Video & bicycle clamps

I have made an English translation of my video about the early years of photography and uploaded it to Youtube. I made the original video for a general audience that knows virtually nothing about the history of photography. In a nutshell it tells the story of Niepce, Daguerre and Fox Talbot. No details, not much explanation, just headlines and pictures. Here it is:

During the past week there were some interesting items for sale on eBay. First of all there were two Kodak boxes with clamps to mount bicycle cases on your bike. I believe these a quite rare, certainly with the original box. Both were sold for a nice sum, one box for US$ 147 and one for $ 178.

Bicycle cameras were fashionable around 1900 and Kodak offered several styles of cases for a number of their cameras. They even made a booklet called Bicycle Kodaks, with all the cases and cameras. Here's a  page showing a case for the Folding Pocket Kodak.

Also for sale was a plain wood Boston Bulls-Eye box from the period 1892-1895. This camera is a landmark camera because it incorporated several inventions that were used for the first time together in one instrument: front roll design, red window and daylight loading film. See my website for details.The one for sale was a Buy it Now item and it was sold during the first day for $ 285. The strap and one screw to hold that is missing.

I was thinking about buying it, but waited too long.

Just a day or two later another plain wood Boston Bulls-Eye appeared. It had its strap and looked good, so I did not hesitate long and bought it.

It will make a nice companion to my ebonite model Bulls-Eye. Now I have to find myself a leather covered model, to make the set complete.

Have a good look at both cameras. Notice the difference? The one I bought (left) has a pull strip on top. I guess you can select an aperture with it. I will find out when it arrives.

Blair Baby Hawk-Eye camera

I received a question about the Blair Baby Hawk-Eye camera and here is a link to an article in Photographica World 2008, issue 1, number 123. Download it if you want to keep it, because I will delete it at any moment from my Dropbox.

Kodak roll films

I received a question about Kodak roll films and found lots of info in "the Photographist" number 98 of 1993. Here's a PDF of it.

The early years of photography

During the last two weekends and sometimes in the evenings I have been working on a video about the early years of photography. I needed it for the file on http://www.wikilimburg.nl/ and could not find a video that suited me. So I made it myself.
I started with Adobe Premiere Elements 10, but changed to Windows Movie Maker after a number of frustrating hours. Windows Movie Maker could not do what I had in mind, so I changed to Power Point. There I could make a background of early 19th century wallpaper, hang a picture frame on it and use the space in the frame to show my pics. When ready I saved the file as a video and then imported it in Windows Movie Maker to finish it. Some passages had to be stretched and it needed some background music.
Here it is (in Dutch, but I think I will make an English vesion as well):

Tambosa

Today "Tailboard", the communications publication of the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain, PCCGB, dropped into my mailbox (the physical one, that is). On the front page two very Victorian looking box cameras cought my attention. They were two of the three known examples of the Tambosa camera.
Well, I don't blame you if you don't know what the Tambosa is. But in an old filing cabinet somewhere in my head a bell rang. In 2001 I had written an article about the Kodak Bullet cameras. In it I told about the front roll design (placing the film spools in the front of the camera box, just behind the lens panel). One of the inventors is Henry B. Good, who got a patent on the design on January 23, 1889 in England. In the article I wrote that Good's camera with the name Tambosa was never produced. Until today I knew no better.

Here's a pic of the front of Tailboard showing the two examples that cought my attention.

The example on the left is typical of the detective cameras of the day. It is wrapped in thick paper, like a ordinary parcel. In the early 1890's no one associated such a parcel with a camera or photographer. Cameras were used on tripods and photographers did mysterious things under a black cloth. With the disguised camera in hand s/he could walk the streets and take secret snaps of people and street life. Maybe not so very nice, but it was the start of a new kind of photography.

Here's the link to the Good US patent of 1890. You need a tiff reader to see the images. See the instructions on the US Patent Office website where the patent comes from.

By the way, you are a member of the PCCGB, aren't you? Yes? OK, so I don't have to tell you what a great journal the PCCGB publishes four times a year and that you miss a lot of interesting stuff if you don't get Photographica World. To be sure I provide the link to the site here.

The Brownie box of films that I mentioned in the previous blog was sold for US $ 333 and received 19 bids. Not bad and it shows the growing interest in this kind of additional items.

The No. 1 Kodak was sold for the buy it now price of $ 1795 and the whole collection of 4.5 x 6 cm plate cameras attracted not one bid. $ 52,000 is not what the average camera collector has in his wallet. The rare No. 3 Kodak Jr did only get $ 388.

At the moment there is a No. 4 Bullet Special Model of '99 for sale. After 3 bids the price is $ 225, but it is a naked example! Someone stripped the leather off and polished the bare wood body. Maybe it looks nice, but it is far from original. Still one day to go.

In my job I am working with public libraries to set up a series of training courses for the public about information skills. Trainees are asked to make content in our special wiki. To give them an example I made a file about the 19th century photographers in the city of Roermond. It is not ready yet, but here it is.

eBay watch and an old bear

Again there are some nice and interesting photographica items for sale at eBay. First is a No. 1 Kodak stringset camera in reasonable condition. According to the description and the photos the leather has some chips and crackling. Special is the rare green felt plug. Starting bid is $ 1350 or you can buy it now for $ 1795. No bids yet and still 6 days to go.
The No. 1 Kodak was made from 1889 until 1895 and replaced the original Kodak of 1888. The most important difference was the new and simpler shutter. The original RNX shutter of the 1888 model consisted of a barrel that rotated around the lens, which was positioned inside the barrel. By pulling a string the spring in the shutter was wound. The stored energy was enough to take about 4 or 5 photos. After that the spring had to be tensioned again. Notice that the shutter was self capping, which was a great advantage in a snapshooters camera because the snapshooter did not have to remember to cap the shutter when cocking it. It did cost $ 3.10 to produce the RNX shutter, which was about 50 % of the total costs to produce the camera. To reduce costs a sector shutter was used in the No. 1 Kodak. The RNX shutter has 19 parts, while the sector shutter has only 10 parts. Assembling it was simpler and thus cheaper. Another reason to abandon the RNX shutter is the chance that the spring did not have enough energy left to rotate the barrel in the 6th exposure. The barrel stopped halfway resulting in a ruined exposure. As there was no indication how many photos had been taken on one winding of the spring, this was a great risk. The new sector shutter had to be cocked before every exposure, so there was no risk of running out of energy halfway the exposure.
A third reason could have been the wish to stop down the lens. The addition of a diaphragm mechanism was not possible with the lens inside the barrel shutter, but quite simple with the sector shutter.
See these shutters in action on my site.
All this I did not find out myself. It was published in an article by W.P. Carroll in "the Photographist" no. 34 of 1976, pages 10 and 11.
 

In my previous blog I mentioned the No. 1 Brownie set. There is a nice addition to this one. For sale is a box for 5 rolls of film, still containing 2 rolls. Only one day to go. There are 7 bids now, price at the moment is GBP 26. I wonder what will be the final price, since film boxes are much wanted items and usualy expensive.
 

A third item is a No. 3 Kodak Junior with roll film back. This camera is not seen so very often and as the leather is reasonably well, it would be a nice addition to a collection. Mind you, the pull string button is missing! The leather is scuffed, but with a coating of Venetian cream it should be very presentable again. Only 4100 of these were made. One day to go. 4 bids now at $ 103. See my own set with plate back and roll film back at my site.
 
Also there is for sale a whole collection of 4.5 x 6 cm plate cameras. Asking price is euro 40,000. I do not know if this is a reasonable price, but if you want to have an instant collection, have a look at it.
 
Finally I want to present you my buddy from the 1960's. He, or is it 'she', is about 75 years old and did spend most of the time in clossets in my mother's home. My mother will be moving to a special home for the elderly soon, so I'm taking home the few things I left there. My 'teddy'-bear is one of these. Here s/he is. I swapped my bear for a football sometime in the early '60. I never liked footballs. He was my buddy in the next years, but disappeared into the cupboards when I grew up. Now I took him home. Maybe I will put some Brownie items around him, so s/he fits better into my collection.
 

Manuals and other nice little things

The latest addition to my collection is a manual for the C Ordinary Kodak. I noticed the booklet as a 'buy it now' item on eBay, and as the price was high but not too high in relation to my desire to get it, I bought it. Here you see my Ordinary collection with the booklet. In the photo you don't see the bright yellow color of the front.
I try to add instruction manuals and photos to every camera in my collection, so this is a nice addition. A few month ago I bought a set of example photos that were made with the A, B, C Kodaks. Below is a photo made with the C camera.

A couple of weeks ago I addes a beautiful Fiftieth Anniversary Kodak set to my collection, with box, instructions and film. Now there is an other set for sale on eBay, with an instructions manual that has a colored front, while my example has a black and white front. I had never noticed before that there are variations, but I had never paid much attention. In July 2011 a set was sold with colored manual and a green card stating that the person receiving a Anniversary Kodak will not apply for a second one. Here's a pic of it.  

At the moment there is another 1A Speed Kodak for sale at eBay. That is not unusual, but this one has the instructions booklet with it. The camera is in nice condition, with the usual wear. Price now is $ 180, but there are still a few hours to go.

A second nice item is a Brownie in its illustrated box and with the slip on finder in the original little box. Camera and box are clean, but the most interesting item is the little carton with the slip on finder. Starting bid is $ 100, no bids yet and six days to go.

Woobra and other stuff

At the Wood and Brass community there was a message about the digitisation of the British Journal of Photography Almanak (which is only a plan and far from realisation). I know that many old journals are already digitised and available online, so I tried to find the BJPA at the Internet Archive and Hathi Trust digital libraries. Many years are available full text so I tagged them in Delicious (social bookmarking) with a unique tag: woobra. If you register at Delicious you can search for this tag and you will find my saved woobra links. At the moment I have 3 links to about 25 years of the BJPA, full text!
What is still more interesting is that you can use the woobra tag too, if you find full text photography journals online. Then, when I will search for the woobra tag, I will find your links also. This way we can share a digital library. Below a screenshot of the first page of the complete 1871 edition of the BJPA.

The last weeks there were some interesting items at aBay, like the Kodak Enlarging Camera No. 1 in super condition and with an extra lens to take photos. The beautiful instrument did fetch US $ 750. It was made from 1903 onwards for several years, and was in fact a daylight enlarger and copying camera. See the screenprint from the 1904 catalog below.

Another fine item was a very clean No. 1A Speed Kodak. Often these cameras are worn, with dried out leather and missing pieces of leather. This one was a peach, to use a phrase from its own days. It sold for $ 650.

Surprising was the $ 260 for a cabinet size photo of a gentleman in a studio, with one of the Eastman plate cameras on a tripod next to him. I have paid good money for photos with a rare Kodak on it, but not so much as $ 260!

Last but not least the latest news on my teahouse project. After several weekends of hard labor the stone path around the teahouse is ready. I'm happy with the result and so is my wife. On we go to the next project...



Fiftieth Anniversary Kodak

The Anniversary Kodak set arrived this week and I am happy to say that the camera, film and instruction booklet are in pristine condition. The dealer card is a bit worn at the edges and discolored, and the box had several loose parts. With pliobond and strips of brown packing paper I glued all parts in the original place and restored the box to a fine exhibition item.

I added a description of the camera to my website, so click here if you want to read more about it.

There are a number of cameras and items I did not buy, but would have liked to bid on and win. First of all there was a fine No. 3 Folding Pocket Kodak Deluxe. Thanks to my high bid and to the even higher bid of another collector it went for a nice sum of Uncle Sam $$$, but alas not to me.
Because I did go for the Deluxe, I let pass a nice No. 3 Eastman Plate camera Series D and a No. 1A Speed Kodak. So now I did not get any of these, but they will come again, they always do. More rare is a tin box for developing powder in Art Nouveau style, with a beautiful drawing of a lady with a Folding Pocket Kodak in her hands. I did bid on it, but not enough, so someone else is happy with it now. It would have been a nice addition to my Original FPK set! Alas again...

For the rest I am busy in my garden and don't have much time for blogging. Terraces are ready around the house, but a new teahouse needed / needs electricity, paint and the garden around it had to be planted all over again. The planting is done, but now I have to make a brick path leading to the teahouse...

No. 4 Eastman Plate Series D & Anniversary set

The Eastman Plate camera arrived and it surprised me in a positve way. The camera is not only in a very nice condition, but it is also a high quality instrument with of number of special features for the advanced amateur photographer. The lens panel can move up and down and to the left and right, facilitating perspective adjustments. The back panel can rotate along a horizontal axis, making tilting of the plane of focus possible. My Series D camera has double extension of the bellows, so the camera could be used for close up photos.
There is not much information around about the camera, but I found that it cost US$ 25.00 in its day for the version with the Rapid Rectilinear lens. That was not a small amount. A factory worker had to work more than two weeks at 50 hours per week to earn that. A version with a better grade Plastigmat lens cost $ 62.50.
After a bit of cleaning, reparing the reflex finder on the drop bed and a coating of Venetian Cream the camera was ready for a portrait session. Here are two results.

Because of the winter period (and the bad light) my Black Maria film studio is closed. The video with the rotating camera will have to wait until the spring. Nevertheless I added the No. 4 Eastman Plate Series D to my website. Follow the link to see it there.

Since many years I have a Anniversary Kodak in my collection. My mother gave it to me for one of my birthdays a long time ago. That was in the pre-internet age, when lists of cameras arrived in the mail (yes, on paper!) and if you wanted something you had to call the dealer in the middle of the night (from Europe to the USA). The camera I got is not in the best condition, but as it is a birthday present I never replaced it. I won't discard it now, but I could not resist buying a very fine set, with box, booklet, special card, box of film and a very clean camera in like new condition. It did not arrive yet, but here's a pic.