Jody_S
12-Nov-2014, 19:48
I'm looking for any collectors or Kodak historians who might be able to help me with a couple of things about my camera. Photos are here (http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?117786-FS-Early-Kodak-11x14-camera-w-front-rail-no-holders), though I will repost some in this thread.
My camera is #1072. I've seen a reference to another with #1542 here (http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/4x5-eastman-interchangeable-view-pre-78002713). Kodakselfke (http://www.kodaksefke.nl/cameras-of-the-1880s.html)gives the total production number as 404 units, but this is taken from orders to the 3rd party that was producing them from 1886-1890. So if the serial numbers are sequential, as they appear to be, there were at least 138 cameras made before they were contracted out. Eastman was in financial difficulty in 1885 from his dry plate failure & recall, I'm trying to determine if he made the first 150 or so cameras himself before contracting them out (I think to Scovill, from the Brayer biography). There would be little profit in designing a camera only to have Scovill, a competitor, build them. There was nothing unique about the EIV, it's just a mish-mash of early 1880s field camera designs.
2nd: the lens I got with it is a 12" WAR design of about f20, it has rotating wheel stops and a rotating sector shutter just above that (with posts for a rubber band as well as the internal spring). I've never seen another, the English designs were for mounting in front of the lens, and the French were huge contraptions. Given Eastman's fascination with sector shutters such as on the Folding, could this lens have been sold with the camera, or could it even be an Eastman design? Someone must have seen another lens configured like this? I have not yet mounted it to the camera, I'm not 100% sure it covers 11x14.
3rd: as you can see from the photos, my camera has a brass rim surrounding the rotating back. The only other camera I've seen with this feature is the early (1885) EIV pictured here: Eastman House (http://licensing.eastmanhouse.org/GEH/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&RAQF=1&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2744082828&ALID=274408LCI4&PN=16&CT=Search). All of the others are a plain mahogany frame like every other field camera I've seen. This would indicate to me that when the camera was contracted out for building, some design changes were made, like removing this completely useless (but expensive & heavy) brass trim. Has anyone ever seen another Eastman Interchangeable View that has this? I do not believe it's present on the large EIVs, because the Eastman House camera looks to be only 5x7 or full plate.
Any comments or suggestions are welcome. I am of course trying to determine if this is a collector's item, and what it might be worth, though I did just buy some 11x14 holders off fleabay, so who knows....
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My camera is #1072. I've seen a reference to another with #1542 here (http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/4x5-eastman-interchangeable-view-pre-78002713). Kodakselfke (http://www.kodaksefke.nl/cameras-of-the-1880s.html)gives the total production number as 404 units, but this is taken from orders to the 3rd party that was producing them from 1886-1890. So if the serial numbers are sequential, as they appear to be, there were at least 138 cameras made before they were contracted out. Eastman was in financial difficulty in 1885 from his dry plate failure & recall, I'm trying to determine if he made the first 150 or so cameras himself before contracting them out (I think to Scovill, from the Brayer biography). There would be little profit in designing a camera only to have Scovill, a competitor, build them. There was nothing unique about the EIV, it's just a mish-mash of early 1880s field camera designs.
2nd: the lens I got with it is a 12" WAR design of about f20, it has rotating wheel stops and a rotating sector shutter just above that (with posts for a rubber band as well as the internal spring). I've never seen another, the English designs were for mounting in front of the lens, and the French were huge contraptions. Given Eastman's fascination with sector shutters such as on the Folding, could this lens have been sold with the camera, or could it even be an Eastman design? Someone must have seen another lens configured like this? I have not yet mounted it to the camera, I'm not 100% sure it covers 11x14.
3rd: as you can see from the photos, my camera has a brass rim surrounding the rotating back. The only other camera I've seen with this feature is the early (1885) EIV pictured here: Eastman House (http://licensing.eastmanhouse.org/GEH/C.aspx?VP3=ViewBox_VPage&RAQF=1&IT=ZoomImage01_VForm&IID=2744082828&ALID=274408LCI4&PN=16&CT=Search). All of the others are a plain mahogany frame like every other field camera I've seen. This would indicate to me that when the camera was contracted out for building, some design changes were made, like removing this completely useless (but expensive & heavy) brass trim. Has anyone ever seen another Eastman Interchangeable View that has this? I do not believe it's present on the large EIVs, because the Eastman House camera looks to be only 5x7 or full plate.
Any comments or suggestions are welcome. I am of course trying to determine if this is a collector's item, and what it might be worth, though I did just buy some 11x14 holders off fleabay, so who knows....
124991
124992
124993
124994