DIY

Analog photography opens up wonderful and incredibly fun ways to do a lot of different things, including making your own cameras. All you need is an idea, a sense of adventure, and the desire to experiment.

Over the years, I have made many different cameras, including pinhole cameras, and box cameras with homemade lenses. The pic above is a current work in progress, an 8x10 box camera. It is designed to take standard film holders. It will not have shifts or tilts, but it will allow me to shoot off some 8x10 sheet film I have left over from when I had a proper 8x10 camera …

I could have bought another, I suppose, but it seems crazy to spend $2,000+ on an 8x10 to burn off a couple hundred bucks of old B&W sheet film… This box — as crude and ugly as it is — will work just fine once I get the lens installed…

The box on the front, which will be the lens board, sits over another smaller nested box glued to the front of the camera. The set-up will slide forward and back a couple of inches, giving me a rudimentary ability to focus. I will rig up a basic ground glass on the back side to compose and focus. With this kind of camera, however, I will largely rely on depth of field with small apertures (f32 to f64) to keep things in focus.