Dream camera

 I've been following the posts by a camera designer in Norway by the name of Morten Kolve. He has shared all kinds of designs on the web, and these are files that others can download to print out different cameras. He has designs for a 4x5 camera that he calls the "Will Travel". He also announced, a few months ago, plans for a similar 8x10 point and shoot camera built around a 120/121mm Super Angulon lens.

So, yesterday I received a post from one of the Facebook groups that he had posted about the 8x10. He had said months before that it was a work in progress, and that he needed to modify the design. I have been waiting for updates, and looking at other options. There used to be a Photoman camera (from China), also an 8x10 point and shoot, and there was even one offered for bid currently on Ebay for about $3,000. That was not for me. There was another model of 8x10 camera also offered, also another Chinese option, but I do not want to risk things, I want something that I can use here in the US that doesn't take some exotic lens that is going to empty my bank account. 

There used to be a camera called the Hobo 8x10 point and shoot. I remember seeing listings for this twenty years ago, when I first started thinking about moving up to that large format. Of course, back then, I was barely beginning to dabble in medium format (using Holgas), so it would have been a giant step for me. As I recall, that camera was produced by Bostick and Sullivan. It has long been discontinued, and I've only seen it offered once on Ebay in the intervening 20 years.

So, I am looking for current options. I was hoping that Ethan at Cameradactyl would get around to designing one as part of his offerings in large format (he has the Cameradactyl OG 4x5), but he is busy with many other projects, among them, a new kickstarter for a film scanner. But I had the idea of the 8x10 on my mind, and now that I know what it requires in terms of lenses, and the fact that a 120/121 will roughly give me a 20 degree angle of view (ultra large format), I think I would like to try it. This works out, by the way, to a flange focal distance of 121mm = 4.7 inches, so that if I am carrying it around, it will be big, but not monstrously big and protruding. If I were to try to get something along the lines of an ordinary 300mm lens, which is the equivalent 50 degree angle of view in 35mm format, well, that is 12 inches. That is a monster box I would be carrying around. So, I need to settle for the wide angle and compact design.

I saw that 121mm barely covers 8x10. That is fine, I am not going to be using movements for a point and shoot. I just don't want to carry around a big field camera that I have to open up and set up for use. I also don't want the monster weight of a regular camera. Now, I know there are field cameras of modest weight, the Intrepid being one, and also, the Nagaoka 8x10, the latter which is supposed to clock in at 8.4 pounds. But I think a printed camera such as the one that Morton was working on would suit my needs better, and it would cost much less. Later on, I can think about a regular 8x10 camera, maybe I will go for the Deardorf that will never leave the confines of my house because it weighs like an anchor but that everyone says is the most capable camera, or a Sinar system, but I want portable because I want to get out of the house and take 8x10 images on negatives.

A plus is that the Schneider Super Angulon 120/121mm lenses are that more expensive. I saw one listed for about $200, not a bid price, a buy-it-now price. I am sorely tempted, but finances dictate that I wait right now. Plus, I need to see if Morton will post about offering the 8x10 Will Travel on his site as a printed option, because I do not have a 3D printer and I don't have the time for a learning curve for this printer. That will be a project for next summer. Besides, I am not interested in coming up with designs or printing them. I just want cameras to use.

This is what Morton published on Facebook yesterday:

It would be great if he manages to finalize the details for his design! I would of course not want it as a green camera (although that would match the color of my place of employment, a public university in my state). I would want it in black. 

If he does announce that he has it ready, and will be offering it for sale on his Etsy (or other site), I will then purchase the 120/121mm lens and put in the order. It might end up costing me, say, $200 for the printed camera, plust another $200 for the lens, but can you imagine, a point-and-shoot 8x10 for $400? That is well worth it! That would be the equivalent of the cost of two boxes of Arista 200 8x10 film. Very funny. Yes, the film will be the great generator of expense in 8x10, especially if, gasp, I were to start using Fuji slide film which ends up costing about $15 a sheet in that size (plus probably another $20 a sheet to process in a dip and dunk lab). But then, if I do start using slide, I would be able to let out my inner "Ethan Horne". No, I won't be producing videos, that is where much of the magic of his channel resides, but I would like to see an 8x10 Velvia slide that I shot. I used to dream about that 15 years ago when I was teaching in Indiana and I had a corner office, next to a window, and I used to wonder what it would be like to be able to tape up a slide next to the window and have my own illuminated "church" with my equivalent of stained glass images.

That's it. I woke up today and I am grateful. It is once again a dull day, we should be simmering in the heat but instead the smoke that has risen up in the sky from burning California 2020 has settled us down. It was raining ash yesterday at the location I visited, and it can't be healthy to breathe that, so I didn't go out walking. How long will the fires last? Every year we go through the same thing. It is a wonder we still have anything left to burn in this state.