No. 3 Eastman Plate Series C camera

I received a question about the No. 3 Eastman Plate Series C cameras and here is what I could find.
It is a folding camera for 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch glass plates and was produced from 1902 to 1904. The camera could also be fitted with a Cartridge Roll Holder to take pics on roll film.
There also is a series D, which has an extra long bellows extension. 1600 cameras were made in each series. Serial numbers start with 501.
See the HCCC site for a description of the model.

The camera is a typical apparatus for the 'serious amateur', the man or woman who wanted to make perfect pictures, not snapshots. The Eastman Plate cameras are well equiped for this. The picture could be focused and composed on the ground glass, which was more accurate than a little reflex finder and distance scale, and the lens panel could be moved up and down and sideways. For an explanation on this, with videos, see this page on my website.

One was sold on Ebay in June, fetching US$ 420. I do not know its condition.

Photographica fair in Houten (NL) & Google Books

Today is the traditional November photographica fair in Houten in the Netherlands. I can't give you an impression, I can't take a snap with my phone and show it here. I'm not there. I used to go in the 1980's and 1990's. For weeks I looked forward to it. It was a bit like Santaclaus of my youth. But gradually the antique cameras and other stuff disappeared. They were replaced with 'modern' cameras and accesories from the 1960, '70 and '80. I read in society journal PHT that it is getting worse every year, with second hand radios and such things. It is no fun anymore and that is why I am not there now.

Enough grumbling for today. Here's some positive news. I discovered that I can make my own library in GoogleBooks. The only thing you have to do is search for the title and click a button to add it to your library. You even can make different 'bookshelfs'. What is best: you can search your library full text (!!!!). You can find every word in all the books you have. Wow!
Click the link on the right to go to my Google Library. There are 56 books at the moment, but more will be added.

eBay watch

What happened to the items I mentioned before? The Pascal box with motor drive wasn't sold for the € 900 asking price and is now relisted at € 500. Quite a difference. Let's see what is going to happen.

The No. 4 Folding Kodet Special went for $ 52. Not much, but it is a real restauration project. The fine and early red Pocket Kodak was sold for almost $ 230. Nine bidders were in the race for it.

Then there was the No. 4 Eureka box. It went for almost $ 170.

New on eBay is a Vest Pocket Monroe from around 1900. It's a compact camera for plates with red bellows and brass struts. Price now is $ 25. I wonder what it will do. Still 4 days to go.

Also new are a couple of detective cameras. Interesting is the no name box on the left. Starting price $ 600, no bids yet. On the right is a Tisdell box. already 5 bids now, price at $ 285, and 4 days until the end.

Addition to my collection & other things

The Stereo Brownie and Stereo Kodak Model 1 in the pic are part of my collection since many years. New is the specimen photo that is made with a No. 2 Stereo Brownie. In 2D it is a bit of a dull picture of two people standing on a rustic bridge in a forest. In 3D it comes to life in a wonderful way.
Besides early Kodak cameras I collect their instruction booklets and photos made with the cameras. The specimen photo is the latest addition to my collection.

eBay watch: there's a Pascal box camera for sale. It is the first camera with automatic film advance, dating from around 1899. Starting price is € 900. No bids yet. I wonder what it will do. In Photographica World 2010 no. 1 is an article about motordrive cameras. Le Pascal is one of the cameras described.

Sad news is that my mother probably has to move to a service appartment. She lives in a rather big house now, with lots of room for the stuff of her children. I will have to find a new home for a very fine Durst M605 black&white enlarger with Componon S lens. I haven't used it for 15 years. Also I will have to find a place for a scale model of a 1870s daylight photographers studio which I have made in the late 1980s. I have no room for it in my private museum, but I also don't want to sell it.

No. 4 Folding Kodet Special

There's a No. 4 Folding Kodet Special for sale at eBay. Lens is missing, as are the 2 doors. Leather is in bad condition. Two bids at the moment, highest bid is now $ 52. Still 5 days to go. A nice restauration project. If someone knows where to get the right leather, please let me know. I've got a No. 4 Folding Kodet Junior that could use some.