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Photography Culture

These 6×14 DIY Cameras Are a Landscape Shooter’s Dream

Chris Gampat
No Comments
11/19/2013
3 Mins read

Last Updated on 11/19/2013 by Felix Esser

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All images by Lee Lira. Used with permission.

Photographer Lee Lira is a Melbourne based creative that decided to get more involved with his photographic hobby. He became so obsessed that he decided to create a pair of 6×14 cameras. They’ve been coined the F.A.C.MKI & MKII. By today’s standards, this is a wide format size that delivers a gigantic image. So when Lee emailed us to share his creations, we decided to ask him to tell us more about them.

Here’s what he had to say.

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As you know my name is Lee and I live in Melbourne, Australia. Well here goes, after many years of messing around with digital and always liking film cameras. Two to three years ago, I decided to finally purchase a roll of 35mm film to run through a Nikon FE2. The film I chose was Fomapan R100 reversal.

The 5 rolls arrived and I shot them. To my dismay the only person I could find to develop them was Dr Chrome in the USA. Bugger!

After doing some research I came across Chris Reid from Blanco Negro in Sydney. He encouraged me to develop them myself and he was able to source the Fomapan reversal kit for me.

My first attempt was successful. I was so pleased that I was hooked!

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I ran out and purchased a Plustek 8200 scanner.

A little while later, my accountants partner, who is a photo nut himself, gave me a Bronica SQ with an 80mm f/2.8 lens. The first roll I shot knocked my socks off. That was it, no more 35mm for me. Then arrived the Epson V600, not as good for 35mm but has been serving me fine for 120mm.

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With that, I started reading about medium format and the different sizes. Next came a superb condition 1934 Zeiss Ikon 521/2 6×9. Again bigger negatives bowled me over. The desire to go bigger was fueled.

That’s when I stumbled upon your website and DIY. Wow. I thought that with my woodworking skills that I would have a stab!

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F.A.C.MKI was born.

Made from European oak with a Schneider 135mm f/5.6 Compur P shutter & a Graflex viewfinder, fixed focus. The film transport parts where from a Horseman 6×9 express back.

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F.A.C.MKII took just over 3 weeks to build & I enjoyed every minute!

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After much enjoyment with FAC1, I felt that I could improve on the design in terms of focus, wider more modern lens and ergonomics.

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F.A.C.MKII is built out of Australian Red Gum timber. A Schneider Super angulon 90mm f/8. Focus helicoid is the same as used on the Fotoman 6×17. Viewfinder is Gaoersi 6×17 with homemade mask to suit 6×14.

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Film transport parts came from a Horseman 6×9 express back.

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6x14 camera film large format Lee Lira Photography wood
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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