Intrepid

Intrepid 4×5 image by Alex Luyckx (Image rights)

Intrepid 5x7: note the newer corner frame at the rear. image by John Gately (Image rights)

The Intrepid is a range of large format field cameras, made by Intrepid Camera, a start-up founded in 2015 by two young product designers in Brighton, England. It started making its moderately-priced Intrepid 4×5 in 2015, financed by a Kickstarter campaign, and soon sold out. The main elements of the cameras are made either from thick plywood or from 3D printed plastic material, with aluminium and some 3D-printed fittings. The 4x5-inch camera weighs 1.3kg, without lens, filmholder, etc.

As of 2024, the cameras offered are:

• Intrepid 4x5 in unstained plywood, or with black 3D-printed panels; currently the 5th model; it closely resembles the 5x7 camera pictured here.
• Intrepid 8x10, wood or black
• Intrepid 5x7, wood only - as in the lower photo here.

The black cameras are supplied with black bellows; natural-colour cameras come with a choice of black, red, green or blue bellows. The bellows can be extended between 75 - 300mm (almost double extension); this is therefore more or less the range of lenses that can be used (a 75mm lens requires a recessed lens-board; a 300mm won't focus much below infinity). Replacement bellows are also offered, and a bag bellows is promised (as of February 2024).

The first two generations of the camera allowed only front camera movements (though a degree of rear tilt could be achieved by tilting the base and compensating with front movements). Later cameras allow rear tilt. The makers give the following limits: Front: 42mm rise, 30mm fall, +/- 45° tilt, +/- 45° swing; Rear: +/- 45° tilt

From the end of 2018, Intrepid has offered a kit to use the 4x5 camera as an enlarger. This comprises an LED light-panel in place of a traditional lamp-house, plus negative holders etc. Two kits are offered, for 35mm - 120 size, and for 4x5-inch.

Links

• About Intrepid Camera
• About the enlarger kit in photoscala (in German)