You can’t argue with the results of large-format film cameras – boxy bellows captured by cigar-champing big-city press photographers in the 1940s – but they really don’t even hold a candle to usability and portability for the first generation of 35mm cameras. And add the easy-to-use features of the next film and digital cameras, and something like a 4 × 5 graphlex looks like a real dinosaur.
Maybe or not. [Aleksi Koski] Created a large-format camera with autofocus, “Conflict 45.” The problem with many large-format film cameras, which come with a non-reflex optical design, is that it is difficult or even impossible to see what you are shooting through the lens. This makes a guess game a bit of focus, that’s a problem [Aleksi] Address with its design. Sadly, the linked Petapixel article is largely without technical details, but from what we can gather from it and from the video below, the Conflict 45 is a 4 ″ x5 ট sheet-film camera with a motorized lens board and a laser rangefinder. A short video has a through-viewfinder view showing an LCD overlay, meaning the board also has a kind of microcontroller, probably used for the calculations needed to compensate for parallax errors during close focus, as well as for other uses.
The camera is made from 3D printed parts; [Aleksi] Says it’s just a prototype and the finished camera will have a carbon-fiber body. We’d like to see more build details, but for now, we like the idea of an easy-to-use large-format camera. Just maybe not so big.
Thanks [Itay Ramot] For the tip