Largest 19thc Wet Plate negatives

[Andrew Plume]

http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/140yearold...31-gzbs4u.html


Andrew

[Steven Tribe]

Splendid link!

New, I think, and interesting. He moved from gold to silver!

I wonder if he built the house at a location suitable for his imaging plans?
Now where did he get his lens? With his name, he was probably ex- Germany or Austria/Hungary - so perhaps Voigtlander - but perhaps he had more in common with Dallmeyer?

[Andrew Plume]

Thanks Steven

He was of German descent. Two more links here:-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernhardt_Holtermann
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holtermann_collection

Andrew

[Andrew Plume]

and also:-

http://www.sl.nsw.gov.au/stories/holtermann-collection

Andrew

[goamules]

Thanks for showing us this Andrew. 36" plates, amazing detail. That link showing the new scanning process and results is amazing! Go wetplate!

[Mark Sawyer]

My thanks as well, Andrew! Sure would like to know what lens they were using.

BTW, Holtermann was the financier of the project, though he was involved in some of the actual work; the primary photographers were Henry Merlin and Charles Bayliss. Here's another good article on the whole enterprise:

https://web.archive.org/web/20140620...raphic-company

And this article relates some of Bayliss' experiences working with mammoth plates in 19th century Australia...

http://www.photo-web.com.au/bayliss/bio.htm

[Tin Can]

What a story!

Wonder full.

[Andrew Plume]

Thx Garrett, much appreciated - my best to you and your family

Thx also Mark

regards

Andrew

[Steven Tribe]

Acting on an impulse, I decided to have a quick browse through Dallmeyers archive for likely candidates for a 36"x36" covering lens for the period before the lens mentioned in the super interesting account of early Australian photographer Bayliss. The serial number must have been around 20,000 +/-. Under "misc. settings" in book 1, I found 5 lenses under the heading of just 36"x36". One of the these was for the specialist printer (of bank notes!) of De la Rue. There is only a single of these 5 that has an indication of the design with a "Triple" included - but I would think that they were all Triple Achromats.

In another, more restricted, ledger, I found under Triple Achromats ( rigid - meaning plain barrel) just a single 36x36" lens. The date of this lens matches exactly with the date of arrival in Australia (months of shipment!).
http://www.thedallmeyerarchive.com/R...c%20rigid.html

[Nodda Duma]

If you include dry plate, mention could be made of astrophotography plates exposed in observatories such as Palomar or Keck, which I believe are part of the collection described in this article:

http://www.liahalloran.com/blog/2016...mtv64gennqkibf

The prime focus plates would be at least a couple feet in width, if not more. I assume the collection includes similarly large 19th c. wet plates, but I don't know specific dimensions.


The collection is still scientifically important for astrometry.