This project involves making my own 4×5 camera using files purchased from Standard Cameras and a 3D printer. The local nature reserve (LNR) I am representing is very much a managed landscape, designed to a management plan that concedes that very little of the LNR is natural. The purpose of this project is for the representational strategy itself to comment on this process – moving from file form to physical form, and to question what is actually real.
I first came across Drew Nikonowicz at a photography fair where he had some images on show – however it was his Standard Cameras project that caught my eye, which came about after he printed his own 4×5 camera due to cost constraints and then decided to make the code available to others to help promote affordable photography – very much in agreement with one of the early concepts of photography being an art for the masses. He now has a company that produces the cameras as downloads, self-assembly packs or ready-mades.
The physical print produced by the camera can then be scanned and turned back into a file. I once attended an exhibition where the curator questioned whether digital photographs were real – so the scan in a way completes the loop.
As an extension I hope to take a series of photographs of the Red Hut and use these in processing software to create a 3D model of the hut. This can then be printed on the 3D printer. Everything – camera, subject and resulting image – start to shift between digital and analogue format. Hence digital and analogue becomes equivalents for simulacra and reality – but note the digital files of the camera preceded its physical actuality.
Finally, it is not a giant leap to think of 3D printing a bit like the three dimensional equivalent of digital photography linked to inkjet printing. As such this is in a way an extension of the course into an extra dimension. Obviously the results are less sophisticated at the moment, with things like colour options very limited – but then this was the case at the advent of photography in the 1830s.
This post, however, is intended to chart my progress. This was a steep learning curve as I have never 3D printed anything before. I borrowed my son’s Creality CR10 300 printer, and he was very helpful in helping me set it up and giving me a crash course in the basics. The rest I have learnt by lots of trialing error!
STEP ONE – COST ESTIMATE
With the current high cost of electricity, I was worried about how much it might cost to make the camera. The 3D printer looks energy hungry, although we worked out it uses about 0.21 kWh per hour. Actually this was cheaper than I thought.
Another significant cost is the bellows and ground glass – while these can be made this is more complicated so I bought these from Standard Cameras – along with the significant shipping costs to the UK this cost £163. The download for the 3D print instructions cost £26.
Further materials include a section of aluminium tubing and a selection of nuts/bolts/screws.
STEP TWO – DOWNLOAD FILES
Standard Cameras charge a small fee for the .stl file downloads and instructions – these are digital 3D models that are then loaded into a slicing program such as Cura which can be downloaded free from the internet. Cura creates 0.2mm 2D slices of the model.
STEP THREE – CALIBRATE FOR LIGHT LEAKAGE
Obviously it is important to check the camera will be light proof. A plate stepped by .2mm increments is printed to determine how many levels the print will need (since this will vary with the material used and with the operational differences between 3D printers:
An iphone camera light is held behind each step, starting with the thinnest, until the light could not be seen. This was the case after 5 steps – adding a couple for safety is advised so 7 levels were selected in the Top/Bottom settings.
STEP FOUR – PRINT CAMERA
So this took 125 hours to print about 700g of plastic camera parts. Power cost just over £26 at today’s rates, and the filament (including errors and base/support material) costs £21 (for 1kg).
The plastic used here is PLA (polylactic acid), which is a plant-based biodegradable material. The sugar from a starter material such as corn starch is fermented to create lactic acid. PLA is then formed by the ring-opening polymerisation of this lactide with a metal catalysts acting in a solution or as a suspension. As production is relatively low-energy PLA is considered reasonably environmentally-friendly if disposed of correctly.
The process was not without “learning opportunities” – once things snag they can go very wrong quite quickly – imagine the equivalent of a paper jam on a normal (2D) printer, but in three dimensions and with hot plastic:
HARDWARE
One of the disadvantages of building the camera yourself is that there is quite a wide variety of small amounts of items like screws, nuts and bolts to source, made more difficult in the UK as they are specified in imperial measures as the camera source code comes from the US. I tried several hardware stores in the hope of finding an old-fashioned approach that would sell them loose, but this seems to be a thing of the past. Ebay turned out to be the best site for much of what I needed, although I could not avoid multiple buys completely. Total cost = £84.78 so far…
EXTRAS
I had forgotten how self-contained digital photography is compared to analogue. I had to source a significant number of accessories, although the most expensive of these (the lens) is of course common to both.
I also downloaded a file to print a pinhole lensboard for the camera – although I then realised I had to source accurate pinholes laser drilled elsewhere – buying holes over the internet sounds like something out of a science fiction novel…
In addition of course I will have “use costs” – film and processing/scanning. At this stage I do not intend to return to the traditional darkroom although of course once I have the negative that possibility is always there in the future.
Colourstream in Brighton (who I have used before a few times and offer a professional service at a reasonable price) quote £8.50 to develop and print a 4×5 sheet and £15.50-£26.50 for each scan depending on the resolution.
COMPLETED CAMERA
The colour scheme of these cameras can be defined by the maker – the surfaces that face internally have to be black, other elements (including the outer surface of the bellows) can be coloured. The viewer will note that I chose a relatively constrained black colour scheme with red adjustment knobs that matches my Manfrotto tripod. The colours in the image above (black, red and white) also match the colour scheme of the iconic Red Hut at Rye Harbour Local Nature Reserve (LNR) that I have been working with. This can be seen as part of an attempt to unify object and camera. Furthermore the constructed camera and these images of it can, in my view, be seen as art works (although there could be a discussion of art vs craft at this point). The camera facture, moving from digital to analogue, is also part of an overall design philosophy for my project, at least as currently envisaged – which includes looking at the LNR as a constructed landscape and an essay considering the Precession of Simulacra and perhaps linking this with a discussion on digital/analogue – does the development of digital technologies essentially prove the Precession of Simulacra?
In a book format it might be possible, inspired by the work of Anaïs López (see https://documentary515050.wordpress.com/2021/02/12/anais-lopez/) to create pop-ups in which the hut and the camera emerge from the pages in 3D…
THE CAMERA IN ACTION
This is where I really start to appreciate a modern digital camera. Nevertheless the “process” of setting up is quite calming and the energy and indeed capital required to make each picture (you definitely feel “make” is the correct term here) definitely encourages a more contemplative approach.
The biggest issue I discovered was in actually focusing the image on the ground glass. Even under a dark cloth it was not bright. I discovered the lens came with a warm orange filter that was losing me 4 stops, so removing that helped a bit! I think there may also be an issue with my eyes, which are not as good as they were at focusing close. I really needed a loupe to help here and discovered the magnifier app on iPhone (which can be added to the Control Centre under Settings > Control Centre). This will not only greatly enlarge close objects but also brighten them. As I will, at least at first, use the iPhone as a light meter (My Lightmeter Pro app) there is a somewhat appropriate irony in the dependence on digital technology to get analogue instruments to work for this project.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- https://standardcameras.com/ (Accessed 4.11.2022)
- https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura (Accessed 4.11.2022)
- https://www.colourstream.net/film-processing-printing-scanning (Accessed 8.12.2022)
- https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mylightmeter-pro/id583922375 (Accessed 20.12.2022)
- https://realitysosubtle.fr/custom-cameras/laser-drilled-pinholes/ (Accessed 20.12.2022)
Level 3.1 Learning Log 