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PC Nikkor lens on MF digital back? DIY "Silvestri Bicam NK"?

Started Nov 4, 2016 | Discussions thread
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noegd
noegd Senior Member • Posts: 1,301
PC Nikkor lens on MF digital back? DIY "Silvestri Bicam NK"?

I built a few home-made MF cameras with spare components, like a 6x12 film pano camera with a Grand Angulon LF lens. Lots of fun but I never seem to spend enough time shooting with them.

With the digital backs slowly getting into affordable territory (Phase One P21/P30 backs can now be had for close to 1000€), DIY digital MF cameras no longer seem to be totally out of question. Would be quite expensive, but would possibly see more use than my film-based contraptions.

I have a fine 28 3.5 Nikkor PC sitting in its box for years. I checked and it should cover the 33x44mm sensor just fine (w/o movements). I was thinking about making a kind of digital Hasselblad SWC or DIY Silvestri Bicam NK by front-mounting the Nikkor on a Copal shutter (#1 or #3), and mounting that on a digital back with a home-made adapter frame. Field-of-view would be about 90 degrees. Framing would require an external viewfinder and the lens would need to be scale-focused (probably OK with such a wide angle).

Does this make any sense? 

One thing which is not 100% clear to me is the lens shutter/digital back connection. I know the backs I am looking at can be mounted on a field camera with passive adapters and be synchronised by simple PC/flash sync cables, but I also read that this was not always reliable or that you needed two shots in sequence, the first one to wake up the back. How practical would this be in the field?

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