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Nick, Ethan & Graham talk about building and modifying cameras. New episodes on the 7th and 21st of each month.
Episodes
Friday Nov 22, 2019
Friday Nov 22, 2019
This week we extend the afghan box camera and talk about developments towards that project. We talk about the RA-4 Color reversal process more in depth, and its potential inside an 'instant' camera. Ethan talks about involving Joe Van Cleave in the process.
Ethan talks about trying a Kickstarter to sell the plans for his next camera to a group of people and then giving them away free to the world.
Links:
Johnny and Perry’s discussion on presentation of images. (https://www.classiclensespodcast.com/e/93-listeners-emails-eventually/) Whole roll concept
Thursday Nov 07, 2019
Thursday Nov 07, 2019
We're a little all over the place in this episode.
We start off talking about the Sagrada Familia and the forms and techniques
Ethan gives an update on the printed zine and then launches into a travelogue of his trip to Spain.
Nico's Photo News: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkcuvqBAZPgTJ9evx9wkzvA
Joaquin runs Opensx70.com
Ethan talks about what it was like to shoot the Homunculus and the Panorama every day.
Graham talks about his trip to North Carolina and why Bass is analogous to Saturation.
Nick talks about the Sunny 16 Podcast’s (sunny16podcast.com) Day Into Night challenge. Graham comes up with an idea of how to troll Graeme. Ethan talks about his Day Into Night camera.
They also talk about the challenge to produce self-developing cameras. Graham suggests our listeners give a listen to the The Lensless Podcast (https://anchor.fm/thelenslesspodcast) Episode 75 with Evil Chutney who talks about his self-developing camera.
Nick talks about his upcoming trip and the concept of what to take pictures of. He asks Ethan about what lenses are the best to use on the Homunculus.
Shoutouts Badru Jones and David Allen
Friday Oct 25, 2019
Friday Oct 25, 2019
Apologies to anyone who expected this show to be released on the 21st of October, our usual release date (not that any of you actually notice we release on the 7th and 21st of each month); it was delayed due to Graham updating his computer to MacOS 10.15 and Audacity (audio editing) not updating their software to work with MacOS 10.15. He had to scramble a bit to find a computer with the old operating system but find one he did and here's the result.
Ethan has gone off for a European Vacation so Nick and Graham, left to their own devices come up with a show about... 90 minutes in length. They open the show with a discussion of modified Holgas and how to determine the frame sizes on slit masks and then move on to a chat about the interaction between elements in a photograph is the foundation of an interesting image.
Then, to completely annoy Simon, Perry and Johnny of the Classic Lenses Podcast (https://www.classiclensespodcast.com/), they talk about using modern cheap manual focus lenses that have been designed to go on modern digital autofocus cameras for homemade film cameras. These lenses are excellent and cheap (did we mention cheap?) and, once a shutter system is devised, can create a competent camera build.
Nick bought a 100 year-old Kodak Panoram camera from an antique store and the design of its swing-lens opens up possibilities. If you don't know about the Panoram, here's Mike Ekman's page on it: (https://www.mikeeckman.com/2016/10/kodak-no-1-panoram-kodak-1900-1926/). The Nodal Point issue is also discussed and here's a reference on that: (http://www.hugha.co.uk/NodalPoint/Index.htm)
Graham thanks Neil Piper of the Soot and Whitewash podcast (https://anchor.fm/neil-piper) for reviewing the 24Squared which could be back on the market in a few weeks.
Monday Oct 07, 2019
Monday Oct 07, 2019
They start off talking about bokeh and bokeh balls and Downton Abbey.
Ethan gives a short zine update and then Nick talks about Field of View vs. Perspective.
Narrow terms for optics:
Perspective: The geometry of point of view.
Field of view: With a normal lens, we see about 42mm is the same as our eyes.
Wide-angle lens distorts image: The distortion is an effect of our brains. We can’t normally see it that way so our brains have trouble figuring it out.
Barrel distortion and pincushion distortion are optical effects of lenses that can be corrected in lenses.
They then move into an open discussion about things to think about when building a large format camera. Advantages, disadvantages, concerns, etc. are covered.
The conversation about field of view is continued.
Depth of Field/Equivalent calculator https://www.pointsinfocus.com/tools/depth-of-field-and-equivalent-lens-calculator/
Ethan talks about a new project he has been working on, an 8X10 3D printed camera and why his head smells like soup.
They all talk about what they’ve been doing lately. Nick is thinning stuff out (no, not his hair, though that may also be the case); Graham went to a Viking and Mead Festival where he shot portraits of people in costumes, he’s working with developing more Holga Masks, including a panoramic insert and a 645; Ethan is working on a Day-Into-Night camera. It's also worth noting that Nick and Ethan appeared on the Sunny 16 Podcast talking about this day-into-night (or night-into-day) photographic challenge the Sunnies are foisting off on the rest of the film photography world (https://sunny16.podbean.com/e/ep-171-made-for-the-job/)
@kouichihirawa was mentioned as Nick’s shoutout.
Graham’s shoutout was to All Through A Lens Podcast (https://allthroughalens.podbean.com/)
Ethan shouted at Al Gore and the Internet. He lost the argument.
Wednesday Sep 18, 2019
Wednesday Sep 18, 2019
The discussion starts off with a question about the features you would want on a single camera you might have on the desert island with a camera-supplies mini-mart.
This episode’s guest is Lucus Landers, a Brooklyn-based photographer and camera-maker. We learn about how gaffer’s tape bellows on a home-built 4X5 stem from growing up in the great state of Oklahoma. The gaffer’s tape is a recurring theme…
George Daniels writes books about watchmaking that helped Lucus understand the building of gears for a film transport mechanism:
https://www.amazon.com/Watchmaking-George-Daniels/dp/0856677043/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1FAN85T8NZNNY&keywords=george+daniels+watchmaking&qid=1568676150&s=gateway&sprefix=george+daniels+%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-1
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Watch-Escapement-George-Daniels/dp/085667687X/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1FAN85T8NZNNY&keywords=george+daniels+watchmaking&qid=1568676150&s=gateway&sprefix=george+daniels+%2Caps%2C180&sr=8-2
Gear profiles are discussed (cycloidal gear profile and involute gear profile) as Graham’s brain starts to enter a state of bafflement.
Build quality vs. engineering quality is highlighted.
Lucus’s next project is revealed late in the show.
Lucus Landers’ work can be found at LucusLanders.com and on Instagram @cropped_camera
He mentions the instagram account The Daily Mini (@dailymini).
The YouTube channel that features the tear-down of Retinas (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBNcopU34d_pGsKTvRzHcsg)
Lucus mentions Penumbra Foundation and their work in the photographic world (https://www.penumbrafoundation.org/)
You can find Lucus at http://lucuslanders.com and on instagram @cropped_camera. His Youtube Videos can be found under cropped_camera.
Saturday Sep 07, 2019
Saturday Sep 07, 2019
ZINE UPDATE :
The print version of the Homemade Camera Zine No. 1 is now available for preorder at https://www.cameradactyl.com/homemadecamerapodcast/homemade-camera-zine-no1 . Orders will end on Sept. 22nd, and Zines will ship by October 7th. There's a bit of trouble with Squarespace, where if you are in the US/Canada, order as normal, but for UK/EU customers, there's a $0 where the entire price of the zine and shipping is rolled into the shipping cost ~$23 -$24.
SHOW NOTES:
We start off with a conversation about what size of image is the right size of image, given a lack of “standard” sizes that are available today.
We then introduce our guest, Heather Oelklaus, (http://www.camerakarma.com ) and talk for a while about her Super-Duper-Uber-Ultra-Large Format Camera, Little Miss Sunshine (https://youtu.be/wsLPJjnq-XY).
Also, Heather builds lots of less-gigantic, but no less beautiful and amazing pinhole cameras, some of which can be seen here: http://camerakarma.com/#!/4/featured/Cameras_with_the_images_they_produce/188
During the rambling conversation, we hit on drawing and how it can make you a better photographer, drawing and how it can make you a better camera maker, the reaction of students to the process, how crazy ideas are the best ideas and other really cool stuff. You gotta listen. Seriously, listen.
Photography in a black hole is contemplated as a bit of a bonus.
We discuss the progress we have made or not made toward the self-developing camera challenge.
And we talk about police shields. Yes, seriously.
We got so caught up this time that we forgot to bring up Heather's excellent anaglyphic work, which Graham and Ethan have special love for. We'll have to beg her to come on again to talk about it, but for now, you can see some of her amazing 3D pics at: http://camerakarma.com/#!/2/featured/Anaglyph/196
Heather’s shoutouts: PalominoPinhole.blogspot.com
Jean Steiner, the weaver.
Wednesday Aug 21, 2019
Wednesday Aug 21, 2019
This week Graham is out of town and Nick tells Ethan about his crazy ideas. They get about a third of the way through before Ethan figures out Nick is indeed NOT talking about crazy camera ideas, but in fact, very simple cameras, that allow him to make crazy pictures. Only Then do they get back to talking about Nick’s crazy camera ideas themselves. Leave it to Nick to add bicycle wheels to a camera or pistol grips and a scuba mask to a concertina.
Nick and Ethan do a small update on the self developing camera challenge, their plans, and some tests Ethan has been running to perfect a reversal process to be used in a number of self developing options that he is prototyping for the challenge. Ethan gets way into the weeds about the reversal process and trials and tribulations with his experiments.
Here’s a pic that Heather Oleklaus sent us, without seeing Nicks sketch from last time
Wednesday Aug 07, 2019
Wednesday Aug 07, 2019
This week the gang talk about cameras that are their own dark rooms. They’re not quite instant cameras but they can produce a final positive image in about ten minutes. Some call them Afghan Street Cameras, Kamra E Faoree, Cuban Polaroids or any number of different names but they all amount to about the same thing: Pure fun for the homemakers of cameras. Hey, maybe we should use that as our new name.
Here are some links to videos about the cameras:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18-5xaVfhR8
https://www.afghanboxcamera.com/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-V3Qqx4Qpk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_oNHxlLt-w
https://flickr.com/photos/61017349@N00/sets/72157681714928605
https://makezine.com/2010/06/07/cuban-polaroid-is-ultra-low-tech-ca/
They also talk a bit about direct positive reversal process:
Joe Van Cleave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-PFQXaDdl60
Don Froula https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50YgsRDYjL0
Finally, they issued a challenge to the listeners to produce a camera that self-develops images (film or paper).
Bonus! Here's evidence of Nick's clear insanity. A Wearable Amphibious Autonomous Photo Lab:
Wednesday Jul 24, 2019
Wednesday Jul 24, 2019
Ethan Moses of Cameradactyl and Butter Grips fame (http://www.cameradactyl.com) officially joins the team as our third wheel (3rd lens?). We get his history and interests and he entertains us with stories of crossing the country looking for Photographer's Jeans and buying them wherever he can.
They also talk about camera sizes (turns out smaller is better for Graham while bigger is better for Nick and Ethan likes anything smaller than 1.6 Kiev 60s).
Future plans are discussed and Heather Oelklaus and her new work is brought up (http://www.camerakarma.com/#!/HOME).
Graham reveals his pinhole camera-building spree. The Canamorph is the interesting one (https://www.instagram.com/p/B0L-piiHfJ7/).
Nick talks about a wheelbarrow and not going to his local county fair.
Ethan brings up the possibilities of printing distortion-free singlets (how is that NOT a band name?) like this thing: (https://transferencia.tec.mx/en/2019/02/21/eureka-they-find-the-formula-to-solve-an-old-optical-problem/)
If you're still with us at the end (which is THE recommended course of action), you can hear our theme music. Thanks Robbie!
Sunday Jul 07, 2019
Sunday Jul 07, 2019
In this episode, Nick and Graham welcome back Ethan Moses from Cameradactyl to talk about his new camera, the Homunculus (don't worry, we talk about why it has that name). This camera actually got its start on a previous episode of the podcast where Nick pestered Ethan to develop a camera based on Mamiya Press lenses and a 2X3 Graflok back (same as the RB67 back). Well, this is the result.
Most of the show directly relates to that subject but they also talk a bit about travel photography (Graham is just back from a 2-week vacation in North Carolina), a new 135 panoramic camera Ethan is working on for a friend of his and traipsing through the New England winter on a motorcycle and sidecar.
Graham talks about Ball Photo in Asheville (http://www.ballphotosupply.com/index.html Seriously, they're way better than their website). Go there. Make a pilgrimage.
Also of note: We're using a new system for recording shows. It is a bit rougher than what we were using before but it reduces a 4-5 hour editing job down to 1 hour. Bear with us, please.