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Thread: When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth! 1959 B&J 8X20 ad

  1. #11

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    Dec 2000
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    Tonopah, Nevada, USA
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    When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth! 1959 B&J 8X20 ad

    Fair enough. I'll take 5 of those holders at that price thank-you. Sandy are you listening? :>))

  2. #12

    Join Date
    Sep 2003
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    43

    When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth! 1959 B&J 8X20 ad

    I took a shot of my mother in law's ass with one of those. I couldn't fill the frame.

  3. #13
    Tracy Storer's Avatar
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    Nov 2001
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    When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth! 1959 B&J 8X20 ad

    As to the "Berlin" Dagors....didn't Burke and James aquire a bunch of the old Goerz stuff at some point and continue putting together stuff from spare parts?

    Thanks for posting it Jim, it's a gas to see the advertising style. (and the OMG prices)

    PS. I think Sandys' holders are a good value, just got a few more S+S 14"x17"s cheaper and faster than I would have from AWB or elsewhere.
    Tracy Storer
    Mammoth Camera Company tm
    www.mammothcamera.com

  4. #14

    When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth! 1959 B&J 8X20 ad

    So how come we see hundreds of 10x8 Burke and James (bought one myself) on auction sites but never one of these beauties? Mustn't have sold that many I suppose? I'd love to scrape all that grey paint of that monster!

    dave

  5. #15

    When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth! 1959 B&J 8X20 ad

    Dave,

    I was wondering the exact same thing. I didn't realize that there were banquet cameras still being marketed as recently as 1959.

    I'll imagine that there weren't too many people buying at that time. 8x10's were probably going out the door as fast as they could make them, but the banquest were probably not selling too fast.

    I've never seen a B+J banquet, but as you've said, the 8x10's are as common as they come.

    ---Michael

  6. #16

    When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth! 1959 B&J 8X20 ad

    Jim,

    Your timing is impeccable. I was just at a local swap meet last Saturday and stopped by a table with a lot of old catalogs and brochures. I got quite a kick browsing through the old Central Camera Company catalogs from the 1920s and 30s - the heyday of the banquet cameras. They listed cameras, holders and outfits including lenses in 12x20, 8x20, 7x17 and 5x12 from multiple manufacturers. The one example that stuck out in my mind was the 12x20 Korona prices fom the 1928 catalog. The camera was $95 and the film holders were $9 each. The smaller formats were even less, of course. I don't remember the 5x12 camera price (somewhere around $60 - $70), but the holders were in the $6.00 range.

    The one thing that did stand out was the price of the lenses. I used to own a 30 3/4" - 18 1/4" Bausch & Lomb Sries VII Protar in a factory mounted Compound No. 5 shutter. This was the most expensive and longest Series VII B&L offered in a shutter (they had even longer sets, but they only came in barrel mounts). Even in 1928 this was a $350 lens - or 3.5x the cost of the camera it was designed to be used with. $350 was quite chunk of change in 1928 (about $3500 in 2002 dollars). So, while the cameras and holders would be considered a bargain by today's standards, good quality lenses back then were realtively expensive. I suppose that's why convertible lenses were more popular as they served multiple purposes.

    In any case, a fun topic. Thanks for starting it.

    Kerry

  7. #17

    Join Date
    Feb 2006
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    San Diego, CA
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    95

    Re: When Dinosaurs Roamed the Earth! 1959 B&J 8X20 ad

    Update for anyone who cares - found a B&J 8x20 recently - complete with case, three holders, extension rail and the B&L Tessar they advertise in the catalog (on an Ilex 5 shutter). Along with it came paperwork with letters between a local San Diego place that used it and B&J about whether or not this setup would work for their intended purpose. Letters are dates 1964. Camera is in amazing condition because the only place it was every used was one tripod setup (looking down through a hole in the second floor onto a large table on the first floor). Too bad it was literally used at a building on the beach, so all the metal has green corrosion on it - should clean up if I ever become brave enough to take it all apart (luckily a repair manual that details every screw in it came with it, so that will make it a little less intimidating).

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