help with camera id....?

[iczek]

Hi All,


Could you please help me with identify this camera?
I'm newbie in LF and I do not know what it is...?
The owner does not know anything more than pictures show.

[Glenn Thoreson]

It's a plate camera, possibly English. There have been a couple of others like it posted here recently. The lens/shutter date to prior to 1930. I wish I could offer more help.

[Rafael Garcia]

Its an English-style plate camera with a bookform holder-type back and old-type tripod mount. To make it usable you must have the original film or plate holders, as bookform holders were not standardized, but made for each specific camera design. I have adapted some successfully, but they are hard to come by. Alternatively you can make a modern back for it. It is probably a half-plate size, so it is capable of using 5x7 and 4x5 modern holders. Mine has two home-made backs, one 4x5, one 5x7.

You will also need to adapt a modern tripod thread to the camera bottom. I did so by attaching a base with levels and tripod thread to the camera, at the cost of the loss of the ability to carry a lens mounted on the camera. With the majority of my lenses the camera would not fold with the lens mounted anyway, so this is not a great loss.

The bellows looks to be in bad shape. They may be repairable by using gaffers tape or some other similar solution, but replacing them would be best. This will likely cost you around $150.00 US, or more, so keep this in mind if considering costs.


Asanuma King No. 1 English-Style with home-made 5x7 back and baseplate

[IanG]

There was a very similar thread a few months ago. In that case I think the camera may have been of Indian origin.

This one is almost certainly Japanese and made by Okuhara Camera MFG of Osaka. Here's a link to a Japanese website, the images are poor, but there's a very nice identical camera on Ebay at at the moment.

Ian

[iczek]

Thank you a lot!
I'm looking for classic 8x10 camera and I can see that I need to look for another one.

[Sevo]

It's a plate camera, possibly English. There have been a couple of others like it posted here recently. The lens/shutter date to prior to 1930. I wish I could offer more help.

The lens is a slight puzzler. As far as the LVM and other sources as well as ad campaigns in old photo mags go, the Angulon seems to have been marketed not earlier than 1930 (indeed, not before 1931 in the UK). But according to the LVM (whose reference seem to be Schneider themselves), Schneider went past the 300,000 serial in Februar 1929.

A 299,xxx lens must have been from the first Angulon batches, probably built and delivered to the camera manufacturer before the official release date - which does not make it a "prototype", though, lens manufacturers had to issue their new products to the camera makers ahead of the release date, so that it was avaliable on cameras in time.

In any case, the shutter is slightly pre thirties - but back then, parts were still stored rather than made on demand, and it was not that unusual to integrate a three-year old component on a new camera.

Sevo

[r_a_feldman]

Hello,

I also have an Okuhara half plate camera that I bought used in Chicago about 25 years ago. Besides the one linked to earlier and the one on eBay, I have seen two others on the web. All four of them (and mine) are slightly different. One looked to be 8x10 or full plate, with a gear-driven vertical lens shift mechanism. Two have double slides (front and back standards both move on racks). There are also some differences in the shape of the metal fixtures and tripod mount.

The camera I have only has the front standard on a rack, but it has back swings, which none of the others have. I have made a 4x5 reducing back for it and am just starting to use it.

I have been unable to get any dates on when Okuhara made cameras. The eBay seller guessed 1910-1920. Does anyone know?

Thanks,
Bob