MIKONEKA* A Wooden 4x5 View Camera

I bought the book Jon Grepstad sells on his webpage and started to make some small modifications to the plans. Below you'll find illustrations that show the final design from relevant directions. I've added comments after each image to explain why I made changes to Jon's original design to suit my personal desires. Basically only the standards have been changed.

One of the design constraints I had was to make the camera good looking and functional. Although this kind of camera design dates back 100 years or so, I wasn't going to follow the heritage straitlaced and do everything as it has always been done. I wanted to mix modern forms and materials with the general antique look. For example the optical bench is made out of carbon fiber and the locking knobs are from an electronics component catalog (designed to be used as adjusting knobs). I don't know whether I succeeded in the "good looking and functional" goals I set but at least I can't find any major flaws in the design any more.

Front, Back and Side Views

The front and rear frames are according to Jon's plans. The standards show that there's no rise of fall control available. Also there's no shift control available. This is because I wanted to make the standards firm and sturdy. I also thought it would be easier to operate the front and rear frames if they would always be resting on the standards and I would only need to tilt them back and forward. To achieve front rise or fall, I'll tilt the whole camera up or downwards and adjust the front and back frame to be vertical.

The side view shows the peculiar brass standards. The rear standard is curved to accomodate the insertion of the film magazine for horisontal shots. Since I took away the rise and fall controls, I figured I'll end up tilting the rear frame more than usually and that's why I wanted to make sure that standard doesn't get in the way in horizontal shots.

I had a little mishap with the custom made bellows I ordered from Camera Bellows (Birmingham, UK). I didn't specify the measurements clearly enough and I ended up with a bellows whose outer measurements were exactly the same as the frames' measurements. Because of this I needed to make attachment frames for the bellows which are visible in the side view. Also, the larger bellows size means I won't be able to collapse the camera front frame to rear frame since the bellows doesn't collapse inside the frames. Well, I thought a larger bellows size would minimize the risk for the bellows to cause vignetting and I managed to convince myself it wasn't such a bad thing after all.

Spring Back and Ground Glass Frame

These are the same as in Jon's plans.