Deardorff v11

[f-STOP]

First post. Hello there. How rare are these. I have serial #209. Any other owners here. Any recommended sites for people who are into these?

[Jim Galli]

Rare indeed. I have #192 and #282. I talked to Ken Hough and he says # 192 was in the Deardorff records as going to some big Chicago house in 1967 but 282 is very near end of production and wasn't in the book. He says besides the 50 sold to the USMC with the NFS front, there were only about 85 more that have good documentation who the customer was that bought them. He guessed total production at around 185 units perhaps. At Deardorff #1 in a production was always started at #100. So that would make my #282 the 183rd V11 and perhaps very near end of production. That fits well with the original owners story. He said he went over to the factory and picked it up. It was $5500 in 1983 according to his memory. That equals $11,077 in 2007 dollars according to the inflation calculator. It is still very near mint just as when he picked it up. Ken said the V11's were always a big deal and always unusual even during production years. I say they are works of art

[Brian Ellis]

"he says # 192 was in the Deardorff records as going to some big Chicago house in 1967"

Probably Burke and James. That's where my second Deardorff was traced to.

[Jim Galli]

I checked. 1-25-67 to Standard Photo of Chicago. Don't know if Standard Photo was a production house or a re-seller. The 192 is still in beautiful shape but will need a bellows. I talked with Camera Bellows of UK just today. I figure with a V11 you don't mess around trying to save a buck, you get the recognized best.

[Rick Moore]

I checked. 1-25-67 to Standard Photo of Chicago. Don't know if Standard Photo was a production house or a re-seller. The 192 is still in beautiful shape but will need a bellows. I talked with Camera Bellows of UK just today. I figure with a V11 you don't mess around trying to save a buck, you get the recognized best.

Standard Photo was an excellent camera store on Chicago Avenue, between State and Rush, on the south side of the street They weren't as big as Helix. but I always went there first, as the people working there were very friendly.

[Scott --]

Anyone got a picture of oe of these beasts? I googled, but couldn't find one. Would love to see what this thing looks like...

[alec4444]

Any recommended sites for people who are into these?

You're on it.

Do post some pics if you have the time....we all like to drool from time to time.

--A

[John Powers]

Here is Ken Hough’s "Deardorff Historical Web Site".
http://deardorffcameras.0catch.com/.
Scroll down and you find a link to each camera including the VII.

John

[Jason Greenberg Motamedi]

... I talked with Camera Bellows of UK just today. I figure with a V11 you don't mess around trying to save a buck, you get the recognized best....

Jim,

For what it is worth, I just priced out a new bellows for my 11x14 and CameraBellows was actually the cheapest of all the places I contacted.

jason

[Michael Kadillak]

I was attending a Michael Smith and Paula Chamlee workshop a couple of years ago and during the second day we went into the field and I saw Michael set up his 8x20 camera. Interested I walked closer and realized that his camera was a Deardorf. However, nothing could prepare me for the horror of seeing carpet tacks nailed into the bottom portion of the rear standard holding a strip of black material to prevent stray light from reaching the ground glass.

To each their own....