Originally Posted by Steven Tribe
Com'on Steven, this is a lady, can we keep it strictly technical...?
lol.. back to the camera.. Ive learnt it has celluloid shutter leaves, and it may not keep time? it seems pretty good as far as time keeping, it works a lotttt better than my graflex shutter when i got that. I am a qualified watchmaker, so fixing any clockwork probs wont be a hassle. I have some 25 speed efke, and i might try a plate later and see how it goes...
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
- William Blake
This is a good deal more solid than the average cycle camera (when it was new) and the condition is extremely good. The leather covering has dried out so the top "skin" will be sensitive to the even minor knocks - as you can see. I have treated mine with black/dark brown boot cream which seems to help. This will also cover the small area of damage with pigment.
Looks like the original lens setup. This means that the lens may be designed to be convertible so the longer focal length of a single lens cell can utilise the extending bed facility.
Once I wanted to build a small RF holder camera entirely made of brass with a Unicum shutter. When I got the shutter (in "good" shape) I measured it with a Calumet shutter tester. 1s was good, the rest was all over and completely inconsistent. I took it apart, cleaned and studied. Then I understood... The construction is technically erroneous and the times depend a lot on mechanical disturbances that you can introduce just by holding or pressing the shutter parts in a certain way. I understood why these shutters were around just for a limited time. B&W on slow films could perhaps give some results with the slowest times on the shutter. Forget the 1/100 and 1/50s - they come on their own will or not. The pistons do not have a real function for these short times, only the spring but without a correct slowing device its of no real use for serious timing.
Beside the fact that the Sun shows nicely as a reddish disk with the shutter blades closed... (thanks Jim, without your warning I wouldn't have the thought to check it
There were some interesting details on the shutter, showing how the factory tried to cover the technical errors in its construction. The progress in films speeds and photography condemned this shutter (there were at least 20 other names and very similar constructions of it) - more precise types came quite soon after.
Last edited by GPS; 2-Aug-2010 at 05:32.
This looks like a knockoff of the Zeiss Iconta Nettal (spelling??). I used to have one, back in the day, that shot 3 1/4 by 4 1/4. It looked a lot like this one, complete with the WL finder.
He was making a joke combining the way we call it '4x5' and most of the Commonwealth calls it '5x4', combined with the old saw about everything being backwards "down under".
Well, I laughed, anyway. Just a little bit. A teensy-weensy bit.
It helps that #1 daughter bought me season 12 of Top Gear and I've been watching that.
Mike
Politically, aerodynamically, and fashionably incorrect.
There were tens of cameras built like this one. It was the common construction - a box, rails on the cover, one lens, one focus scale, a simple viewfinder (to aim the camera, not to see what is on the ground glass!) and here we go. They were not meant for lens change (hence the one and only focus scale). Hundreds of thousands of these cameras were sold but from the technical point of view it was not any glory time, just a period of a mass camera cheap design. The technically most perfect part on it was the - woodwork...
Very pretty. Looks very much like my Cycle Wizard B, but, most of these cycle cameras look similar. I've never photographed with mine but the unicum works very well - now I need to go look at the shutter blades and see if they're translucent.
Dan
lol. lucky i'm not blonde...
actually the pics i'm expecting will hopefully be as good as my box brownie, or my vest pocket kodak. not expecting miracles. will see tommorrow i hope!
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand
And eternity in an hour.
- William Blake
This type of camera is typically referred to as a Premo. The most commonly seen ones are the Pony Premos made by the Rochester Optical Company. I have one that is virtually identical to the one shown, right down to the B&L Unicum lens and shutter. Contrary to what someone said, the shutters take fine pictures (within the limits of lens quality) if they are working. The cameras weigh about 2 1/2 pounds, and are a pleasure to carry and use. The one I have has a rising and falling front and limited swings on the back by raising a pin and moving the whole sheet film back. You can store a few film holders in the back of the camera box (at least on mine), but I've forgotten how many. Probably only 2 or 3. The one I have came with a very light but serviceable wooden tripod. There's no reason not to use it if the bellows are light-tight. Oh, I forgot to mention that mine came with an additional lens that slipped on the front, giving an additional focal length. The shutter on my lens is calibrated in US numbers, not f/stops. Conversion tables can be found on the net.
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