How to build a wooden grip for your medium format camera

It doesn't take an awful lot to get into medium format film photography these days. Older, rock solid medium format models can be had on the cheap through secondhand sellers, and it won't be long before you're lugging around an enormous old Mamiya on all your photography excursions.

But as amazing as the photos are that come out of those cameras, they weren't exactly built for ergonomics — especially if you're using one with an eye-level pentaprism. So Instructables user mattthegamer463 created a guide of how to build a shutter grip for a medium format camera, and while it takes some heavy hardware to construct, it should make shooting with one of these tanks just a little more comfortable.

His guide shows not only how to craft the handle itself from wood, but also how run a shutter cable through it; how to reinforce the handle with an aluminum plug; and how to mount the entire rig on a custom drilled baseplate. It takes some significant hardware to cut and drill everything to size, but the end results are pretty impressive looking. And unlike a commercially available grip, it can be custom built to your own hand, and stained whatever color you think looks good.

There's no reason you wouldn't be able to adjust this tutorial to any camera you can think of, if you wanted to add a wooden handle to make it easier to grip. All you'd have to do is make sure that all the screws and holes line up for your camera of choice, and you should be set.

See a few photos of the process below and more at DIYPhotography.