Home  1: Introduction and research  2: Basic parts and materials 
3: Initial test box  4: Framework mockup  5: Designing lens and aperture mount 
6: Designing camera back and film holder  7: Design tweaks  8: Film holder construction 
9: Camera back construction  10: Camera aperture failure  11: Camera aperture success 
12: Camera back framework  13: Camera shutter  14: Ground glass 
15: Camera front framework  16: Bellow test 

CHAPTER 4: FRAMEWORK MOCKUP

Aright, off we go! Below are a few images taken on the first mockup parts I´ve done for the camera. I will probably iterate these parts a qouple of times before they are final. First of all the mechanics and gears needs to be figured out, then everything have to be sturdy enough. The first two images show the base rail and lower mounts for the camera, I have to figure out a way to attach this whole thing to a tripod aswell. Right now I´m actually quite pleased with what i have, both the base rail and the "trolleys" running along it are very sturdy. The big wheel on each of the "trolleys" control the horizontal movement of the unit (focusing), and the smaller one controls vertical movement (vertical shift). I have enough horizontal movement to be able to use any lens between 100 and 300mm, and I have about 4 cm of vertical shift, I don´t know if that´s enough but I guess I´ll find ouf when i get the lens etc built and tried out. For now this part seems to work good enough.

Mockup of camera base/mount.

Closeup of camera base/mount.

Below are an image showing some frames I built just to estimate how large the back peice for the camera will get. I will probably using medium format film on this camera since larger formats will require a pretty large back peice which would probably become unstable in the end, I do want everything to be as compact as possible. So what I need to do is buy a roll of "120 film" and start drawing around that. Currently I have no idea really for how the shutter mechanism should look or work, but I´ll solve it sooner or later.

Film frame/holder mockups.

Below are a few mockup frames for the front peice of the camera, housing the lens and aperture mechanism. I had a quite clear idea here but struggeled getting everything as compact as possible. The light grey thing is pretty large and becomes a bit wobbly when attached to the base. The black one is somewhat better. But they are quite ugly that´s for sure.

Lens frame/holder mockups.

Below are my first somewhat working aperture diaphragm, note that the end product should have 8 blades and not 4, I just wanted to see if this idea would work. And it kind of did but I will probably have alot of presicion problems with this. First of all the chain that runs over the gears have a small slack and "dead spot", so as i turn the lever on the top the bottom gears will not move exactly synced with the top ones. Then fixating the blades would also be a challenge, that probably requires glue and I´m not sure I´m very fond of that. Another thing that bugs me a bit here are the fact that the whole front camera element gets pretty thick. I really want ot be able to use the 100mm lens but that may not be possible if I cant have the lens moving closer than 10cm to the film plane, and with the shutter mechanism in between here as well i have no idea of how big this thing will become. I will probably have to think about another solution. As for the aperture I could go with a very prmitive solution such as switchable plates with different sized holes in them, fixed apertures that is. But I don´t like that either, it´s too simple and not cool at all :)

Mockup of aperture mechanics.

Mockup of aperture mechanics (back).

Below are two images showing the aperture and lens mounted in the frame. Now of course we have a big problem with light leaking in everywhere, and the whole thing look like a complete piece of crap :D I will need to rethink some of the design here to say the least. This thing is also on the edge of what size and weight I want on the front peice, but the general layout of parts work pretty good, although i guess they would not work at all in any other combination. Another little issue I´ve been thinking about is how I´m going to attach the front end of the bellow to this peice, right now that means making the whole thing even thicker.

Mockup of camera front peice.

Mockup of camera front peice (back side).

Continue to chapter 5: Designing lens and Aperture holder

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