My new Ultra light-weight LF cameras

[compur]

Does it have the back itself or is that missing ?

Thanks for the info. Just the glass is missing from the viewing back which is
otherwise in good shape. I planned on scrounging another and cutting to fit
when I find a suitable donor.

 

[IanG]

Does it have the back itself or is that missing ?

Thanks for the info. Just the glass is missing from the viewing back which is
otherwise in good shape. I planned on scrounging another and cutting to fit
when I find a suitable donor.

I'm grinding a new one for my main Patent Etui tomorrow, it's as easy to start with fresh glass. I'd make you one but the postage would be more than the costs of making your own.

#400 grit Silicon Carbide is very cheap, I made 15 screens last month in a couple of hours for a total cost of £15 ($21), all sizes from Quarter plate through to 10x8, and 2/3rds of that was having a glass supplier cut the blanks.

Ian

 

[compur]

^ I've never made one. Any particular technique to creating the ground
surface with the Silicon Carbide? Do you use a wheel? Disk? Sheet? or
other tool? Do you just rough it up until it looks right ... or?

 

[IanG]

You use #400 grit silicon carbide powder from a Lapidary suppliers (used to polish stones) and a bit of water. Get a piece or two of 2"x2" glass roughly 1/4" thick from a glass merchant, they use it for shops etc and always have small bits hanging around. along with glass to fit the back 2mm will do. Take all the sharp edges off the 2x2 first with some coarse wet & dry paper (wet).

Then just place the new screen on some newspaper on a flat surface, damp it to stop it sliding add some grit & a little water and randomly grind the glass using the 2x2 to do the grinding action, after a few minutes rinse the screen see how you're doing.

Then start again until it's perfect, it's extremely easy takes under 10 minutes. For a finer finish you can grind again with $600 grit Silicon Carbide. You can tailor the smoothness to suit your needs.

I also re-ground some older pre-WWII screens and the improvement in brightness & clarity was quite astonishing.

Because I'd made a couple of screens before I got 3 2x2 bits, and I use one for #400 grit & another for #600. I made one 5x4 screen with just #400 and another with #400 then #600 and I found I prefer this one for my 5x4 but just #400 is better on the 10x8 camera.

A single cut with #600 is very much slower and also very much finer but I prefer the double cut #400/#600 for it's brightness.

All sounds far more complex than it is in practice. I'll never buy a commercial screen again, except maybe a Maxwell or Beattie, but they are entirely different

Ian

 

[compur]

^ Great -- thanks!

 

[compur]

On second thought I think I'll give a 4x5 conversion a try. No change to
the camera itself -- just a home built adapter that replaces the 9x12 film
holder. It would require an adapter for the 4x5 film holder plus a new
focusing screen that also fit the adapter and provides the same optical
distance as the new film holder. Should keep me busy for a while.

 

[IanG]

Well you can do both

There's an old repair guy in the US who makes conversion backs for Recomars, has done them for years.It is a practical proposition and I've thought of making one myself, as it would fit all 5 of my 9x12's.

Let us know how you get on.

Ian