This is awesome!!!! Thanks for sharing, I just finally got my 3D printed 617 camera (not a bellows camera) fully functional and I’m officially in love with this format. Thanks for making this, and making it affordable! Give me a few months to get tired of my brand new 617 camera and I’ll be coming back to your website to purchase the plans and hardware
Haa, oh trust me, I've been there, I've gone from 1 to 3 617 cameras in a very short period of time, it's like a drug. My medium format and 35mm cameras have been getting dusty. Enjoy the camera you have, the best part is, when it comes time to build one, you will have developed a bunch of knowledge about why you need a view camera, that's what happend to me.
Awesome! I'll be purchasing the plans soon! Would love to see a video of you using the camera, sort of step by step just to see your working process as you use the camera, and it's functionality. Not a tutorial of how to use this camera, would just love to see it in use, and see the images you create. Thanks! Great work!
It's like you read my mind, I'm midway through shooting my next video on shooting expired Ektar 25. I've been shooting a lot more close up b roll of using the camera than normal so people can see it in use in the field. Not sure when it will be finished as my film lab decided to move building over the holidays and aren't open till late Jan, but hopefully it should be done soon after that.
for anyone in the uk, Ross at Burley cameras makes great ground glasses and fresnels. He made one for my 6x17, and will do them to custom sizes. If there’s a slot under the ground glass for a fresnel it can go rough side down in there, otherwise they go rough side down on top of the ground glass. I like the tilt option. Tilt is something I use more than I expected I would, and even on my Shen Hao it’s fiddly doing it. Good luck with this.
@@thefilmlaundry The Shen Hao really needs it, the ground glass is good, but made to be quite robust and not exactly easy to focus through as a result, at least not for me. That's not to say I don't like it. The process of focussing just took a bit longer before I got the fresnel.
@careypridgeon i must admit my 90mm which is an f8 can be a tad dark at times, the 5.6 lenses are ok. Maybe I'll look into testing out a fresnel and see how much of a difference it makes when I get a chance
It all looks great. I’m a woodworker who has never used CAD. I downloaded your free half plate film back plans just to get a feel for the plans. I understand that STL files don’t include dimensions? I would want to use your camera plan to print some of the files but also to build parts from wood and metal myself. Essentially I’m wondering how I would get a traditional set of drawings from the files you supply. Oh, I’d also suggest putting your website in the “…more” description for your YT channel so we can quickly get to your web sites from ant video :)
Hi, yes I remember you mentioning that a few videos back, good to see you back here. Autodesk Fusion is free for personal use, for your needs you could literally get by without touching 99.9% of the program, there are plenty of RUclips help videos, all you would need is 1. How to import STL files 2. How to measure Google those two terms and you can import a part and then choose any two points on it and you will get a dimension down to 3 decimal points, good enough for woodworking 😜 If youre keen, you could then also get Fusion to generate 1:1 scaled drawings of any part which you could use for the parts you want to make. From my limited knowledge of woodworking (high school shop class) most of the main body parts are effectively just assorted rectangles so they would all be easily manageable, the areas I think you may have issue producing in wood would be the rear film back, as there are multiple curves and the tolerances need to be far more precise, sub millimetre (to guarantee no light leaks) but a combination of 3d parts and wood working parts would be a pretty nice setup. If only I had the space for more tools.....and the knowledge . Hope that helps.
@ yes I would definitely print the film back. I will download Autodesk Fusion and play around with it to get a feel for how it works. Thanks for the pointers.
Just purchased the plans and the hardware kit. Super excited to get this going. Was planning on developing my own but I just don't have the time for it. Is there a list of lenses that are preferred for your setup?
Hi, that's great. Totally understand, it took way longer than I thought it would when I started designing it 🤦🏻♂️ Without a doubt my most used lens, that my hit rate of shots I am happy with is my Fujinon W 135mm f5.6. Its a very reasonably priced lens, nice and sharp and suits the format really well. Good luck with the build, look forward to seeing the shots you get with it.
This looks excellent. Can I ask do you think that any parts could be laser cut with MDF?? I have a CO2 laser cutter and would love to get some proper use out of it, as well as some black 3mm MDF. Well done.
Thanks. Hmmmm, you probably could stack up some 3mm pieces of MDF, basically all the rails and support structure could easily be made out of cutting 2 to 3 pieces of MDF on the laser and then gluing them together to get the thickness. Same with some parts of the rear standard. I think some of the brackets and smaller pieces would be hard as there is a lot of geometry that doesn't match up to the flat profile of a laser cut. That being said my knowledge of laser cutting is pretty limited.
@@thefilmlaundry Thanks for the reply.. I have done some other projects recently where I have laser cut either acrylic or mdf and stacked them together to create a really strong and rigid base, instead of 3d printing.. I have made a motorised Macro Rail and a copy stand using some of these parts and been really happy. For other parts do you recommend PLA or PETG? I have a Prusa MK4 and I think (with a new nozzle and bed) I can print Carbon Fibre, so might look at that.. Do you think you will ever do a build video of this kit? Thanks..
@moosekatdeluxe oh yes, I would think several layers bonded together would produce a very strong part. Can you put heatset inserts into acrylic? I suppose you could maybe hand tap the holes (that would be a lot of holes to hand tap though) I've been using PLA and had good success, except for the carbon fibre parts I did which are in PET CF. As long as you have a hardened nozzle and your extruder and bed can get hot enough you should be right, I did dry the filament for a day and kept it in a heated chamber during printing. But honestly it was easier than I expected. Yeah, there's an entire build video that comes with the kit, you can view it here if you want to see the entire process. www.thefilmlaundry.com/build-videos
@@thefilmlaundry excellent. Thanks for the link to the video. Sorry to keep asking questions but what are the dimensions of the biggest sized part that needs printing? My Prusa MK4's bed is 210 x 250mm. Just want to make sure I can print everything.
@moosekatdeluxe not a problem, the widest part is the film back plate. It is 260 wide, that one I had to print angled at a 45. I printed all the parts for the first version on an Anycubic Cobra Neo that has the same build plate dimensions. Some of the parts needed to be put on the plate at a 45 corner to corner to fit, but I was able to print them all. It did also require some of them to be printed standing up, which means a lot more supports, but they did print.
No bellows option, to buy? I think that is likely to be the most offputting / confronting part for most folk to attempt Happy new year, this is an absolutely awesome project and great to see you’ve gone to the effort to turn it from a design prototype into a “production ready” form. Hope Oscar approves!
I'm currently 'testing' a third party supplier, seeing how the stack up, and if they are decent, I'll add a link. I just didn't want to recommend anyone without trying it first. In the meantime if people want to go on eBay/Etsy etc and order a custom set there are a few different options, I just don't feel comfortable recommending any yet .
Getting a bellows is not really that hard. You can get them from CustomBellows UK for reasonable prices. You can also order them from China, but I strongly, *strongly* recommend not doing that. Of the three I've tried from Chinese suppliers, two never showed up and one showed up incorrect dimensions. Custom Bellows UK was not drastically more expensive, was faster, and was exactly what I ordered.
For those who are interested, here is the link to the Instructional build video that comes with the kit. www.thefilmlaundry.com/build-videos
This is awesome!!!! Thanks for sharing, I just finally got my 3D printed 617 camera (not a bellows camera) fully functional and I’m officially in love with this format. Thanks for making this, and making it affordable! Give me a few months to get tired of my brand new 617 camera and I’ll be coming back to your website to purchase the plans and hardware
Haa, oh trust me, I've been there, I've gone from 1 to 3 617 cameras in a very short period of time, it's like a drug. My medium format and 35mm cameras have been getting dusty.
Enjoy the camera you have, the best part is, when it comes time to build one, you will have developed a bunch of knowledge about why you need a view camera, that's what happend to me.
Awesome! I'll be purchasing the plans soon! Would love to see a video of you using the camera, sort of step by step just to see your working process as you use the camera, and it's functionality. Not a tutorial of how to use this camera, would just love to see it in use, and see the images you create. Thanks! Great work!
It's like you read my mind, I'm midway through shooting my next video on shooting expired Ektar 25. I've been shooting a lot more close up b roll of using the camera than normal so people can see it in use in the field. Not sure when it will be finished as my film lab decided to move building over the holidays and aren't open till late Jan, but hopefully it should be done soon after that.
for anyone in the uk, Ross at Burley cameras makes great ground glasses and fresnels. He made one for my 6x17, and will do them to custom sizes.
If there’s a slot under the ground glass for a fresnel it can go rough side down in there, otherwise they go rough side down on top of the ground glass.
I like the tilt option. Tilt is something I use more than I expected I would, and even on my Shen Hao it’s fiddly doing it.
Good luck with this.
Thanks. I have a fresnel on my Chroma 617 but honestly I haven't missed it on the new camera.
@@thefilmlaundry The Shen Hao really needs it, the ground glass is good, but made to be quite robust and not exactly easy to focus through as a result, at least not for me.
That's not to say I don't like it. The process of focussing just took a bit longer before I got the fresnel.
@careypridgeon i must admit my 90mm which is an f8 can be a tad dark at times, the 5.6 lenses are ok. Maybe I'll look into testing out a fresnel and see how much of a difference it makes when I get a chance
@@thefilmlaundry you could just lay the one from the chroma on top of the ground glass, rough side down, holding in place with tape for the moment.
From memory it's bonded into the ground glass, not easily removable sadly
It all looks great. I’m a woodworker who has never used CAD. I downloaded your free half plate film back plans just to get a feel for the plans. I understand that STL files don’t include dimensions? I would want to use your camera plan to print some of the files but also to build parts from wood and metal myself. Essentially I’m wondering how I would get a traditional set of drawings from the files you supply.
Oh, I’d also suggest putting your website in the “…more” description for your YT channel so we can quickly get to your web sites from ant video :)
Hi, yes I remember you mentioning that a few videos back, good to see you back here.
Autodesk Fusion is free for personal use, for your needs you could literally get by without touching 99.9% of the program, there are plenty of RUclips help videos, all you would need is
1. How to import STL files
2. How to measure
Google those two terms and you can import a part and then choose any two points on it and you will get a dimension down to 3 decimal points, good enough for woodworking 😜
If youre keen, you could then also get Fusion to generate 1:1 scaled drawings of any part which you could use for the parts you want to make.
From my limited knowledge of woodworking (high school shop class) most of the main body parts are effectively just assorted rectangles so they would all be easily manageable, the areas I think you may have issue producing in wood would be the rear film back, as there are multiple curves and the tolerances need to be far more precise, sub millimetre (to guarantee no light leaks) but a combination of 3d parts and wood working parts would be a pretty nice setup.
If only I had the space for more tools.....and the knowledge .
Hope that helps.
@ yes I would definitely print the film back. I will download Autodesk Fusion and play around with it to get a feel for how it works. Thanks for the pointers.
Just purchased the plans and the hardware kit. Super excited to get this going. Was planning on developing my own but I just don't have the time for it. Is there a list of lenses that are preferred for your setup?
Hi, that's great. Totally understand, it took way longer than I thought it would when I started designing it 🤦🏻♂️
Without a doubt my most used lens, that my hit rate of shots I am happy with is my Fujinon W 135mm f5.6. Its a very reasonably priced lens, nice and sharp and suits the format really well.
Good luck with the build, look forward to seeing the shots you get with it.
This looks excellent. Can I ask do you think that any parts could be laser cut with MDF?? I have a CO2 laser cutter and would love to get some proper use out of it, as well as some black 3mm MDF. Well done.
Thanks. Hmmmm, you probably could stack up some 3mm pieces of MDF, basically all the rails and support structure could easily be made out of cutting 2 to 3 pieces of MDF on the laser and then gluing them together to get the thickness. Same with some parts of the rear standard. I think some of the brackets and smaller pieces would be hard as there is a lot of geometry that doesn't match up to the flat profile of a laser cut. That being said my knowledge of laser cutting is pretty limited.
@@thefilmlaundry Thanks for the reply.. I have done some other projects recently where I have laser cut either acrylic or mdf and stacked them together to create a really strong and rigid base, instead of 3d printing.. I have made a motorised Macro Rail and a copy stand using some of these parts and been really happy. For other parts do you recommend PLA or PETG? I have a Prusa MK4 and I think (with a new nozzle and bed) I can print Carbon Fibre, so might look at that.. Do you think you will ever do a build video of this kit? Thanks..
@moosekatdeluxe oh yes, I would think several layers bonded together would produce a very strong part. Can you put heatset inserts into acrylic? I suppose you could maybe hand tap the holes (that would be a lot of holes to hand tap though)
I've been using PLA and had good success, except for the carbon fibre parts I did which are in PET CF.
As long as you have a hardened nozzle and your extruder and bed can get hot enough you should be right, I did dry the filament for a day and kept it in a heated chamber during printing. But honestly it was easier than I expected.
Yeah, there's an entire build video that comes with the kit, you can view it here if you want to see the entire process.
www.thefilmlaundry.com/build-videos
@@thefilmlaundry excellent. Thanks for the link to the video. Sorry to keep asking questions but what are the dimensions of the biggest sized part that needs printing? My Prusa MK4's bed is 210 x 250mm. Just want to make sure I can print everything.
@moosekatdeluxe not a problem, the widest part is the film back plate. It is 260 wide, that one I had to print angled at a 45. I printed all the parts for the first version on an Anycubic Cobra Neo that has the same build plate dimensions. Some of the parts needed to be put on the plate at a 45 corner to corner to fit, but I was able to print them all. It did also require some of them to be printed standing up, which means a lot more supports, but they did print.
No bellows option, to buy?
I think that is likely to be the most offputting / confronting part for most folk to attempt
Happy new year, this is an absolutely awesome project and great to see you’ve gone to the effort to turn it from a design prototype into a “production ready” form.
Hope Oscar approves!
I'm currently 'testing' a third party supplier, seeing how the stack up, and if they are decent, I'll add a link. I just didn't want to recommend anyone without trying it first. In the meantime if people want to go on eBay/Etsy etc and order a custom set there are a few different options, I just don't feel comfortable recommending any yet .
Getting a bellows is not really that hard. You can get them from CustomBellows UK for reasonable prices. You can also order them from China, but I strongly, *strongly* recommend not doing that. Of the three I've tried from Chinese suppliers, two never showed up and one showed up incorrect dimensions. Custom Bellows UK was not drastically more expensive, was faster, and was exactly what I ordered.
@mapgeek6 thanks for the heads-up, will have to check them out