<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: 45PSS on 2005-12-26 18:13 ]</font>

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On 2003-08-22 21:53, 45PSS wrote: 1 part Bender, 2 parts Burke & James, and 3 parts graphic? Answer:<a href=http://alettaphoto.com/> An Aletta</a> I came across this on the auction site under <a href=http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2947318903&indexURL=5&photoDisplayType=2#ebayphotohosting> Large Format Cameras</a> and knew members of this board would love to tear it apart. What I would really like to know is what is the fround glass?

"fround glass" is a technical term for the reflection in a ground glass of person who spent a lot of money building their own 4x5 camera and then realizing how much it really cost and what they have sitting in front of them when done. The facial expression could be described no other way...

I've seen the book up for auction for a while. Don't know if anyone has bought a copy yet. It's almost odd or interesting enough for me to grab, but just not quite (at the moment anyway). I put it into the 'curiosity' category more than anything useful. But who knows? I haven't read it...

I've seen it to and have never understood the part about saving money. Just the parts might cost you more then buying a working camera. Then you still have to pay for the book-))

Somebody else sells a book on designing and building your own view camera and it's supposed to be pretty good. I just don't see the point if you're looking for a 4x5.

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On 2003-08-23 04:24, Nick wrote: I've seen it to and have never understood the part about saving money. Just the parts might cost you more then buying a working camera. Then you still have to pay for the book-)) Somebody else sells a book on designing and building your own view camera and it's supposed to be pretty good. I just don't see the point if you're looking for a 4x5.

I can see the point of building your own. There's a lot of people out there (myself included) who enjoy such things. I would still like to buy a Bender kit. But it has little to do with saving money. More a combination of hobbies, woodworking & photography. Even making a cardboard camera or oatmeal tube pinhole is fun. This book, with buying pieces of other cameras and munging them together to make a single camera, is a little wierd though and deffinitely does not save any money...

The problem is it's never presented that way. Instead it's

"Save Big $$$$ and build your own Camera."

Now I've got the idea for an 11x14 box camera kicking around in my head. It'll use kitchen drawer slides and won't have much in the way of movements. Actually have the same idea for a 4x10-) So I've got no problem with people wanting to build thier own but none of the books I've seen have ever been focussed on that end of things.