There is an assumption here; that the only way to make this camera is injection molding the whole thing in one shot. As you read below, that is not very practical. BUUUUTTTT; who says injection molding is the only ways, and are we married to ABS? You could form ABS by gluing sheets to make a nice cube (maybe with some corner reinforcements like plastic "angle iron" (not strictly necessary if the glue joints are good). Indeed, some of the forming can probably be done by hot bending. This can give nicely rounded corners, for example, together with all the strength of the plastic.
If you have not yet been to the altar with ABS another way to consider is a different kind of molding. Using polyester (or maybe epoxy) you can mold on a form with fiberglass for strength, in the manner of boat construction (seems to certify the strength is adequate for a careful photographer). This gives great room for creativity in shape. One possibility to consider is a rectangular cone, with the "lens" at the tip. The main problem is that you loose the advantages of swings and tilts when no bellows is included, but there are many photographers who do quite well without this flexibility and complexity. You might also consider a hemisphere; it wastes some space because it is everywhere as big as the corner to corner dimension but I can imagine some uses for that shape. You can add black fillers and/or dyes to the polyester to make the result light-tight and maybe give the camera an interesting appearance. Metal powders may also work (test before investing too much labor) and bronze or aluminum are two easy enough to get powders. Bob At 21:41 02.10.01 -0400, you wrote: >In a message dated 10/2/01 5:47:51 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > >What is ABS plastic? Can I use that to build a lightweight super-large > >format pinhole camera? > >Brahma, >ABS is the same plastic used in motorcycle helmets. It requires complex and >expensive molds to formand is not practical for a one off camera. I use a >Walker Titan 4x5 camera that is made of ABS and love it. I don't have to >worry about rain or snow and can shoot when many other (probably smarter) >people have gone indoors. Look at <A >HREF="http://www.walkercameras.com/index.htm";>Walker Cameras</A> for more >information. > >Richard Wasserman >_______________________________________________ >Cameramakers mailing list >[EMAIL PROTECTED] >http://rmp.opusis.com/mailman/listinfo/cameramakers _______________________________________________ Cameramakers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rmp.opusis.com/mailman/listinfo/cameramakers
