My Ultra Large Format camera Build

This video is to show what I have done so far with my ULF 14"x36" panoramic film camera.
Lens PDF Page 30 www.kennethlee...
Film www.zzmedical....
Camera progress album flic.kr/s/aHBq...
Instagram / senpaiskyy

[@thomasboone1356]

Good luck with it it's interesting

[@ernestwilberg9588]

Outstanding, I have the exact same dream, I collect panoramic cameras, Cirkut, Al-Vista, Kodak, all the old banquets, Korona, Folmer Schwing, even a home made swing lens with Hasselblad 80 mm lens. My project is a V11 Deardorff with a 14x20 back, same as the photographer Kenro Izu uses. The same issue was with film, the availability and cost. Your X-ray film idea does shed a new light on my project. The Deardorff rear standard will accept 8 X 20, 12 X 20, and the original Deardorff 14 x 20 frame, only a few were ever made. This all fits the rear of a V11 (11x14).

[@Socialmocracy]

That’s awesome! We have similar interests. I want a Cirkut camera one day. I have been cutting down aerial film for my AL-Vista and my other odd ball sizes. Do you have a video on you camera?

[@iansimpson9351]

That's not a camera that's a wardrobe LOL. But seriously that is nicely done and looking good. I look forward to seeing your progress on it, please keep us updated as you go.

[@Socialmocracy]

@@iansimpson9351 Funny you say that. When I made a sketch of it my wife asked if I was drawing a picture of “Shoji” or rice paper Japanese style doors. She saw the ground glass with all the grid lines. So the camera project name became that. Project Shoji.

[@JayMacroPhotos]

Cool I can’t wait to see how this turns out.

[@kronos43]

excited to see how it all turns out eventually! subscribed!

[@nicemarmot666]

Absolute madman. Love it

[@4shblake]

Very cool!

[@PaulNechifor]

Why contact print? Use the camera as an enlarger to project the film onto an even larger photographic paper. :P But in all seriousness, it looks really cool! Looking forward to seeing it completed.

[@Socialmocracy]

You want me to pull a Clyde Butcher? Make huge prints? 😂 might be fun. I’m sure the wife will kick me out before too long.

[@Toad_Hugger]

Awesome project! I've been working on building an 8x10 for a couple years now. The film holder is certainly the hardest part. That and finding the right bellows material... I can imagine keeping such a large piece of film flat will be a challenge, not to mention processing such a large and delicate negative. Atleast it's Ortho! Best of luck on your project! I'll be sure to check back as you further your work on it.

[@Socialmocracy]

Do you have any photos of your 8x10 online? The film holder has been holding me back. Pardon the pun. X-ray film is a little thicker than normal sheet film. I believe once the film is in the holder it should remain flat against it. I think it will air lock with such a large surface area flat against something.

[@Toad_Hugger]

@@Socialmocracy Unfortunately I don't have any photos online. I really should put something out there at some point though. I've been working on rebuilding my film holder as I haven't been completely happy with it. I've been drawing inspiration from the much older style of holders used for photographic plates, the type with hinged backs. I'm also wanting to use a sheet of acetal (delrin) for the darkslide.

[@bernardkelly235]

Really impressive. Looking forward to seeing more.

[@O.Persson]

😮 that's bloody cool!

[@stuartbaines2843]

Wow ! Just a bit OCD 😂

[@Socialmocracy]

@@stuartbaines2843 Don’t I know it

[@alixkyser9213]

Came across your pano camera reel on instagram a while ago and thankfully the youtube algorithm has once again delivered your content to me 😌🫶 Just subbed. Just wondering - for a negative of this size & with your build of this camera are portraits out of the question? I'm thinking no since the bellows would need to extend crazy far + DOF would be razor thin even stopped significantly down.. am I correct? The thought of taking an environmental portrait at this scale is definitely an exciting one in any case!

[@Socialmocracy]

Awesome! I’m glad to get your sub. So you could use it for portraits with a different lens. The 1070mm I talked about in the video would be difficult to use for that. With my build anyways. I didn’t talk about it in the video but I also have a 300/500 convertible. The 500mm mode can cover with soft corners at infinity. But If you give it 1000mm of extension you would get something like 1:1 macro. That would probably work fine with portraits. Most of the time you are using a lens in macro anyways when doing portrait photography. So something like a 500mm to 800mm will cover with some extension. The DOF would be razed thin. However can stop down to gain some DOF. If want to see this in practice search for the In An Instant 20x24 camera video with Ethan. He is using a lens that won’t cover at infinity unless you double the focal length. I hope this helps and welcome to the channel!

[@MichaelWellman1955]

This is impressive but can I ask you why you want an image this big? I currently own 14x17 and 8x20 so I have a small idea of what it's like to work in ULF obviously not to the point you are willing to go. There are times when I think about 20x24 but I always come back to why? Will this format fit for the work I am doing? I am excited for you because this is an amazing project. Looking forward to seeing the final product. Like you I love the panoramic image. Three suggestions for you. What is the bellows draw? With a 42 inch lens you will need to probably 60-84" of belllows unless you are only dong landscape but even then you might want to put in more bellow draw just to have it. If it were me, I wouldn't bother with a shutter. You're adding more loss of aperture and you are not going to be doing a shutter less than a second. Film holder you might check with Richard Ritter what he would charge for a film holder. The other possibility would be having someone make one with a laser cut. Zebra Dry Plates make custom film holders. I would suggest trays for developing film. Garden shops are a great source for cheap big trays. This is an impressive project. Keeps us posted.

[@Socialmocracy]

@@MichaelWellman1955 Do I have a need no do I have a want kinda. I don’t really have an answer other than I went looking for what was the largest film I could afford to shoot with. 20x24 was one of them. I have made plans for both 14x36 and a 20x24 camera in fusion 360. The cost for 20x24 was very expensive even going with something like shanghai gp3 100 was like almost $400 for 10 shots. With 14x36 I can only use X-ray film costing $75 for 25 shots. I guess the biggest reason why would be the contact prints. I want to do very large prints. Even when I do digital I try for 12x36 or larger when I can afford. The bellows are 52 inches and I really only want to do landscapes with it. Thank you for all the information. This project will be a slow going one for sure. I keep running into issues with the film holder. I have also made a guillotine shutter that’s about 1/60 of a second. I figured I’m doing landscapes anyways 1-2 seconds with a cap is probably fine.

[@Film_Fog]

So this might be a stupid question, but would it be possible to turn a X-ray film negative into a positive using a developer process. I’ve never done this before (clearly) but i have seen reversal film developer kits. If it was possible, you could just display the positive film image mounted directly on an led white panel and negate the printing process altogether. Maybe the base fog would be too much for this to be displayed as a positive slide.

[@Socialmocracy]

Black and white reversal is possible with X-ray film. You would have to test for desired results. I’m not sure how the kits work. I’m guessing they include a first developer a bleach a second developer and instruct you on how to rinse and fix. Something similar to color reversal films. The main issue is figuring out proper exposures. Too much light and it would fog out too little light and the image would look washed out. Test test test would be the best advice that I could suggest. Fuji make this film in lots of sizes and 100 sheets of 8x10 HR-U is $48 on z&z medical website. Test till you have a method then scale up to whatever size you would want.

[@BobOgden1]

@@Socialmocracy mind you, build a light box around the positive and it'd look amazing

[@frankd7339]

Awesome :)

[@narcotic6264]

do you really think that's big enough? 🤔

[@Socialmocracy]

No I don’t. But it’s a start.

[@GoldenPickaxe]

@@Socialmocracybro is gonna build a telescope