Camera Talk

Oh, that turned out nicely. Will make some beautiful lens boards. And an efficient use of good hardwood!

Ended up with enough walnut for two three-piece and two one-piece boards. The three-piece boards are in clamps. Will size and rabbet them tomorrow, drill one for the Sironar-N 210/5.6, and finish it. With any luck will be shooting this weekend. Will finish the bellows patching tonight. Found another couple holders in the basement yesterday; I somehow went from one to eight. Think I'm good. Time to start trolling for more lenses.

Got the first one done today.







Mounted the Sironar-N 210/5.6. Everything seems solid. The other three-piece, and the two one-piece, boards are all going to sit on the shelf until I have a reason/lens to fit. But I finished patching the bellows yesterday (still TBD if the bellows will ever fold again), and the weather looks solid this weekend. Hoping to get out to Hay Creek and shoot some early morning moving water...

Beautiful! The weather is finally nice here this weekend after a series of heat waves (and I'm more another coming) so I got out to do a long training ride yesterday, but today will be for photography. Not sure what or where yet, but LF and plates will be involved. Looking forward to seeing what you come back with!

Great job! What did you finish the outside of the lens board with?

Are you going to try and make your own bellows, or buy some off Aliexpress or similar?

Well done! Looking forward to your first results. Hope that the bellows patching holds well, after all that work in the camera!

P C Headland wrote: ↑

Mon Aug 04, 2025 3:41 am

Great job! What did you finish the outside of the lens board with?

Are you going to try and make your own bellows, or buy some off Aliexpress or similar?

The outside is finished with Minwax tung oil finish. This is about the only thing I’ll use it for anymore; I have some danish oil around somewhere but couldn’t find it. Essentially the same thing.

For bellows, I was going to make my own, but can get them on eBay now cheaper than materials will cost me.

Julio1fer wrote: ↑

Tue Aug 05, 2025 10:12 pm

Well done! Looking forward to your first results. Hope that the bellows patching holds well, after all that work in the camera!

So far, so good! Posting first results separately.

I'm calling this one finished.









Bellows still look good (n the inside - the look awful from the outside, but I'm hopeful I can stretch their life a bit longer), everything works wonderfully. This may edge out the 10x12 Star Camera for my all-time favorite view camera, Really nice. There are a few things that I'll do yet (Bick 4 on the bellows, even though they're not leather), figure out a latch, new handle), but it's beyond usable. Putting it to work. Hoping to drag it out tomorrow morning. Will strt trolling for interesting lenses. Hmm...

Looks good! When I redid my Kodak 2D, I found a near-match for the handle here: https://brettunsvillage.com/tools-hardw ... d-handles/. I seem to recall from then (2014!) that it was intended for typewriter cases or something like that, but it seems to be just a generic handle page now.