Guys, I give full credit to Andy for inspiring me and what has been a life passion. Way back when, I saw a magazine article about his modified SLR (Canon, pelicle mirror, I think) rotating streak portrait camera and decided to make one. I stumbled onto a rotating panoramic camera instead. I didn't know there was such a thing and to my delight his streak camera was just a small step to a panorama camera. If you pan the camera while it is doing the streak...! To my further delight he sent me plans for an ingenious streak panorama enlarger/print processor. Commercial darkroom equipment and photo gear has a kind of "made in someones garage" nature anyway and lends itself to the DIY inclined. Years ago most everything in my darkroom was home-made. One of the most useful and way cool gadgets was a tray rocker made from a VW bug windshield wiper motor. Rube Goldburg eat your heart out! AZ Build a 120/35mm Lookaround! The Lookaround Book. Now an E-book. http://www.panoramacamera.us > -------- Original Message -------- > Subject: [SPAM] Re: DIY photo equipment > From: ADavidhazy <andpph@xxxxxxx> > Date: Sun, October 12, 2008 9:08 am > To: List for Photo/Imaging Educators - Professionals - Students > <photoforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> > > I think Andy has the biggest collection of home built photo gadgets in the western world, but I've got a few.. > I am not sure why some of you think this is the case although I have been forced, and enjoyed along the way, > making a bunch of accessories and support equipment proded usually by the fact I could not afford the "real" > thing. In many cases it was more fun and satisfying to make my own. > One of the first devices was a horizontal enlarger made of probably shoe boxes. I used it in a closet based > darkroom. Don't remember what I did for developing in the closet but proably had 3 small trays in there with me. > Later on an enlarger based on a 2 1/4 x 3 1/4 camera that served as the negative carrier attached to an inclined > wooden "pole" and equipped with a tin lamp housing. A 400 mm lens adapted to a nesting cardboard tube with the > length adjusted to fit onto a home made reflex viewing device ala Leica Visoflex. Wide angle and telephoto lenses made > of door security gadgets and diopter lenses. Right angle finder. > I've tinkered with various slave synchronizers, shutter testers, delay circuits, tailflash circuits both electronic > and mechanical, stroboscopes both electronic and mechanical, strip and streak cameras and enlargers, stereo cameras, > macro and micro photography devices, telescopes but the one item that is fairly unique is a "conical" strip camera. > I guess most "tinkerers" forget all the improvised items that accumulate over time ... until we have to move them. > Mine mostly still clutter my work space to the dismay of the cleaning crew! > ;) > andy
