From: jack@dcs.glasgow.ac.uk (Jack Campin)
Newsgroups: rec.photo
Subject: books on DIY photo gadgetry
Date: 19 Aug 92 16:40:58 GMT
Organization: Glasgow University Computing Science Dept.

alix@indetech.com (Alexandria North) wrote:
> I've heard a lot of little tricks here and there about how photographers
> find ways to "get by" with less than ideal equipment. You know, how to
> make your own inexpensive reflectors, using different items for light
> stands, etc.
> Does anyone know of a book that covers this kind of topic? With photo
> equipment being as expensive as it is, I'd like to find ways to fill in
> the gaps in my equipment without spending a fortune. It seems like a
> ripe topic for a book, which usually means someone has done it...

And they did it a long time ago.  I have several of these, mostly from the
50s.  I have never seen one later than the 60s, or from anywhere but the
UK, but I suppose there must have been American equivalents.  If you spend
a lot of time in second-hand bookshops you'll find them eventually.

Here's what I either have or know about.  Two middling-sized books:

- Geoffrey I. Lilley: "Make Your Own Photo Equipment", Fountain Press,
  London 1959.  This deals with big serious stuff: large-format cameras,
  tripods, enlargers, complete studio lighting sets, slide projectors.
  A whole chapter on how to fold bellows.  Minor things include flat-bed
  glazers, enlarging easels and safelights.  Only assumes basic hand tools
  and a bench: in particular, not a lathe or drill press.

- Amateur Photographer magazine: "Hints, Tips and Gadgets for the Amateur
  Photographer", Fountain Press, London and Transatlantic Arts, New York,
  1944, reprinted until at least 1948.  This deals with small odds and ends:
  chemical balances, tank warmers, test strip printers, copy stands (there
  are several of these), paper safes, electric shutter releases, TLR focus
  magnifiers...  Again no special tools.

And a series of little A6-sized booklets from Fountain Press with orange,
black and white covers, none of which requires fancy tools or high precision:

- L.C. Mason: All About Making Lighting Gadgets, Focal Press, London 1953.
  Nothing on electronic flash but a good range of stuff for continuous
  lighting and flashbulbs.

- Gordon Catling: All About Building Your Own Enlarger, Focal Press, London
  1961.  I find it hard to believe that his column design could be rigid
  enough, but the rest of the thing looks OK.

- L.C. Mason: All About Making Printing and Enlarging Gadgets, Focal Press,
  London 1958.  All kinds of little odds and ends.

- L.C. Mason: All About Making Darkroom Gadgets, Focal Press, London 1958.
  Safelights, tanks, timers, filters...

This "All About" series also includes titles I haven't seen on "Camera
Gadgets", "Your Own Projector", "Camera Supports" and "A Flashgun".  All of
them (in photocopy, I suspect) are available from Oldtimer Cameras, PO Box
28A, Elstree WD6 4SY, phone (+44) 81 953 5479 or (+44) 81 953 2263.
Oldtimer Cameras also have their own publications on how to repair cameras,
a book on building large-format cameras, and supply reprints of user or
workshop manuals for pretty near any piece of photographic gear ever made.

You occasionally see the results in flea markets: I've seen a home-made
enlarger with coffee-tin lamphouse.  It looked like it would have worked OK.

-- 
--  Jack Campin    room G092, Computing Science Department, Glasgow University,
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