1870's photographers daylight studio

In 1988 I started preparing a photohistory exhibition to celebrate the 150th anniversary of photography in 1989. I had a large room in a local museum to my disposal and I started to design the exhibition. Among other things I wanted to show the evolution of cameras and the impact of inventions on the kind of photos that were made. With the help of some fellow collectors I managed to fill a 20 yard glass wall with all sorts of cameras and photos from the first hundred years of photography.

In 1988 I had also researched the 19th century photographic history of the city of Roermond, close to where I live, and was able to show all the interesting products from the local photographers, from tiny lockets with portraits to a large panoramic photo of the building of a bridge over the river Meuse in the early 1860's.

What I did not have was a photographers daylight studio. So I set to work to build one. I decided to make it on a 1 : 6 scale, simply because I had two Barbie dolls that I "borrowed" from my eldest sister, and they measured about 28 centimeter. Maybe a bit tall for 19th century people, but it would do. I had a nice library on the history of photography, so I had enough information to put together a studio like it would have been around 1870. During more than one year I worked on it, making two studio cameras (one is a four lens cdv camera), props, head rests, the glass roof and curtains, a table and tiny albums and photos on the walls of the studio. A friend made the clothes for the dolls.

During the past 23 years the studio was stored at the home of my parents. Now my mother is moving to a home for the elderly and I had to decide what to do with the studio. It is a bit too large for my museum and I prepared to sell it. This weekend I took a number of photos that I was going to show on eBay. While I was taking the pics my wife suggested that I should consider again if I really wanted to sell the studio. Well... you probably know how it ended. Although it is too large for my museum I decided to keep it a little longer. I just have to move the glass cabinet a bit to the left and the chair a bit to the right and I will also have to find a new place for a little table, but then the studio will fit into the room.
Here's a video showing my scale model of a 1870's daylight studio.

Two new videos

Between the clouds of today I was able to shoot two videos of my newest additions. First there is the No. 5 Eastman Plate Camera, Series D, that I have described before. In the video you can see it with the full extension of the bellows. It is an impressive instrument of good quality. In its day it cost US$ 97.00. In 1902-1903 that was quite a bit of money if you consider that the average year income of a public school teacher in 1900 was $ 328.

In the second video you see a wooden version of the Boston Bull's-Eye camera of 1892-1895.

No. 5 Eastman Plate camera & No. 3 Eastman Plate camera

Today I finished working on the No. 5 Eastman Plate camera and I can say that I am satisfied with the result. Here's the result of all the TLC, Venetian Cream, metal polish, furniture touch up pen, Tana colorless cream, glue and spit. Yes, spit is very good for cleaning wood and ivory. The only part that is missing, is a little key on the side, like the one you can see in the pic below. Maybe you have one left over....

In the photo the camera is extended to two-third of the maximum extension. I would have liked to extend it to its maximum, but the tripod is too flimsy to safely hold the instrument when it is extended to a total of over 50 cm. The double extension on the Eastman Plate Series D models is necessary when only the front or back element of the combination lens is used, and this is done for wide angle or tele photography.

Today I did not only finish the "restoration" of the No. 5, but I also bought a No. 3 Eastman Plate Series D camera on eBay. As far as I can judge the instrument looks nice and only needs some minor amount of TLC. It is a small and neat camera and will make a fine trio with the large No. 5 and not so large No. 4. Here's a pic of it.

5 Eastman Plate camera continued

Although I have been very busy working in the garden and laying a stone path from the house to the street, I have found some time to clean and polish my newest addition, the No. 5 Eastman Plate camera. The 10 blades of the iris diaphragm were all in a mess, so I took the shutter apart to see what I could make of it. The mechanism seemed simple enough: ten paper thin blades with a notch of a millimeter on each end. Each notch had to fit into a hole in a ring around the lens. Well, it wasn't as simple as it looked and it took me some time to find a way to keep the damned things in place long enough to assemble the top plate. Finally I put a piece of painters tape under the opening, so the ten blades would stick to it. After some experimenting this worked well. All 20 notches stayed in their hole and the diaphragm worked as smooth as 109 years ago.

In the pic are the two parts of the shutter housing. On the left is the shutter and on the right is the iris diaphragm. What you see is the top plate. Under it are the ten blades. The star in the center is the construction where the ten notches on one end of the blades move up and down when the lever (2 o'clock position on the photo) is moved to open or close the diaphragm.

The re-enforcing of the bellows worked well. All the tears are mended and after cleaning, touching up with some oxblood colored shoe polish (the smallest amount possible!) and treatment with colorless Tana leather cream, the bellows looks as good as new.
The nickel fittings were all very dirty, but polishing improved them a lot. The nickel plating is of good quality, so I had not to be afraid to rub it off down to the brass. Still there is some cleaning to do before I can put all parts together again. Maybe next weekend I can show the result of all the TLC I gave this instrument.

No. 5 Eastman Plate camera

The rare No. 5 Eastman Plate camera I have bought arrived during the past week and I can say that I am not disappointed. It is dirty and some folds of the bellows just behind the lens panel are torn, but it can be made into a fine looking instrument again.

To be able to do so I have taken it apart. All the tiny screws and parts were put in glass jars or small boxes, with a note from what part they were taken.

The bellows will be the most difficult and time consuming to restore. First I thought to just cut off the first fold that is torn and glue the second fold to the wooden frame that holds the lens. Probably nobody would notice. But when I had taken the instrument apart I decided to mend the torn folds. I have done that before with good result, so I should be able to do it again.

The leather on the outside of the camera is dry and scuffed, but a treatment with Venetian Cream usually does miracles with leather. This afternoon I applied a coating of VC and now it is drying. Then I am going to treat the leather with colorless Tana shoe cream to feed it. After a gentle buffing the leather should look at least 100 years younger.

I have been on the hunt for a wooden Boston Bull's-Eye for some time, and now I found one and got it for a very reasonable amount of $$. The camera is missing the handle, but that one I can replace. All the other parts are present, like the brass presure plate in the back that is often gone. There is a bit of wear to the wood of the front top. I will treat that with a furniture touch up pen. The same goes for the scratch on the front.  The camera is still on its way from Texas to the Netherlands, but here's the pic from the auction.

A rare No. 5 Eastman Plate camera & some more Bull's-Eye

Eastman Kodak made three plate cameras during 1902-1904 that were called No. 3, No 4 and No. 5 Eastman Plate. As always the number in the name of Kodak models designates the size of the negative. No. 3 = 3 1/4 x 4 1/4 inch, No. 4 = 4 x 5 inch and No. 5 = 5 x 7 inch.
All three cameras were not made in very large numbers, the No 5 being the rarest with only 500 produced. So when I found a No. 5 on eBay I tried my luck. The instrument needs a good amount of TLC and I guess that is why I got it for a fair price ;-)

The camera is still on its way from Florida to the Netherlands. I hope it arrives soon, so I will see how much tender loving care (Venetian Cream, Tana leather cream and metal polish) it really needs. Anyway, this is a rare high quality instrument and I'm glad I bought it.

In the past weeks there have been some interesting items at eBay. First there is a No. 3 Combination Hawk-Eye (on the right), made by Blair around 1904. It is a rare instrument that was designed to use roll film and also allow focusing on a ground glass. That is a bit of a strange combination because you have to move the film out of the way to insert a ground glass. There are several solutions and this camera is one of them. It sold for US $ 241 at eBay, not too much if you consider that it is in a nice condition and also quite rare.

Another combination camera is for sale right now (on the left). It is a No. 8 Folding Buckeye from the same period. The camera is not in a good shape and needs restoration. Starting price is $ 199, no bids yet and 4 days to go.

The No. 4 Screen Focus Kodak was Eastman's answer to the combi question. See mine here.

A rather strange item that was for sale is a 4 x 5 plate back for a No. 5 Cartridge Kodak. This camera takes 5 x 7 inch pics, so a plate back for 4 x 5 inch is not what you would expect. I thought there could be a mistake in the description, but after some mails there is no question about it, this is a 4 x 5 back for a No 5 Cartridge Kodak. I searched all the catalogs for such a reducing back, but they were not offered in the regular catalogs. So maybe this is a one of a kind item that was made on request for a customer. I sold for $ 23.

Last but not least an update on the 4 x 5 Boston Bull's-Eye. I have written an article about it for the Dutch Photohistorisch Tijdschrift, as an update on my 2007 article about the Boston Bull's-Eyes. When searching for new information I found an ad in the American Amateur Photographer of December 1893. It mentions the "new 4 x 5 Bulls-Eye", so I presume the camera was introduced around that time and not in 1892 like the regular Boston Bull's-Eye.

I also unscrewed the front of the camera to find out what is behind it. (I did that 40 years ago with the Kodak box of my parents and after that I refused to work again.) What I found is a very simple rotating shutter that was later used on the Kodak Bull's-Eyes and Bullets. Here's a pic.

Boston Bulls-Eye continued

This week the 4 x 5 Boston Bulls-Eye camera arrived. It is in very nice condition, with no wear to the leather and all parts present. I'm glad that I could add it to my collection because it is truly a landmark camera. Well... not as much as the regular Boston Bulls-Eye for 3.5 inch square pics, but enough to be very special. According to the Boston Camera Mfg Co the succes of the regular model prompted the introduction of the 4 x 5 model. The regular dates from 1892, so the 4 x 5 must be later. How much? I don't know, but it was there in 1894, when the Boston Camera Mfg Co published a promotional booklet.
By the way, I doubt that the regular model was a great succes. It is quite rare nowadays, so considering that is was on the market for three years (1892-1895) it cannot have been much of a succes.
The 4 x 5 Bulls-Eye is even rarer. In fact, I don't know any other example. According to an article from the seventies, the Eastman House Museum had/has four examples. I could not find any photograph of it, nor a modern day description. Also I could not find any remark about it in several 1890s photo journals.

So have a look at this milestone in camera design. I made two videos, one showing the outside of the camera and one showing the internal parts. There's not much to see in that second video, but it shows the front roll design. Oh yes, it has the D-shaped red window!

Both videos can also be seen on my website, together with the pages from the 1894 promotional booklet.

A Dutch Foka box camera

Recently I received some photos of a Foka boxcamera with the question if I did know anything about the instrument. I thought it was a Dutch camera and that was all I knew, so I started a little search in my library. My index of 2600 photohistory articles coughed up two small articles from 1985 and 1986. It is not much that I found, but here it is.
The FOKA cameras were imported from Germany before the Second World War by a Mr. L.J.B. Albers from Rotterdam, who was a dealer of photo and film equipment. He bought them from the Balda factory in Dresden in 1935.
There seem to be several models: the most simple is called Foka Box 0. It is a metal box with a simple meniscus lens and three diaphragm apertures. It has a shutter for Time and Instantaneous and two little reflex finders. It took snaps of 6 x 9 cm on roll film. Like more cameras in the depression years of the 1930s it was available in several colors: black, red, blue, green and beige. It cost fl. 2,95.
The second model is called Foka Box No. 1. It has the same specifications as the previous model, but also has two tripod bushes and can take a cable release or delayed time release. It also has a large frame viewfinder on a side. Price was fl. 3,25. The frame finder did cost an extra fl. 0,60 as did the option to have bright reflex finders instead of the duller ones with a little mirror and ground glass.
The top model is the Foka Box No. 2, with a better Periscopic lens and a build in portrait lens. The usual fixed focus lens could take pics from 3 meters to infinity. The portrait lens reduced this from 0.5 to 3 meters. Price was fl. 4,95 without frame finder or bright reflex finders. For an extra fl. 0,60 it could be adapted to a size of 4 x 6 cm negatives. Cases were available in linen (fl. 0,50), leather (fl. 1,25) and leather with plush lining (fl. 2,25).
So, looking at all the possible combinations of colors and extras there must be a miriad of different Foka boxes around. Let's see what the Foka on the pictures is.

The camera is obviously the Foka Box No. 2, with frame finder and bright reflex finders. Below the lens is a scale to set the distance. On the right is the infinity symbol and on the left a letter P. I guess this means Portrait. On top (you cannot see it on these pics) is a pull up strip. Usally this changes the apertures. Above the shutter release seems to be another pull out thing. I don't know what that is, maybe a yellow filter? Below the shutter release you can see the bush for the cable release.

Above the lens there once used to be a name plate with the text 'Fotohandel Victoria Rotterdam'. That was the name of Albers' company. 

It's a Bulls-Eye season

After the disappointment of not buying the wooden 3.5 x 3.5" Boston Bulls-Eye I suddenly stood eye to eye with a very close relative of this landmark camera: the 4 x 5" Boston Bulls-Eye, also with D-shaped window, frontroll design, daylight loading film and arrows on the shutter blade. The regular Bulls-Eye is a rare camera, but this bigger brother is virtually unknown. Not so long ago I wrote an article about the Boston Bulls-Eye cameras, but the only illustration I could find of the 4x5 model was a drawing from a 1894 booklet.
Thanks to the article I have written, I recognized the camera at once. It was a buy-it-now item on eBay and after a quick look at all the pics I bought it without hesitation. So here it is:

The camera was introduced after the regular Bulls-Eye (1892). It was described in a promotional booklet in 1894 and in the May 1895 issue it was reviewed in the American Amateur Photographer (page 230). On Augsut 23, 1895 Eastman bought the Boston Camera Mfg. Co. and that was probably the end of the model. The regular Bulls-Eye was not a great commercial succes and is not much seen now. The 4x5 model was produced during a shorter period and is even rarer. In its day it cost $ 15, with case and one roll of film.

No two fingerprints are the same, or a Bulls-Eye with a tail / tale

Top: the photo from the March 2011 eBay item.
Bottom: the photo from the February 2012 eBay item.

In my previous blog I have mentioned the Boston Bulls-Eye camera that I had bought on eBay. It looked very well with almost no dents, scratches of missing pieces and I was glad I had it. That evening I was looking at some photos of wooden Boston Bulls-Eyes that I had saved to my computer. I found that I had pictures of another example with a pull strip to change the stops. It was offered for sale on eBay in March 2011 and I had saved several photos of that camera. I had not bought that one because it had two extra non-original holes in the back panel. While examining the photos I started to think that the March 2011 camera was very similar to the one I had just bought... Well, you get it, don't you?
After putting photos of the top panel of both cameras side by side the wood pattern looked very much the same. You know that no two fingerprints are exactly the same, and just so there are no two pieces of wood with 100% the same pattern. So my camera would most probably be the March 2011 camera. I mailed the seller to ask about the holes. He had not shown photos of the back panel on eBay, so I made clear that he should have.

The two non-original holes and the original D-shaped red window.

Like I had feared, my camera was the March 2011 camera with the extra holes. The seller immediately returned the money I had paid and asked what I thought the camera would be worth. In return I asked if the brass presure plate and the screw in the bottom were present. Also I asked for pics of the interior, so I could see any damages or missing parts. Until now I didn't get an answer.
What did I learn from this? I learned that even at my age I can be fooled by a pretty face and forget to have a look at the back side ;)