Meet the WillMove camera concept, who based on the the hard work and success of the WillTravel cameras, has evolved with more technical skills and thus climbed some steps up on the social ladder of view cameras! (although still in its youth and not fully internally wired) 🙂
WillMove does as the name implies do movements!
Raise, fall and front tilt! Or if you will (!) shift and Swing.
The rear of the camera is based on the WillTravel 5×7 body, and in order to allow for either vertical and horizontal compositions and movements the front lens unit may be mounted on 0, 90, 180 or 270 degrees angles. I.e. fully symmetrical as the WillTravel concept.
Basic specifications are 0-5 degre tilt, +/-17mm Raise/shift.
(Fyi the Swiss ALPA 12 STC $4,700.- has +/-18mm Raise/shift, then add $1.500,- for a 5 degree tilt adapter)
To allow for both 5×7 and 4×5 film, the concept includes a 4×5 reduction back as you want to have as much movement as possible on 4×5 rather than a smaller 4×5 body. This adds a few extra mm to the build height towards the flange focal distance.
In order to make the tilt design light tight, I currently have a fairly complex overlapping boxes / baffles / funnels, hopefully this is sufficiently light tight, if not perhaps double up ? or a TPU printed bellows ? However similar overlap are sufficient for daylight development tanks, so perhaps….. then adding flat black paint.
Lenses for this concept naturally needs image circle allowing for movements. Thus this excludes the smaller lens which are ideal for the WillTravel concept, also the very huge lenses (rear elements) may not fit as the frontcap has been made a bit smaller.
I currently plan to make bodies for (as I have the lenses):
• 75mm (will not cover 5×7, but room for 4×5 moves)
• 90mm this prototype, testing with Super Angulon 90/5.6 with the large 77mm rear element!
• (110mm if requested)
• 120mm
• (150mm maybe)
The front lens-unit should be interchangeable between the bodies.
Will also make tilt plate for the M65mm heilcoid. And for smaller lenses with sufficient coverage more movements should be possible
Now I need to test with film and fix any design flaws before I put the files on thingiverse. The dry runs, focusing on the groundglass seems promising! Will post results! Some concerns of vignette on 5×7, expect 4×5 to be ok.
The reflex viewfinder seen in the fusion screenshots is more of a design sketch, however there are some first surface mirror on its way from eBay to me.
Now, why? The idea has been swirling in my head since Øyvind and I discussed this over coffee and a WillTravel 58mm XL at Ikea in early February this year. My 4×5 Linhof Technika and 5×7 Shen Hao can do all of this and then much more.. However this is a cheap lightweight camera (< much less than a roll of filament) with the key movements needed, and it Will Move to dirty & dangerous places where my other cameras not are allowed to go..
And most of all it its a cool challenge and FUN! 🙂
