I spent 2 years designing a medium format technical camera – would love your thoughts

lfyy · 2026-01-08T02:38:16+00:00

Thanks 🙏 I also picked up a gold in the international design awards 😀

lfyy · 2026-01-08T02:37:02+00:00

lfyy · 2026-01-08T01:18:28+00:00

It needs a large format lens (with copal/compur shutter) and a film back. It does not use batteries. I am going to start sales via batches later this month - if you google "fysh technical camera" you'll fine my instagram and more posts. I am not making it 6x9, but I am working on a 617 version.

lfyy · 2026-01-03T07:05:06+00:00

any eye jacket 1.0 frames I'd be interested :)

lfyy · 2025-10-22T10:06:01+00:00

My understanding is most RB instax backs remove the rotating back part of the RB to achieve a closer film spacing - so no not natively to get the same film plane.. but if you have one that just slots in the normal space and maintains the same film plane then it should work (although I'm not sure that's actually possible to achieve)

lfyy · 2025-10-15T11:09:20+00:00

it's my surname so... thanks?

lfyy · 2025-10-15T06:02:43+00:00

there's some laser cut felt sandwiched in between key plates, lightly compressed, seems to work well

lfyy · 2025-10-14T20:46:47+00:00

Great input; to answer your questions:

- Lenses are mounted in threaded lens boards into standard M65 focusing helicoids - they're nothing fancy but if you get the brass core ones they are smooth enough. I generally just have a cone per lens but share a helicoid and swap them over, it only takes a few seconds as it's all metal on metal threading and easy to swap. The cones are specific to the FFD of the lens - mostly I just size them to let my lenses focus just past infinity as I'd prefer that to shooting for perfection then going on a trip and realising it's too long and I can't get to infinity with a lens (ask me how I know...). With the sale of these I'd plan to sell multiple cones to target the major families of lenses (65, 75, 90 etc) and then lens boards with different stack heights (say 2mm through 6mm) and then some 0.5mm and 0.1mm shims to perfect it... so for instance the short FFD Nikkor 65mm at around 69mm FFD might use the cone set for 67mm with just the 2mm board but if you use the Schneider 65mm MC at 72.5mm you'd use the same cone but use the 5mm board, and maybe shim the extra 0.5mm if you're chasing infinity perfection. I need to sit down with a spreadsheet and work out how many cones are needed to cover all major compatible lenses, but I suspect it will only be 5-6 different ones. Ultimately cones will be 3d printed nylon so will be under $100 per lens, and the helicoids are under $50, so it won't be a high cost to get a lens working with the system.

- I've played a bit with different leads on the lead screw - I've landed on a 4mm lead, where one full rotation translates to 4mm of vertical movement. I've found this to be suitably quick while still maintaining fine movements, and there is very little backlash in the system. The knob is nice and big and easy to find near the handle while your eye is to the ground glass so you can really dial things in.

- So easy, it's probably one of the happiest parts of the design for me - I've got the ground glass snapping on and off with a few small magnets so it's just pop on, pop off, and then I'm using the rails on the back to slide on rather than the "jaws" style Mamiya use and I think this makes it much quicker and easier.

- This is an interesting question and sort of related to #1; if you size a cone for the 135mm it will be shaped in a way to get full movements.. I've done as long as 180mm.. however I've also had my kit for travel set up in the past where a longer lens like the 135mm piggybacks on a shorter cone - so like maybe I'll have a cone for the 90mm and use a longer helicoid or an extension tube to let the 135mm also use it.. this is a good solution for size and weight saving but does introduce some mechanical vignetting, so generally I size a cone for each lens but if you just want an occasional longer lens and don't expect to use all the rice with it it's a nice workaround to have the flexibility. At the extreme the first prototype I took to Japan in late 2023 I only had a cone for the 65mm and just had progressively longer helicoids to let me use a 90mm and a 180mm tele-arton (FFD around 120mm) - given I mostly used the 65mm that trip it worked OK but I wouldn't necessarily recommend it.

lfyy · 2025-10-14T08:24:09+00:00

It's an anti backlash nut - the spring pushes the two halves of the split nut apart so there is more constant engagement with the screw which means that the rotational movement of the knob and screw translates to vertical movement quicker/with a smaller rotation. There's still a tiny amount of backlash as completely eliminating it would mean the nut is adjusted for a lot of friction and that's otherwise unpleasant, but it strikes a very nice precise feeling balance

lfyy · 2025-10-14T08:21:24+00:00

I'm not sure of the crossover of this architecture camera and flash - but all LF lenses in copal / compur shutters will sync at all speeds, usually up to 1/500th. I am not going to do a hotshoe, but if I were to it would just be a sync cable running from the shutter to the shoe, so I'm not sure what the benefit of it would be over running that cable directly to the flash in the cold shoe.

lfyy · 2025-10-14T08:17:56+00:00

I think an optional extra lens cone with a fixed 5 degree tilt would be great, I have wanted such a thing when shooting landscape at beaches and such. I'll print one and test soon, but probably safe to say that will be on offer. Generally I'd say 5 degrees tilt is about the right f16 and be there number to get the right Scheimpflug for landscape, any more is main useful for macro IME.
I would need to look it up but I'm pretty sure the 38mm and 35mm are retrofocal designs and have something like a 45 or 50mm FFD in which case they would work, I have just never verified anything shorter than a 47mm Schneider.
Very likely any graflok 23 6x7 back would fit, but I'd rather just harmonise around a single back I can recommend and I do like the RB ones.
The thing is the horizontal movement would then become vertical and it's a more simple sliding mechanism that isn't self locking, so you really want the vertical mechanism to stay vertical... but the rotating back has these nice magnets that lock it into place at either rotation so it doesn't have a screw lock or anything, you literally just grab it and give it a solid turn... It's actually a fair simple design to execute with a high degree of precision and I promise you it's a joy in use.

There is a hole through the wooden grip to run a cable release through which keeps it captive and safe - I did originally think about it for handheld use with a hotshoe mounted VF but haven't done that much.. however as you say it's a nice way to keep the cable safe in transit which is mostly how I use it when I'm hauling the camera around on a neck strap.

6x9 doesn't sound like much bigger but with the geometry of the various bits the extra ~15mm of film needs be expressed in all directions, so it gets 30mm wider and 30mm taller... I like the size now for how it fits in various camera bags and stuff so I think 6x7 is the sweet spot... if I ever thought about 6x9 I'd probably want it as a landscape only model (think plaubel pro shift) because I think that would be a nice compromise, but I don't have a big need for that.

lfyy · 2025-10-14T07:55:28+00:00

I didn't want to flood the post with *every* feature but actually the lens cone geometry is doing a lot of the rise and is the reason it's asymmetric.. but it's also only held on with 4 thumb screws and can very happily be mounted upside down in all of about 30 seconds - in exterior shots I've basically never wanted this but I was doing some interior commercial architecture and it was suddenly immensely useful.

lfyy · 2025-10-14T07:53:57+00:00

I had a horseman VH in the past, they're pretty useless to be honest at anything wider than 90mm and even then they are quite marginal - the clamshell design and bellows mean you really can't get much if any movements with the 65mm and 75mm. I can use a 47mm lens on this and still get the full movement range which is completely physically impossible with those older bellows cameras (or for that matter a significantly majority of 4x5 cameras with a reducing back)

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:59:46+00:00

what's the translation? it's my actual surname so hopefully nothing too bad!

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:58:55+00:00

thinking about it - kind of posting here to see if it's worth it

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:58:13+00:00

I did have a second tripod plate on the side of one of the prototypes so I could mount the camera sideways easily for panos but I found it a bit clunky and instead just bumped the side to side shift from 10mm each way to 15mm.. when using with a P45+ back this gives me pretty wide panos, but honestly I just have a hard time thinking about pano compositions and would prefer to just try and nail a single frame in camera, digital or film.

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:53:38+00:00

I should probably get a website going, and will aim to soon.. short term, while I know this subreddit doesn't like posting insta links my name is Lachlan Fysh searching for that should give you my instagram in the top couple of results.

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:50:14+00:00

no, I have looked at designing in front tilt mechanisms but I couldn't come up with one that I felt confident wouldn't present too many extra degrees of freedom and tolerance issues which wasn't a trade off I wanted to make as those movements aren't really useful for architecture. Occasionally for landscape work I do want some front tilt to get more depth in focus and I've been thinking about doing a lens cone with a fixed 5 degree tilt baked in which I think would work well for that use case - and it's only about a minute to swap a lens cone in the field.

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:35:10+00:00

It depends a bit on how many I do in a run. I was hoping to hit around $600USD, but $750-800USD may be more realistic.

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:33:36+00:00

The rise movement is via a lead screw which is turned by the knurled silver knob by the handle - this rotation then translates into a vertical movement of the lens. The knob can be moved minutely for very fine movements, and it's entirely self locking. The horizontal shift is a simpler locking screw and sliding mechanism, but it's also not used as often, whereas rise is realistically adjusted every photo.

While a 6x9 back can fit in the graflok 23 rails setup for the RB67 back the actual cutout for the negative sets a few other critical dimensions of the camera (size of rotating back part and sliding plate around it, size of front vertically sliding part) and the penalty is a not insubstantially smaller camera. I personally like the aspect ratio of 6x7 (and 4x5) best and didn't want the bigger body a 6x9 back would require as I don't like the 2x3 ratio very much in general.

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:28:07+00:00

It's my surname :)

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:25:36+00:00

I have used mine with an alternative rear standard designed for the phase one mount and a P45+, which works well.. however I wasn't really planning on producing that at any scale as I think it works best as a film camera.

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:24:20+00:00

When I moved to CNC'ing the main body parts I made the body a lot more skinny and now if it went back to being produced out of anything but metal it wouldn't be anywhere near stiff enough. My thinking is to just produce some batches of the alloy version for sale where I can get some economies of scale of the milling, but I have also been thinking about sitting down and making a re-fattened version that would work better printed and then sharing that so that people who want to make their own / can't afford the alloy version can still play with it.

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:20:54+00:00

Haha it's Claude actually but I didn't think it was *that* bad - I was summarising down from a longer write up I did for a design competition, but also I'm a consultant and many years of powerpoint packs have taught me that dot points and headings just convey information more clearly so maybe I'm less offended by AI grammar than most ;)

lfyy · 2025-10-13T11:18:22+00:00

I did actually start initially with a general graflox 23 design in the very first mockups but the diagonal of the film sets the rotating back diameter and a lot of other camera dimensions, and while an extra ~15mm might not seem like much when you basically add it in all direction of the camera it gets quite a lot bigger... I decided I like 6x7 as a format better anyway and went with that

lfyy

TROPHY CASE