This whole plate studio camera has been sitting on a shelf for a couple of years now, placed there for a rainy day. We’ll today wasn’t raining, but I was in the mood for tearing it down for a good look at what needs doing.
The first issue is that the rear standard is snapped along its joints on both sides. So it’s going to need glueing and strengthening with timber or brass brackets. I’m sure I have a sheet of brass that will do the job… somewhere.
The Camera had been well and truly screwed to a thick baseboard which prevented the base extension from operating. I’m not sure why someone would do that, so I’ve removed it.
In the first pic, you can see there’s a good 90 cm extension. The bellows, which I think I can salvage with a bit of creativity, extend to about 80 cm.
Here, you can see the bed extend from the front, rather than the narrow section from the rear, if you see what I mean.
The ground glass focus screen was a poor DIY job, so I’ve updated it with bright silicon carbide ground glass. It took me three attempts to find my stock of silicon carbide powder, which turned up in the first place I looked, thankfully, just before I ordered more from Amazon.
There’s one plate holder in pieces that I’ve reassembled but needs a new darkslide, so I now need to find my 2mm and 3mm plywood sheets. Since moving to a new studio I’m having to refind where I put things when I unpacked.
So a good start and just a few bits left to sort. Hopefully, the bellows will play along with my plans tomorrow.