Nov 3, 2012

35 years of Dutch collectors journal on CD

In October 1977 the first newsletter of the Dutch photohistorical society was mailed to its 70 or so members. It was a stenciled affair, much like the first American newsletters of camera and photo collectors clubs. It must have been a great step forward for the first collectors to have a platform to exchange information about books, dealers and auctions.
When I became a member in 1983 the newsletter had grown into a real journal with interesting articles. I still have all the issues and what is more, I have indexed them digitally. Without an index it makes not much sense to keep all the journals.
In 2012 the Dutch collectors society Fotografica celebrates its 35th anniversary. For this occasion all the journals were scanned, put on a CD and this was distributed to all the members. Great! It is a fantastic source of information.
There is an index file on title and author on the CD, but that is a rather meager tool. If you know how, you can search the PDF files with the Adobe Reader search engine. This way you can search for every word in every file. Click on a result in the list and the PDF file opens on the exact page.
Alas this doesn't work with all files on this CD. The period 1983 - 1999 can not be searched. I guess the scanner was not set on OCR (optical character recognition) while these issues were scanned. What a pity!
See the results list on the left. I searched for the word "camera" and all the other years and issues appear in the list.
So, if you are going to scan all issues of a journal, take care to set the settings to OCR!

What is going on at eBay? There was a very interesting early twin lens reflex LONDON STEREOSCOPIC COMPANY TLR CAMERA OUTFIT for sale, but shortly after it appeared the auction was ended. I mention this camera because I once owned the first example of the Francais Cosmopolite TLR with serial number 1. It is the same model as the London Stereoscopic Co. TLR, but mine had a simple rotating disc shutter, while the camera on the right has a roller blind shutter.
In issue 1, 2012 of Photographica World there is a short article about my Cosmopolite and the the London Stereoscopic Co. TLR.

At the moment there are two No. 2 Stereo Kodak box cameras for sale. One is a buy it now item for $ 800. That is a price of 20 years ago and I do not think it will sell. Another one started at a realistic price. It is a camera in fair condition. Only two days to go, price is $ 225 at the moment.
See mine at http://www.kodaksefke.nl/2-stereo-kodak.html.

Another nice item is an empty box for 4 No. 2 Brownie film rolls. It has a develop before 1911 date. The Brownies are rather dull cameras and a bright yellow box will be a nice addition to a display. Three days to go and the price now is $ 10.