Lightweight 4x5 that shares a lens with 6x12

I’ve always loved the look and feel of the 65mm on a 4x5 camera as well as the 65mm on 6x12. The ratio of the 4x5 camera gives approximately 85 degree field of view, similar the the 20mm lens on a 35mm camera but for some reason it has a completely different look and feel on 4x5.  

I’ve build several 65mm wide cameras over the years, the first was a super solid shooter, built on a Cambo passport camera that is quite similar to the original Cambo wide camera. My next 65mm camera used a rotating back and the same (heavy) first generation Schneider helical. The most recent camera used the super cool ultralight Harmon 4x5 pinhole camera which was designed and built by large format composite camera builder extraordinaire Mike Walker of Walker Cameras.

After finally putting the finishing touches on a lightweight 65mm 6x12 travel camera a couple weeks ago, I realized I could spin off the light weight eBay helical and use the same lens and focusing mount combo on another camera... Even though I have been wanting to wind down the midnight cutting, grinding and building sessions, I thought this could be too cool of a project not to pursue. 

Having a lightweight 6x12 pano AND 4x5 point-and-shoot that share a lens and focus mount might be the perfect little travel camera combination for an ADD film shooter who was always thinking about changing things up.

Before getting into the camera mods, I need to add a little disclaimer. I’m usually not a huge fan of 3D printed cameras. Having shot with a Linhof Super Technika III for so many years, I just love the rock solid build and precise feel of the movements and German engineering. As much creativity and flexibility (and accessibility) that 3D printed cameras afford us, they’ll never feel as solid as a precision metal camera body. But there are an awful lot of super cool printed cameras out there that are making large format and pano camera accessible to the masses. This is a fantastic thing.

After devising my plan and looking at a bunch of available options I found the WillTravel4x5 designed by Morton Kolve and it looked like it would be a perfect candidate. Not having a printer myself, I sent the links to my brother who printed several bodies and commented about how good the design was and how well it was printing. After receiving the body, I do what I normally do, which is partially assemble it, play with it, look at it for a couple days (or weeks...or even months) before figuring out how I want to proceed.  

Having just figured out a ground-glass less metal spring back for my Polaroid 250 conversion, a similar back would be ideal on this camera. 

I tend to shoot both quickly and hand held so being able to quickly load and reload with one hand adds so much functionality. 

Mounting springs from Neilson frames to 1 1/2 angled aluminum you get the perfect amount of pressure on the film holder while its loaded in the camera. The aluminum was notched on the top to fit into the three accessory shoe slots on the top of the camera. They were bolted in place and finished with a dab of black caulk to keep it tight and vibration free over time. I added a spring clip from a holster to the top bracket which serves as a dark slide holder. This makes it easier to trip the shutter off of the lens if you aren’t juggling the dark slide too.

On an earlier camera I figured out that shrink tubing a piece of aluminum pipe makes a fantastic little lightweight handle that is quite ‘gripable’. The permanently mounted grip goes more on the front of the camera than on the side which helps keep the overall size down. Permanently mounted to the bottom of the camera is a 70mm Arca Swiss quick release plate mounted long side so the camera sits flat and with out putting pressure on the helical. 

The biggest change to the design was the removal of the front of the printed helical thread and replacement with the metal flange that allowed the smaller metal helical to easily screw on and off.  With the help of lasers, levels and a Dremel, the front was evenly removed which left a perfect place to mount the threaded flange. 

The camera is topped off with a finder from a 20mm Russian Russar lens and I’ve got a fantastic little sawed off ‘Chicago street sweeper’ as the movie gangsters would say.  

It so cool to be able to get two cameras out of one.

Thanks for reading!

Here is one from the: ‘wait....you can you what...??... file...

As long as I’ve been building cameras and lurking around camera builder groups and boards, it was only in the last year or so that I realized that Bronica lenses could be easily converted for use in custom cameras. Being a regular follower of fellow camera builder Oscar Oweson and his growing fleet of super cool printed cameras, his lens choice didn’t really click until recently.  

Bronica 6x6 SQ and 645 ETR lenses are constructed with a front and rear optics group that screw into an electronic Copal 0 shutter just like a large format lens. You can find a lens with a faulty shutter, spend a half hour or so on your workbench and strip the lens down retrieving the self contained lens groups and screw them into a mechanical Copal shutter and you are off to the races. This gives you several very worthy options including two different 40mm f/4, one for 6x6 and a smaller more affordable 645 version, a 50mm f/2.8 and if you need a bit more coverage an f/3.5 version for 6x6 and many other options. 

Wanting to give this an try, my Holgawide knew its days were numbered. It was the second Holgawide that I made (hacked) from a Nimslo from the 80s. It was a 35mm camera that shot 4 frames simultaneously and yielded a 3D ‘lenticular’ print after sending the film to a special lab. 

After Dremeling out the back of the Nimslo you get a film gate of 24mm x 74mm or just a shade shorter than three inches wide. Perfect for the 40mm f/ from the 645 system. What’s even better it has traditional film advance that only needs one throw to bring up the next frame. 

Scanning through boards and eBay I found a first generation 40mm f/4 from the 645 ETR system with a bad shutter that was $99.00 delivered, I was hoping to find one around $75.00 but thought this was close enough to give it a try. The front optics group came out without too much hassle, although it much more work then I was expecting. The rear group almost didn’t come out. I got to the point where I thought that I have nothing to loose so I ended up using a large pair of channel locks and after a bit of grunting and elbow grease was able to remove it from the shutter assembly.  Holding my breath, I grabbed a Seiko 0 shutter and low and behold, both optical groups screwed in just like a Super Angulon would!!

After making some measurements, I ended up using a 17mm helical that was mounted to the camera with a 1/4 piece of hobby ply in as a spacer. In order to keep the camera small, I did not add any additional shim material to spacer so you need to watch your focus as the helical will focus much past infinity. Just before the international COVID-19 lockdown I had just secured a local vender who could engrave the footage scale on the helical for me. Hopefully once this all clears up I will be able to have the scale properly engraved. 

To finish off the camera, I added a 25mm Voigtlander finder which has been masked down to match the field of view of the camera. Almost everything I build uses Arca plates and this would be no different. I did have to drill the plate out so you can depress the film rewind button.

I do miss owning an XPan, it is a very cool camera with amazing optics but the reality is once the 5DmkIII and even the 6D came around I sold it off. I could not justify it as a photographic tool or even as a gorgeous piece of shelf art as I just wasn’t using it.  

Even starting from scratch, you should be able to build one for less then 500 bucks if you have the wherewithal and some time at the workbench. Here are a couple shots from my very first test to see if the lens would cover and if I had calibrated the focus properly. There was a tiny light leak in these shots that has been corrected. I have much better test shots that need to be processed but Covid is slowing down my DD-X delivery! I’ll post more shots to Instagram once I can process and dupe them. 

I already had a bunch of what I needed but was curious to see what one from scratch would cost if you needed everything:

Nimslo 3D donor body                                         $ 150.00

40mm f/4 ETR lens                                             $ 100.00

Seiko 0 shutter                                                   $   75.00

Voigtlander 25mm finder                                    $ 125.00

focusing mount and hardware                             $  45.00

100mm PU-100 Arca plate                                   $  10.00

Hardware, caulk, paint and leather                    $  25.00

                                                                        $ 530.00

Alright, after adding it all up I gotta say I’m a tad surprised. Was hoping it would be around 300 for everything you needed. If you look at completed auctions on eBay they are going for much less than the $200-300 asking prices, if you are patient (we all have time right) these can be found for much less then the current asking prices.

You can certainly save some money by using a cheaper finder, there are some super cheap metal 20/21mm finders on eBay that look terrific on the outside but are heinous to look through, it’s almost as if they tried to make the optics painful to look through,  the bright side they will only set you back 50 bucks or so.  

You can also build a simple frame finder but I really like the Voigtlander finders. For the money they can’t be beat, I’d put them up against a comparable Leica and Zeiss at least three times more the price.

Thanks for reading, stay safe everyone!