1887 Blair Lucidograph Self-Casing Camera

[Steven Tribe]

The lens is an achromatic doublet. Looks like a Waterbury, apart from the rotary/wheel stops.

It is a very simple camera, compared with what came in the next 5 years.

[Tin Can]

It's worth what a buyer will pay.

People buy certain old computers for huge money, way more than you might think.

In my life motorbikes have appreciated far more than anyone thought.

[premortho]

I wouldn't have paid that, but I can see where a collector specializing in self casing cameras would. It's in pristine condition. The main turn off for me going over say, $500, is the lens. It looks to be just an achromatic doublet (but I could be wrong.)


Kent in SD

JUST an achromatic doublet? At the time, that lens was preferred for landscape work. Read the catalogs of the day. They were all raving about these as landscape lenses. The first photog that I know of that espoused a different lens for landscapes was Emerson, and he liked Rapid Rectilinears. You know how an RR is constructed, right? In those days, photographers wanted good drawing, which all Achromatic doublets give, because of the design of the lens. No way to make even a half way decent Achromatic Doublet in a wide angle type. If you are un-impressed with these arguments, just look at the pictures taken of landscapes in that era, then decide.