ACQUIRED LENSES

— barrel lens, russian made, 210mm with aperture, large format

— Centrop / Bee Bee fold camera, from the 1920s/30s. restored and serviced for use by Master Chan for one of the four prototypes. 100mm lens with shutter No.0

 

 

GROUND GLASS

visit the local framer shop for some offcut glass. she was kind enough to cut them down to size. got them at 2mm & 3mm thickness. these will be used as the ground glass.

a crude sample after some sanding down, good enough to get an image. read more about the process of how it's made here 

 

 

HARDWARE

screws, joints, hinges, latches and brackets, must of any woodwork project, although will try to source old used hinges and latches as well if they;re in working condition

WOODWORK

Been doing some woodwork, working out the basic internal framing of the camera, so far there are four prototypes, three of them sharing similar framing and the fourth still not worked out yet.

Picture here some of the internal frame, cut to size from scrap wood from an old kampung house, ceiling bracing. interesting colours and variations.

 

 

FLIMSIES- forming the body

Flimsies– "a paper thin metal rectangular box designed to carry liquids. Standard container used by the British standards, they come in assortment of sizes and are more appropriately called oil cans." It is the project's choice to use these cans, as they are widely used for commercial purposes, found easily, and highly reusable. Considering the heritage value and origins of these cans, plus the interesting 'upcycled' versions, from dust pans for sweepers, post box and many more uses. It will form the outer shell of the camera. the project has amassed 7 of these flimsies from various places, biscuit suppliers, cooking oil cans from restaurants, kerosene & thinner from furniture factories. More info on how they're used soon. read more about the build of the camera here http://kantaboxcamera.blogspot.com/p/build.html

TEST SUBJECT; Justin Lim

testingwith sitter Justin using barrel lense at tilted front lens plane.

 

 

 

 

focusing mechanism

one of the simple (yet complex) solutions. after some in-depth reading into the functions of a view camera, large format cameras. found an ingenious way of using an old boom mic stand as an adjustment for the film plane. this would give the box camera interesting tilt and swing. although not from waste, it is a used found object. perhaps a visit to the scrap metal and plastic recycling centres might yield some other alternatives.

ACQUIRE woodwork tools

Acquired some woodwork tools, lined up about 4 prototypes to be build. the jigsaw will really come in handy. just completed the 1st prototype today, only the internal framing, still quite a few calculations but it's looking good. pictures to follow

Wood Recycling Mill

always love visiting the wood recycling mill. It's like a graveyard for kampung houses. here's where the craftsmen transform unwanted wood into furniture and other wood products. Love this practise!

Yenny; supervisor, man on left. great craftsman, 

was very curious when we first met years ago, 

but now know that i have strange projects and requests

The main yard, alot of wood just arrived. 

looks like another kampung house just got pulled down. 

found some great ply/ veneer, lovely kitsch that it's so
unique! cutting down to size so can fit in the car.

found some great ply/ veneer, lovely kitsch that it's so
unique! cutting down to size so can fit in the car.

Yenny in the office, putting out an invoice, 

just love the idea of this place!

fit everything in the little car. sumei came along, 

she had to squeeze in the back. 

bought 2 more flimsies cans as well. 

Wood stock

always love visiting the wood recycling mill. here are the stuff i got, probably enough to build two or three box cameras. but lets just start with one

TEASER; box camera

TEASER; the box camera in scale, it's abit small. but will try to make it work. still problems with the focusing mechanism. will be visiting the wood recycling centre and also the Kalang Guni collection centre.

TEST; focal mechanism with sitters

managed to get some sitters too

TEST; focal mechanism

test portraits, trying out the focusing mechanism concept. some rear tilting here, creating a shallow depth and tilted sharpness plane. went through many self-portraits to get the focus directly on the eye.

Darkroom stock

brought over from studio 25 ampang; Photo-chemicals, gradients, photo paper, doing a stock count

table top

UPDATE; finally have time to start looking into some of the items recently acquired. looking into the focusing mechanism. Can opener to pry open some of the flimsies cans, some cheap frames as mockup pieces for sizing. here's a snapshot of the tabletop and the accumulation of materials over the period.

TESTING; the salvaged convex lenses

The convex lenses salvaged from the old unusable ones. some were quite good, although only giving a very sharp image only in the centre, it does add quite a good feel to the image. maybe used in combination with the concave lenses, it might give a better overall image.