eBay watch

What happened to the items in my previous blog? The Kamaret is not for sale anymore. The auction ended after an offer was declined by the seller. Will we see the Kamaret again in some time?
The Eastman View camera sold for US$ 1675 after 6 serious bidders had battled for it. A nice price, I think, for a camera with no lens and a replacement lensboard.
The No. 4 Eureka in fine condition ended at US$ 168. Not really a high price, but like I said before, it's a camera for a limited group of collectors. I'm sure it is a fine addition to the collection of the new owner.
The set of 26 photos made by a No. 2 camera went for US$ 50. There was 1 bidder.
My favorite BLAIR FOCUSING WENO HAWK-EYE NO. 4 CAMERA is still there. No bids yet, no offers made. Is the $ 500 price way out of line? I have no idea.
The No. 4 Folding Kodak with Asbury Barker shutter ended at US$ 1195. Five bidders had been playing around at $ 500 when a sixth one took it away for the Buy it now price.
The naked No. 4 Folding Kodet found a new owner for US$ 181. I hope it gets restored properly now.

Any new interesting items on eBay now? Yep, a real nice red Pocket Kodak with battered leather case. At the moment 3 bidders are skirmishing over it. Highest bid now is a meagre $ 31.50. Still five days to go.

The model has the Tisdell shutter attached to the lensboard, indicating it is the 4th version of the 1895 model. But is also has the felt film guides, which belong to the earlier versions. Ralph London explaines in his article The Pocket Kodak (in The Photographist, nr 100, Winter 1993/1994) that the version with attached shutter & felt guides could well be the absolute first version of the '95 model. Meaning that this example on eBay is a very fine specimen of the very first Pocket Kodak version.

eBay watch

No busty ladies here, sorry, only old cameras. The Kamaret I mentioned earlier is still for sale. Price dropped to US$ 439. It is a historical interesting camera since it was (one of??) the first to use film spools in front of the film plane, the so called front roll design.
There's also a giant Eastman Dry Plate & Film Co. view camera from the years before the Kodak. It's a 18 x 22 inch machine. At the moment it has 4 bids and the price is $ 565. Still 4 days to go.
More humble is the No. 4 Eureka Kodak, a shoe box type camera for the specialised Kodak collector who wants to have all the models. The camera is not so often seen. This one is in fine condition and has the ground glass and two plate holders. Starting price $ 150, 3 days to go and no bids yet.

In the photo section there is a set of 26 mounted Kodak photos in the No. 2 size (3" x 3"). They date from the period 1896-1900. A nice addition to any No. 2 Bulls-eye, Bullet, Falcon or Flexo.

My favorite I have saved for the last. It's no Kodak, no, it's a Blair Focusing Weno Hawk eye No. 4. With this camera you could focus on a ground glass and still take your photos of a roll of film, like with the Screen Focus Kodak. It is a beauty and I want it, but I have to be strong and let it pass. I am a collector of early Kodaks, at least until I have them all. Then, and only then, I will go for the other beauties.

Asbury Barker shutter

I can't find much about the Asbury Barker shutter. There are two Asbury Barker patents on pneumatic shutters in Google patents. See patent 477588 and 491794. According to "A century of cameras" by Eaton Lothrop the Barker shutter is a between the lens, two-blade scissors  type. The 477588 patent shows such a shutter. If not the same, I think this shutter in the patent is closely related to the one on the Folding Kodak.

The 1892 Kodak catalog mentions the shutter. You can download the catalog as a PDF from Charlie Kamerman's site. Below is the piece about the shutter.

Satchel Kodak with Barker shutter

Again there's an interesting early Kodak for sale on eBay. This time it is a 1892 No. 4 Folding Kodak with a rare Asbury Barker shutter. Because this shutter didn't work well, it was often replaced by another model. Therefore examples with an original Barker shutter are quite rare today. In total there were only 3750 No. 4 Folding Kodaks produced. Buy it now price is US$ 1195. Better hurry before I change my mind and buy it myself.

Article index & rare Kodet camera

My index of 2500 photohistory articles and patents is working again, not with the old DOS program, but with Excel. The Excel filtering options work well and I can search on every word and combine searches using logical (Boolean) operators. So, now I could start indexing the pile of journals that I haven't indexed yet. I could... but I think they will have to wait a little longer. Indexing journals is not really a job I like.
Enough about that.

There's a interesting camera for sale on eBay: a No. 4 Folding Kodet (vertical model) from around 1895. Alas it is 'restored' and now it really needs retoration. All the leather is stripped off and the wood is lacquered. The complete camera is mounted on a brass plate. Awful! But if you can find the right leather it is a rewarding job. The camera is worth the trouble, as it is not seen often.

New computer trouble

A few weeks ago I bought a new computer. A beautiful, fast and versatile machine. But... the program I have used since the early 1990s to index all the articles in photohistory journals does not work anymore. 2500 articles are described in it. It was a hell of a job and I even didn't like doing it. But with a simple search it reveiled where I could find articles in the many journals I have kept since 1983. I was not amused when it refused to work!
Now I am spending my evenings to convert a file with all the descriptions to an Excel program. I'm quite handy with Excel and I know that I will succeed, but will it be as fast and simple as my old DOS program? But it's a solace that I like to tinker with Excel!!!