporting the film. Every surface of the film plane had to be perfectly flat and smooth to ensure the film emulsion did not get damaged when being moved across it, the outer edges were curved down to again prevent damage to the film emulsion.

 

The film chamber and winder assembly

 

After this the back of the camera was assembled, I decided to make it so that it fitted inside the main body of the camera to prevent light from leaking onto the film inside. A film pressure plate was then made to hold the film flat in the film chamber and against the film mask.

Next came the tricky part, that of making sure the lens was focused at infinity at the film plane. This entailed cutting a hole in the front of the camera body for the lens to be placed over and fixing a focusing screen in the film chamber on the actual film plane, then it was outside with a dark cloth and a ruler to verify the distance the lens had to be placed at. – Back to The Works for another much smaller box!

I intended to use a 90mm Schneider Angulon lens and as this had already been fitted to a lens panel and already included an additional modification I wanted to keep the lens on the panel to enable me to also use it on my 5×4 camera without having to reassemble the modification each time, so having obtained another plywood box I set about reshaping the front to hold the lens panel whilst still making it possible to remove easily when required – the design of it similar to that used on other large format cameras.

Before I could put a roll of film through the camera a very important step – Make a film transport assembly.  The idea was to have  fixed locating pegs on the of the film chamber and a winder assembly at the top. I found some bolts of the correct size to locate inside the film spool to hold it in place for the bottom and for the winders I cut ground down some longer bolts to make them thinner and shorter. The winder bolts had a slot cut in them, into which a small flat section of metal would be wedged. Before this; winder knobs were made from a small section of broom handle, a hole drilled through the centre for the bolt to fit, in turn a small hole was drilled through the knob and bolt into which a small pin was forced to enable them to turn as one. Parallel holes were drilled top and bottom on both sides of the camera body into which the bolts were fitted. Packing blocks were fitted inside the camera at the bottom to hold the film spool in the correct position, at the top the bolts were pushed through a short section of spring was added then a tap washer pushed over the bolt to keep the spring in place and finally flat sections of metal were wedged in – the purpose of these are to locate in the top of the film spool to enable the film to be advanced. At this point I also added a tripod bush fitted into a piece of 5mm ply to the underside of the camera.

The next stage was to use a 120 film backing roll to create the start point ie. frame 1 marked on the backing paper (note that 6×6 and 6×12 framing uses the central numbers on the film roll) was calculated and a hole drilled through the camera back and pressure plate, a section of red film was sandwiched between the back plate and the pressure plate to enable the film numbers to be seen when advancing the film.

Having glued and secured all parts of the camera body together, it was time to dust out the interior and give the insides of the camera a coat of matt black paint to reduce risk of internal reflections.

At this point I should mention that to produce 6×12 images the film is advanced to uneven numbers to obtain the correct spacing, ie 1,3,5 etc.

Time to load the camera and take some test photographs.

The first images were not good, apart from a miscalculation of frame spacing there was a large amount of overall fogging present. This was going to require a little more work!

Frame spacing was easily solved by adjusting the frame start point – a new hole was drilled to more accurately observe the frame numbers on the backing paper.

I deduced that the fogging was caused by the use of thin ply on the front of the camera – since the internals of the camera were now fixed in place, the solution was to cover the outside of the camera body with adhesive aluminum foil, not pretty since my initial idea had been to have a dark wood exterior on the camera but at least it was now light tight.

 

Lightproof aluminum foil applied to front

 

The second test roll of film showed a lot more promise, no overall fogging but there was a light leak causing a streak across the top of the image including what should have been the unexposed edge of the film.

At this point I added extra light absorbing baffles inside the camera plus some thin light seal foam around the camera back. Up until this point the camera back had been held in place with a couple of elastic bands.

Time for a third test roll, this time success! Time for some tidying up. The camera body and back was covered with a matt black adhesive plastic purchased at a bargain price from a local supermarket, 2 small brass finish clips were fastened to the backplate and camera body – no more rubber bands!

The matt black finish

 

Testing now complete – Time to apply the final finish in the form of a wood veneer to enhance the overall appearance of the camera, lens panel and back panel were given a matt black detail finish. The veneer was stained to enhance the grain and given 2 coats of wax polish to help waterproof the camera body.

The final wooden finish

Rear of camera with frame count viewer

Top view – winder surround detail added

Sample images

All sample photographs were taken on Kodak Tri X film and processed in 510 Pyro developer.

 

 

Conclusion

This has certainly been an interesting experience. If I were to make another panoramic style roll film camera and yes I am considering it! Maybe even a 6×17 format camera, I would make the front of the camera of thicker material and lightproof the interior of the camera rather than the outside that way I could have a polished wood exterior from the outset. In addition to this I would also permanently fit a lens to the camera rather than make it removable.

Watch this space!