I've been thinking about using my skills in building fiberglass/carbon fiber R/C sailplanes in this arena, having done this from scratch, including making the mold to cast a hollow FG/CF/Kevlar fuselage. These materials provide for very lightweight and strong construction. It seems much simpler to build the "boxes" for a field camera than a sleek, streamlined sailplane and all its compound curves.
I figure a carbon fiber, or a CF/kevlar weave, laminate would provide a very lightweight and rigid housing. The mold would be simple to build as well, if you decided use one. Maybe a CF/foam/CF laminate could be used to lighten things up even more. If you oven cured it (which would not be difficult compared to the long wing spans of R/C sailplanes) then you wouldn't have to worry about undue heat absorption and could leave it unpainted if you like. Granted it wouldn't have the natural beauty of wood, but I think you could possible shave a few pounds off an 8x10, and even more off larger formats. Anyone out there given this a try? Seems that I ran across a company that makes a composite LF camera somewhere, Ebony maybe? _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp _______________________________________________ Cameramakers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://rmp.opusis.com/mailman/listinfo/cameramakers
