Relieving the Typecast Logjam

"Bouquet" - 8"x10" paper negative image

What I've been doing instead of typecasting is, along with writing on my Alphasmart Neo, cobbling together a box camera that shoots images from adapted and homemade optics onto 8"x10" photo paper. This has actually been an ongoing project for the last year; each month or so I make progress on some feature of the camera. Last month I completed a months-long design and build of a homemade mechanical shutter.

The Mechanical Shutter in Action

The Fujinon Lens

This week I adapted a Fujinon Xerox 240mm F/4.5 lens into this camera, which now gives me a choice of three lenses to use, in addition to a pinhole aperture. The top image is a quick still-life that I exposed in my garage, using a crumpled white painter's cloth as backdrop. Unfortunately, due to the design of this lens (although it is of very high optical quality) it cannot be stopped down to smaller apertures like I do with my other adapted lenses, by fixing an aperture plate to the front element. No, this lens design requires an internal aperture, between the lens elements, unless severe vignetting in the corners is desired. I am therefore given the unforseen restriction of using this lens wide open, which limits the use to scenes whose illumination is sufficiently dim to warrant the use of my simple mechanical shutter or hand-operated guillotine shutter for >1 second exposure times.

In the meantime, the last few months I've typed a few pieces onto index cards using my Underwood Universal, which have subsequently been gathering dust in a little pile on my desk. It is high time, I think, that these get dispersed amongst the Typecast-o-sphere-ians at large. It is with this in mind that I submit, for your approval, the bulk of this summer's typecast logjam.

Tips


As Seen Printed


A Note From


Hammered


Why Not