Whole Plate & Half Plate View Camera: Lensboards

[Rob_5419]

I found a plate camera lensboard made of wood. It measures 161mm x 162mm.

I've remeasured several times and there is definitely a 1mm variation. The lens board itself is very thick at 8mm.

It is larger than a standard 5x4" International Plate.

Any idea what camera has lensboards of this size?

[Rob_5419]

No one know?

I feel better now that I have cut it down to size for use.

Whatever it was for, it's now history

[Ralph Barker]

I'd guess that a 1mm variation in dimension wouldn't be uncommon for wooden lens boards. Some might not even be perfectly square.

Identifying the camera based on the lens board size would be difficult, I'd think, considering how many cameras of that ilk were made by now-obscure manufacturers, but poorly documented.

[Rob_5419]

That's spot on Ralph. All I can guess is, that the 161mm x162mm lensboard was for a camera larger than half-plate (possibly whole plate or middling format) of English extraction. Seems like brand name plaques weren't that common; even nowadays, most lensboards omit the name (or is that just OEM products flooding the market?) and the draughtsmanship of the lensboard is often the only way to guage where it comes from.

There was a website which I hit once, which enabled forum users to upload photographs of a camera that they had discovered, and some of the resident forum experts would try to identify it. Can't recall what the forum is. It would be a great resource to have a facility like that on LF Photography Forum - for bits and vintage camera pieces to be identified by anyone with expertise, so that a library/databank could be built up on-line without the fear of losing a whole era of photography to the lack of documentation. Just a thought.

Thanks.