OK that's a lot of questions.
>How long should the bellows be? I am assuming that the longer is for closeup and the shorter is for infinty and wide angle.
Bellows length, the old rule of thumb, the bellows should be twice the focal length of the lens you are using the most so your can get some decent close up capabilties. Calumet's old gray cameras came in three styles: a wide angle and 15" and 22" bellows (I think) which were pretty well suited for 150mm and 210mm. On the other hand it's a real son-of a gun to collapse a 22" bellows to use with a 58mm Super wide angle lens. hence three camera models. You could buy the extra camea bodies for less than the expensive interchangable bellows some other brands featured.
>
>How much movement is necessary? I assume at some point it is no longer useful. I assume each of these movements has a name.
I've rarely had call for more than an inch or so on any movement except when shooting tabletop stuff.
> >Left/right? Up/down? Rotation left/right? Rotation Up/Down? Shifts for me get more work that swings. > >Should both the back and the lens have movements, or just the lens? The more the merrier, find a camera you like and copy it's movements, a lot of older cameras got by nicely with limited back movements. > >Anyone have any ideas on back rotation? Spring back construction? I saw graflock backs on two different cameras, but in absence of one of these mechanical marvels, how would you manage the spring part of this back, I was considering breaking a couple mouse or even rat traps to make center mounted spring arms. I am sure someone has already come up with a better way.>
Have a look at an older camera the springs are simple leaf springs. A guy named Galvin used to build a very clever little 2x3 view camera, he used leaf springs, very l-o-o-ng leaf springs that you could shove a graphlex roll film back under without removing the ground glass.
>I also say a fresnel on one of the viewing scrren, this may sound naieve but it looked exactly like those full page magnifiers that you use on a small print book. Would one of these work or is ther some special quality that they need to possess?
Fresnel lenses are relatively cheap now lets get into the debate on where the fresnel lens goes!
>>While I am on this, how big is an actual ground glass for a 4x5? What is the purpose of the lines. Some had a grid, some had little corner hash marks some didn'thave any lines at all. If I make my own glass, could I just pencil these on? What is the normal thickness of a ground glass, looked like 1/8" or so, guess I could steal one out of one of those dimestore picture frames and frost it somehow. Is it only frosted on one side? Could I just get that etching cream or do I have to take ti to a sand blaster?
Go to your local glass shop and see what they have for scrap, doing your own can be a challenge to get the glass just right, a coarse grind is easier to focus but obscures detail. Your could try valve grinding compound between two pieces of glass, once (in an emergency) I sandwiched a piece of waxed paper between two plain pieces of glass!!
I have one piece of glass that marks out the various smaller formats, I have another with a grid (useful for architecture).
>>Lenses seemed to all be on something like a 4"x4" (or possibly 10x10cm?) lens boards is this a standard size? If it is, what are the exact dimensions of these lens boards, how thick are they?
If a local camera store has a pile of old lensboards cheap make that your standard. If not you can do what everyother camera maker on the planet has done and create your own "standard". The Linhof board has been adapted but a number of makers but it's a larger board, maybe better suited for monorail cameras. The advantage, some old lenses are found in Ilex number four and five shutters that required a really BIG mounting hole. A big board also answers well if you ever want to experiment with mounting pairs of lense for stereoscopic experiments.
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