Fuji Cherry Blossom 5x7

[renon]

Two days ago I finished finally my latest camera, the Fuji Cherry Blossom 5x7 for 13 cm x 18 cm / 5" x 7" film holders with an exchangable mid part which allows to use various focal lengths.

First a view of the frontside of the camera. As front cover I used a Japanese season's greetings card, the mount Fuji and cherry blossoms. The pinhole is needle-drilled in brass shim, 0.36 mm (current focal length is 109 mm). The filter mount with lens cap protects the pinhole and gives me the possibility to use filters.

The camera is hold together via friction and the two black rubber bands. What's a pinhole camera without black tape and rubber bands! :-)

Attached files

[renon]

The rest of the camera: 5x7 film holders, an exposure table and my standard framing triangle on a separate cardboard. I got 12 of these film holders for free from a photographer who switched completely to digital (good for me :-) ). After a little cleaning and repairing work the holders seem to be okay. 12 holders should be enough for a one day trip without reloading in the changing bag.

Attached files

[renon]

The mid part of the camera is exchangable. For starting I decided to use a 109 mm focal length together with the 0.36 mm needle-drilled brass pinhole.

From top to bottom:

- the inside of the front part with the holder for the pinhole mounted in a slide mount (my standard system for all larger format cameras). After taking the pictures I covered the slide holder and the slide mount with black cardboard to avoid unwanted reflextions. Especially the slide mount surface is very reflective.
- the back part with the two tripod mounts plus the mid part
- the back part and the mid part put together
- finally the assembled camera

The camera has two tripod mounts for landscape and portrait orientation built with 1/4" nuts and 25 mm washers glued in a piece of wood (MDF 10 mm). The rest of the whole camera is built with 2 mm cardboard. The camera is very lightweight and fits still in a mid size shoulder bag, together with the holders.

To attach the film holders to the camera I use my standard velcro stripe method which works very well. Attached files

[renon]

Here a front and back view of the assembled camera equiped with a film holder ready to take pictures.

First test pictures here: http://f295.f295.org/uploads/Blah.pl?m-1304804514/ Attached files

[renon]

As replacement for the exposure chart I built yesterday a first prototype of a flexible, universal exposure chart. I used it today to take the first pictures and I must say this tool is really very handy. It reminds me of my student time (long ago) as I used a slide-rule the make complex calculations together with a logarithm table. At that time the first pocket calculators cost more than 1000 USD!

One side shows the values for paper and the backside general values for a group of classical bw films. The reciprocity behaviour of many classical bw films is very similar. Attached files

[DaveBell]

Rene, that's a beauty of a camera! The design looks very flexible, and the Fuji front is wonderful!

I'd love to see more details on how you calculated the sliderules; they look like a great tool...

Dave

[toniox]

René, the camera is good as always, but this time, the sliding ruler rocks

[McIlroy]

Another beautiful swissmade camera!

[renon]

Many thanks for your comments.

The exposure slide-rule works very well. I plan to design a nicer one. This one was built at midnight. :-)

The values are calculated from my exposure tests. The reciprocity behaviour can be approximated by a straight line in a log-log diagramm, exposure time with correction as a function of time without correction. So I can easily calculate all values when I have the correct corrections for in minimum two exposure times. Sounds more complicated as it is. See this thread, replay 13, for more information: http://f295.f295.org/uploads/Blah.pl?m-1266110175/s-13/ (remark 01/19/2013: Unfortunately this link is no longer working after the move to the new forum software and I couldn't find the linked thread. Sorry!)

[colray]

René the link is dead