Unknown 8x10 camera

[LF_rookie_to_be]

Does anyone recognize this camera? It's most likely 8x10" format, but I'm pretty lost as to who could have manufactured it.

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[Louis Pacilla]

It may be an 8x10 version of the Japanese made Prinz View which was a dual rail 4x5.

[Dan Fromm]

Lou, doesn't the Prinz View use a central leadscrew for focusing?

[Jody_S]

Someone hacked a The Brand Camera Co and changed the front lens board assembly & possibly the back. The twin rails and focusing mechanism are unique I think. I had a The Brand 17 at one point, though I never actually used it. It had a rotating back arrangement and no bail.

[LF_rookie_to_be]

It just looks too good to be a DIY hack, and according to the almighty Web, Prinz View in 8x10 was something altogether different. No results at all for Brand Press View / 17 in 8x10. The back definitely doesn't seem home-made, and is almost certainly metal. Puzzling.

[Tin Can]

Do you have more detailed pics of how the back is attached to the frame and standard?

[hoffner]

Someone hacked a The Brand Camera Co and changed the front lens board assembly & possibly the back. The twin rails and focusing mechanism are unique I think. I had a The Brand 17 at one point, though I never actually used it. It had a rotating back arrangement and no bail.

I agree with you. I recognise parts from a Brand camera, mostly the rails. The back is more modern and DIY added. It's basically a bastard.

[Dan Fromm]

The beast focuses by rack and pinion on one of the two tubes. The Brand 17, IIRC, focuses with a central lead screw and has cast standards; the beast's standards are quite different.

[LF_rookie_to_be]

Do you have more detailed pics of how the back is attached to the frame and standard?

Unfortunately, I don't.

[IanG]

The camera is vaguely familiar particularly the side view (1st image), it's not the first dual rail lf camera I've seen. After WWII there were quite a a lot of short lived companies making & selling cameras mostly 35mm and medium format but a few making LF camera. I'm more familiar with UK products mainly because I have every British Journal Photographic Almanac from about 1935 to 1963.

I've no time at the moment to look, two names come immediately to mind Barco & Criterion, but there were a few more British companies.

Just adding that's a UK company Criterion not an a much earlier US copmpany of the same name.

Ian

[Merg Ross]

Looks custom fabricated. The only similarity to the Brand 17 (Baco) is the dual track focus; the Brand was also rack and pinion. I'll link an earlier thread on this forum re the Brand 17.

http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?35327-Brand-17-4x5-view-camera

[IanG]

The castings make it extremely unlikely it's custom fabricated. I'm fairly certain I've seen the camera in a review or advert, but it's very uncommon - a company that appeared then disappeared quite quickly.

Ian

[IanG]

I had a brief flick through some BJP Almanacs but nothing immediately struck me except I noticed LF equipment particularly enlargers I'd overlooked before. Gnome in Wales made a short lived 7x5 enlarger, however they never managed to break into the professional market. It used twin tubular columns as did the De Vere's of the 50's and 60's, Gnome were obviously trying to compete with De Vere - 7x5 was not a UK format in the early 60's so they were looking at the export market. The De Vere LF cameras used a bail type back

Gnome did make cameras for a short time, but I've never seen anything except a low end roll film type, Shackman and AGI made cameras, AGI making MF roll film & reflex as well as aerial cameras (up until quite recently).

Within the last year I saw and handled a very similar looking twin rail 5x4 camera, it had almost no movements, and a bail back, I knew what it was as I'd recently seen it an an Almanac, it was Criterion. They mainly made process cameras here in the UK but did market LF cameras in the 50's they disappeared in the early 60's like many other UK photographic manufacturers during a severe economic downturn. This saw the closure of Ensign, Johnsons (equipment manufacturing side), Masons/Crierion (films & papers & equipment) and many smaller companies.

The Criterion adverts don't show their cameras clearly and there's little to nothing about them on the Internet but your camera looks like a larger version of the camera I saw, and held, (neither quite the same as the adverts),the only difference is the front rise etc and lens board mounting style.

Ian

[LF_rookie_to_be]

Ian, that's quite an exhaustive bevvy of info. Wish I had better pics, but these three are all I found, from an archived ad dating to about 2006 in Serbia, which just said "20x25 cm studio camera with no manufacturer trademark/name". Looking at it a bit more, certain design traits just scream "50s or early 60s", but the back somehow doesn't. That may have been added much later.

Marin

[IanG]

Ian, that's quite an exhaustive bevvy of info. Wish I had better pics, but these three are all I found, from an archived ad dating to about 2006 in Serbia, which just said "20x25 cm studio camera with no manufacturer trademark/name". Looking at it a bit more, certain design traits just scream "50s or early 60s", but the back somehow doesn't. That may have been added much later.

Marin

If it was 20x25 then it's likely to be British as the Continental size was 18x24 and although the International DDS (film holders) have the same outside dimensions the glass screen would be a touch larger.

The camera I saw had no name and was painted silver, the back was black though, the Criterion adverts show the camera painted black. I'm not saying the photos you posted are definitely of a Criterion camera, the similarities are close, it might be or on the other had it could possibly be an Eastern European copy.

Ian

[ImSoNegative]

i had a dual rail 4x5 some years ago, i think it was called a nue view or something like that