Camera Thoughts from a newbie!!

[Dopey]

Hi! Thanks for looking at my thread. I am searching and searching….and searching for the appropriate camera to begin with. My thought was to build one using some plans that I found online but a thought popped into my head, could I use a polaroid camera? I’m not a very technical guy by any means, but would using an old Polaroid 195 Land Camera work for exposing my plates? The model 195 has a manual exposure setting. I could have plates cut to the size of the old peel apart film and plated at my local plating shop. I looked at the actual film pack and I figured out a way to slice it open and hinge it for easy access to the plate without touching the exposure.

Am I missing anything important in my ponderings? Does anyone have any suggestions for making a camera an easier way? I’m not very good with woodworking so i didnt want to have to make the camera (I would probably screw it up somehow) Thoughts?

[phuphuphnik]

That would work well. My first was a Rolleichord and 2×2 plates. With that manual shutter you would be all set, if memory serves it is about f/6, right?

Good luck!

chriso

[Dopey]

well, after a few hours of searching around town I found a couple of land cameras to toy with! One is a model 80 and the other is a 320….I might be performing minor surgery on them to make the shutter manual…. next up is the chemicals and such. that might be a bit harder, but i lucked out with the cameras, so who knows?

[jdanforth]

Sounds like it will work to me!

[Dopey]

cool. another question is on exposure times. I’m not confident in my abilities to determine this, so i figured i would try to make as many constants as possible (lol) my camera has an f/8.8 lens and an iso setting for either 75 or 3000. On a bright sunny day, probably at the beach, how long should I expose my plates? I plan on doing a self portrait with someone else behind the camera ( i wouldn’t dare ask someone to be my guinea pig at this point) and I have two shots at it (because I only have two plates) I managed to make a mobile darkroom (yay!) out of a camping shower, some blackout curtains and a floor dryer fan (for optimal vapor removal) with a custom “low” setting. now all i need is the sodium thiosulfate….

[phuphuphnik]

A rule of thumb I use is this as a starting point:

For Bequerel development, iodine to the second yellow almost rose. f/5.6 for one minute. So for f/8.8 I’d start at a minute and a half or even two minutes. The summer sun is better in northern latitudes where I am. Your mileage may vary, but there is where I would start.

cheers,

chriso

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