Topic: Lens board material suggestions

[Mojave]

I did a search in the forum for entries concerning lens boards and found that they can be made out of matte board. I dont have much matte to spare so I was wondering if anybody had any other suggestions for lens board material. This is for the new Crown I got. I want to attach a holga lens to a lens board and try that out. Im pretty sure the image will be round and probably wont take up the whole 4 x 5 frame but I still want to check it out. Im just not sure what the best material would be for the board. I think any kind of wood I might try might be too thick and I think aluminum will be too thin.

Thanks all!

[Francois]

Well, you could use either masonite, or thin plywood, or the bottom of a drawer (trash day find)...
As a matter of fact, I just made one yesterday out of thin wood. To help keep it in, I made a front out of recycled formica which got glued with contact cement. it's just a bit bigger so the hooks can hold it in well.

[Mojave]

That is awesome Francois! Excellent suggestions. There is a lot of trash out here in the desert and plenty of old drawers to pull apart and I can get formica cheap at the hardware store. Not sure what masonite is but I'll google it.

Thank you so much!

[astrobeck]

yeah, recycling or re-purposing is the best way to go for material, and I've made them with Masonite and they work fine.

You might also consider checking out the local hobby/craft store for thin balsa wood.
With balsa wood you'll need to coat it with a couple of sprays of flat black paint as it sometimes is not light tight.

My favorite way is to make them out of scraps of black matting board.  Most all of my pinholes that I use for my Crown are mounted this way.

Good luck and let us know what you come up with!   

[Mojave]

I will Becky, and thank you for the addes suggestions!

Question to you, how do you frame your shots with the pinhole? I mean, I can never see anything when trying to view the image through a pinhole. Do you just guess? And I never thought to make a pinhole lens for this but now I am thinking of it and getting kind of excited about that possibility too.

[astrobeck]

Hey Mojave, it's actually quite easy to frame a shot using the ground glass with your normal lens and then guess-timating the area to be a bit larger for pinhole.

Make a couple of test shots (on film so it's cheaper), then you'll get an idea of what it will look like.  Most of the time I just use the sports finder and go for it!

After a few shots you'll quickly get the hang of it, and there will be no looking back!

Watch your mailbox, I'm going to send you a pinhole for your Crown.
 

[Mojave]

You are totally awesome Becky!! Thank you so much!! I just love the Filmwaster crew. Everybody is so helpful and so generous!

[sapata]

I made one for my Petzval lens using mounting board, even better if it's black so you don't need to cover like I had to (I couldn't wait to try the lens so I did with whatever I could find !). It worked perfectly.

I did buy a proper Toyo lens panel later and gave to my uncle to do a proper job.

[Mojave]

Sure appears to be the right thickness.

Ok, I have to see if I have some scrap matte board. I looked for some spare wood or formica around the house and cant find anything.

[Francois]

Not sure what masonite is but I'll google it.

Masonite is a thick pressed cardboard that is sold at hardware stores. Usually, it's slick on one side and pebbly on the other. The stuff is heavy duty, shatterproof, won't chip, doesn't delaminate...
It comes in multiple thicknesses too... even some pre-painted versions are out now.

[Mojave]

Thank you so much Francois! I will see if they have it down the street when I get off work. I live in a town that has only one stop light and the hardware store is small, but well stocked so hopefully they'll have it. If not, I'll try Lowes, which is a huge warehouse type hardware store, if you've never heard of them.

[astrobeck]

Mojave,
for Masonite, think of peg-board minus the holes.   

Most mom & pop hardware stores will have it.

good luck and be sure to show us what you find.

 

[Ed Wenn]

For my 5x4 pinhole lens board I just glued several thin squares of regular cardboard together. I've been using it for a year now and it works like a charm. For my 'proper' lens board, my father-in-law found some wood, shaped it to the correct size and cut a hole in it. Again, it works really well. To be honest, I almost found this process easier than finding out which commercial lens boards were compatible with my Tachihara. Photo below showing both.

The moral of the story is that even though it's LF, the same rules apply; it's not about the gear, it's about the image, so don't be afraid to make or adapt something yourself. I forgot that for a while, but felt a lot happier about LF once I remembered it.

 

[Mojave]

Thank you all so, so much for your wonderful contributions and fantastic images!

Ed, I think the cardboard on the backs of the dozens of used up notepads would be perfect! Thanks for the suggestion.

I tore the house apart, before I saw Eds post, and found some really old, cheap matte and used that for the time being.

Getting the focus right on this was very difficult. As well as getting the exposure right. In the GG, the image looks very dark so I assumed I'd need a longer exposure time. Not so. The standard Holga shutter speed worked fine. Problem was the focus. I couldnt get it to focus properly until I decided to mount the lensboard on the inner lip of the mouth of the bellows. Now I can focus selectively, just a little, as well as use some tilt. I have to use the special lens attachment that came with the Polaroid back for the holgaroid set up to get it to focus at all though. I forget now what that is called, even though I knew the name of it all day long. Aging really is a pain.

Anyway, here is my frankincamera.

Diopter!!! Thats what that extra lens is called. LOL!

[Ed Wenn]

Ed, I think the cardboard on the backs of the dozens of used up notepads would be perfect! Thanks for the suggestion.

That's exactly the type of card I used. Spread the glue across the whole of the flat surface and then let it dry with a few heavy things balanced on top. To get the thickness right you just add layers to the pile until it's slightyl too thick for the camera. That way it'll fit in nice and snug when you jam it in and close the sliders.

To fit the pinhole shim itself I actually had to drill through the card (it had dried that firmly) and then just taped it to the front, but be sure to then get a sharp knife and carve away around the drilled hole on the inside of the lens board (so that the hole becomes a gentle, curved cone rather than a tunnel). If you don't do this the pinhole becomes kind of pointless as you don't get the wide effect you're after from the tiny aperture.