I wanted to shoot a portrait of my daughter on 12x20 film and set up a reclining pose to take advantage of the panoramic camera. The resulting negatives didn't even make it to the contact print stage. The format was wrong, it needed to be vertical. Something else was wrong, and it was spending $8.20 a shot to play with my home-made toy. Maybe it was time to scale down a bit and shoot actual sized vertical portraits at the same time. After remeasuring my bellows, I knew that an 11x14 back could be installed that would rotate for either horizontal or vertical compositions - I started making sketches.

This was a lengthly project. First I built a large panel that would fit the Mammoth Camera the same way the 12x20 back fits, complete with light traps and four machine screws wiith knurled knobs. This piece had a 14 inch square cut out of the center.

But before I could build the film holder part, I had to have a film holder. I bought a used one for $140.00 from an ad in View Camera magazine. With the holder in hand, I was able to construct the back around it, just like the 12x20 holder (only this time I used Big Lots putty knives for $.69 each instead of the more expensive cake knives for my springs). The finished back fits into slots on one side of the adaptor panel, and a sliding board on the other side holds it firmly in place - exactly like a giant lensboard holder tilted on its side.

Many pieces of wood were required to construct all the light traps, lips, and pieces to raise the assembly enough to make sure the film holder was accessable. So of course, it weighs much more than the 12x20 back. When I finally take this monster into the field, I will remove the entire back assembly, load the thing onto my two-wheeled golf bag carrier, and hope I don't throw my back out lifting the camera onto the tripod.