Rembrandt portrait camera questions

[John Kasaian]

A Rembrandt figures into a short story I'm writing----the protagonist discovers and buys the camera at a police property book auction (or so the plot line goes) so I was wondering if anyone here can tell me what kind of box (color, approximate size, construction material---vulcanite?)The Rembrandt originally came in and how many film holders, etc. could fit inside? Thanks!

[cowanw]

Your last sentence throws me. they took film holders just like any other camera, one at a time.
Here's one
http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth176430/

[Jim Galli]

Since the last 4 people on earth who "might" know are here and don't, anything you make up will be believed. Me, I'd go with a phenolic hard board box with over-fitting lid held on by criss cross 1" web that had the pull tight latches. That would be consistent with commercial boxes that got shipped in the mid 1950's.

[Jim Jones]

The Rembrandt was primarily a studio camera. A case to transport the camera and accessories would be less necessary for it than for cameras more likely to be used in the field. The 1951 Burke & James catalog I:\1OLDBOOK\MyFiles\Photography\B&J-1951.mht lists cases for their press, flatbed, and monorail view cameras, but not for the Rembrandt. I'm curious, why would the protagonist buy the Rembrandt? Just for the name? Does the protagonist know enough about large format cameras to be buying one?

[Jim Galli]

One version of the Rembrandt had a folding bed. 5X7 and intended for Home Portraits. Traveling portraitists in rural places might well transport them in case with film holders.

[DrTang]

those things didn't really fold up - so I doubt any cases were made for it

I do have an old B&J catalog at home..I can check though

and besides..the police would have all the stuff in a cardboard box or two

[dsphotog]

Camera Eccentric shows the B&J camera listings- 1951 Rembrandt Portrait (non folding), and 1967 Rembrandt II (folding).
No case listings though.
I'd go along with what Jim Galli mentioned.
I bought an Ansco 5x7, that came with a homemade wooden box/case for the whole kit, with 6 holders, and darkcloth...., The elderly seller said "The first thing I did was build a box for it."

[John Kasaian]

Thank you all the responses! I arbitrarily picked the Rembrandt because the plot requires the camera to have been evidence in a murder committed in a portrait studio and it would give a non camera savvy reader a bit of color a la John D. McDonald In retrospect I'd be better off making it an Agfa Ansco, a camera which I know a little bit about.

[Jim Galli]

Are you sure Dagor77 hasn't already beat you to this story?

[cowanw]

I need a reading comprehension class.


Your last sentence throws me. they took film holders just like any other camera, one at a time.
Here's one
http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth176430/

[dsphotog]

Are you sure Dagor77 hasn't already beat you to this story?

Thanks Jim, this actually did make me "laugh out loud".

[John Kasaian]

I need a reading comprehension class.
What I meant was how many film holders would have accompanied the camera as it nested in it's case. Sorry for the confusion.:o

[John Kasaian]

Are you sure Dagor77 hasn't already beat you to this story?
Sadly, Artara isn't one of the characters. I'm sure I'd hear from Dagor77's lawyers if she were, lol!

[cowanw]

You could do this yourself, but what the heck
http://i.ebayimg.com/00/s/MTI3NVgxNDAw/z/oQMAAOSweW5VWt~Q/$_35.JPG
http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/mcsfjd95qwXakaJ52pbzjeg.jpg
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/.a/6a00df351e888f8834017ee4acb9ba970d-800wi
https://img1.etsystatic.com/074/0/9059880/il_224xN.816571595_r9q8.jpg
especially these

https://jmgoyder.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/img_4518.jpg
http://www.sheilazellerinteriors.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2011-Vintage-Mini-Trunk-022.png
Or have the characters father give her a ww1 cartridge case that fits. This was commonly done. I keep a cooke lens in a small one today.
If the photographer is travelling maybe she would use a grafmatic film holder

[Drew Bedo]

Unless there is the story depends on the csmera being a Rembrandt model view camera . . .why not go with another model with more documentation? Any of the natural finish wood "field' cameras look geat if prestine. Choose a model that folds up and find one on an online resource that is a complete set.

There are several on E-Bay right now. Deardorffs and Kodak 2D, etc. Do the research and see what lenses were period for the camera. some caded sets come with film holders and other things.

Again: Is it crucial to the story that the camera be a Rembrandt?

[John Kasaian]

Unless there is the story depends on the csmera being a Rembrandt model view camera . . .why not go with another model with more documentation? Any of the natural finish wood "field' cameras look geat if prestine. Choose a model that folds up and find one on an online resource that is a complete set.

There are several on E-Bay right now. Deardorffs and Kodak 2D, etc. Do the research and see what lenses were period for the camera. some caded sets come with film holders and other things.

Again: Is it crucial to the story that the camera be a Rembrandt?
Nope, not critical. It just reinforces the idea of being portrait camera with the reader.

[cowanw]

here is this. The home portrait Deardorff.
http://deardorffcameras.0catch.com/hp/hp.html

[John Kasaian]

here is this. The home portrait Deardorff.
http://deardorffcameras.0catch.com/hp/hp.html
Thanks for the tip---this might fit in well with the plot. The protagonist wins the camera cheap at a police property book auction so it would have to be a camera collectors wouldn't be after. Although a Deardorff, the Home Portrait model doesn't seem to have much of a fan cub.

[A_Tabor]

One thing to remember about general auctions is that what things actually go for is highly dependent on who is there and bidding on stuff. Former classmate apparently picked up a pile of 'old' camera gear for $25 in an estate sale. Everyone else there was gunning for the antique furniture, and no one else had half a clue about cameras, so it had all been tossed into two lot boxes. One labeled 'miscellaneous film camera equipment', and he was the only one who bid on it, and the other was "Professional digital camera gear", and a few grandmothers fought over the canon rebels with kit lenses up to $500 or something, probably thinking it was a great gift for a grandkid.

So he got $30k or so in glass and high end medium format and compact range finder cameras.

The glorious thing about this from a writer's stand point is that you can stuff nearly anything in a lot box that no one else happens to be interested in, and it becomes perfectly reasonable from the reader's stand point.

[Drew Bedo]

Nope, not critical. It just reinforces the idea of being portrait camera with the reader.

Well, the 2D series were primarily used for portraits. There is no tilt or swing on the front standard. The Deardorffs and others were capable of more sophisticated work and cost more. The US military used many 2Ds for portrait work yet had a few 'Dorffs for more demanding situations. Examples of the Kodak 2D can be found with storage case and accessories on line.

[John Kasaian]

One thing to remember about general auctions is that what things actually go for is highly dependent on who is there and bidding on stuff. Former classmate apparently picked up a pile of 'old' camera gear for $25 in an estate sale. Everyone else there was gunning for the antique furniture, and no one else had half a clue about cameras, so it had all been tossed into two lot boxes. One labeled 'miscellaneous film camera equipment', and he was the only one who bid on it, and the other was "Professional digital camera gear", and a few grandmothers fought over the canon rebels with kit lenses up to $500 or something, probably thinking it was a great gift for a grandkid.
That's why having a case is important to the story---the protagonist is the only one who looks at what's inside and hazards to make the bid.
So he got $30k or so in glass and high end medium format and compact range finder cameras.

The glorious thing about this from a writer's stand point is that you can stuff nearly anything in a lot box that no one else happens to be interested in, and it becomes perfectly reasonable from the reader's stand point.

[Mark Sawyer]

Thanks for the tip---this might fit in well with the plot. The protagonist wins the camera cheap at a police property book auction so it would have to be a camera collectors wouldn't be after...

If you really want realism, have the protagonist win it in a bidding war against Jim Galli and Drew Bedo, then regret spending so much for the rest of the story...

[Jim Galli]

I'm thinking of writing a book and just do it by posing questions on the forum. You guys will invent the plot, storyline, and action in your posts. I'll publish it and make a lot of money, and . . keep it. Told you, I'm a capitalist.

Hey, maybe your heroine will take the Packard out of the Rembrandt to send to Jim Galli with 2 $20 bills for repairs and discover the evidence, tucked up behind the Packard, that the whole murder case was counting on. Also, the $15K Large that was actually inside a false bottom on that camera case. The green felt inside fooled them all!! All kinds of possibilities with a Rembrandt and a case.

[dsphotog]

...And the film holders filled with exposed film, that Ansel shot but never developed....

[John Kasaian]

If you really want realism, have the protagonist win it in a bidding war against Jim Galli and Drew Bedo, then regret spending so much for the rest of the story...

The story doesn't take place in Nevada, regrettably.

[John Kasaian]

I'm thinking of writing a book and just do it by posing questions on the forum. You guys will invent the plot, storyline, and action in your posts. I'll publish it and make a lot of money, and . . keep it. Told you, I'm a capitalist.

Hey, maybe your heroine will take the Packard out of the Rembrandt to send to Jim Galli with 2 $20 bills for repairs and discover the evidence, tucked up behind the Packard, that the whole murder case was counting on. Also, the $15K Large that was actually inside a false bottom on that camera case. The green felt inside fooled them all!! All kinds of possibilities with a Rembrandt and a case.
Hmmmmmmmm.........?

[John Kasaian]

...And the film holders filled with exposed film, that Ansel shot but never developed....

That's already been done:rolleyes:

[Drew Bedo]

I'm thinking of writing a book and just do it by posing questions on the forum. You guys will invent the plot, storyline, and action in your posts. I'll publish it and make a lot of money, and . . keep it. Told you, I'm a capitalist.

.

The novel "Martian" was done pretty much like that with a blog. Now its a movie that will come out in November.

[Drew Bedo]

Years ago a friend had an optical shop selling telescopes and microscopes new and used. While on vacation he stopped by an auction of lab equipment on a whim and decided to bid on a ten piece lot of woodenmicroscope cases—oak with brass and empty. He intended to put a bottle of some liqure in each as a Christmas gift for selected friends. His winning bid was something under $100 for the lot.


When he went to pick up his boxes, they brought out a whole pallet of over fifty boxes. Each box held an elaborate geology microscope. While he and his family were still gasping and trying to figure out what to do and how to do it, the auction folks came out with another pallet of boxes holding all the accessory gear for the microscopes.

This took place in the mid 1990s to "Z-Optical" in Houston.

There is a nugget of plot element here . . .it just needs to be adjusted and scalled to fit.

[Tin Can]

I'm thinking of writing a book and just do it by posing questions on the forum. You guys will invent the plot, storyline, and action in your posts. I'll publish it and make a lot of money, and . . keep it. Told you, I'm a capitalist.

Hey, maybe your heroine will take the Packard out of the Rembrandt to send to Jim Galli with 2 $20 bills for repairs and discover the evidence, tucked up behind the Packard, that the whole murder case was counting on. Also, the $15K Large that was actually inside a false bottom on that camera case. The green felt inside fooled them all!! All kinds of possibilities with a Rembrandt and a case.

You will need an editor, '$15K Large' is $15 million and won't fit in any size camera case. Unless it was actually 15K $1000 bills which are very rare...

[Drew Bedo]

Money? Doesn't have to be a lot of cash. Any pre-depression money would still be legal tender, but would also (I think) have collector value as a gold certificate. Back then they still had $1000 bills in circulation too.

Maybe a Babe Ruth rookie card preserved in an empty pack of cigarettes?

I do like the idea of a forgotten picture, whether undeveloped in the holder, a developed neg (maybe a glass plate), or an old print. The key plot surprise could be something that is in the background or something that is absent.

Back in the 1980s, a friend of mine was called in to sort and liquidate the contents of a deceased photographer's studio by the widow. He and a neighbor went through the things and came across an old box of large prints—30 or so. They pulled out a few and found full length nudes . . .which the neighbor began to recognize as 40 year old pictures of women he knew in his childhood from up and down the bloc!.

They just stuffed them back in the box and putthe box in the "Burn Pile".

[Mark Sampson]

John,
in the summer of 1973 I was 18 and worked in a camera store. One day in the UPS shipment came a (new) B&J Rembrandt camera. I had no idea such things still existed (I'd never seen any large-format camera at that time, except at the george eastman House). I took it out of the box (it had red bellows) and the store owner told me to put it back, as it had been special-ordered by the University of Rochester. It did not have its own case.
Flash forward to 1981, and I have just acquired an 8x10 Ansco view camera, the battleship grey one (a la Morley Baer). It lived in a Vulcanoid-style case like the ones supplied with Speed Graphics- it held the 5x7 reducing back and a few holders. Had a small brass 'ANSCO' label on the lid, next to the bakelite handle.
Hope this helps... I wonder who at UofR wanted the Rembrandt, and what happened to it?

[Tin Can]

I may be able to answer this question

Rosebud

I bought my 2 Rembrandts before the current insanity on ebay, which I may have created...

I wanted them for the sturdy front tailboard and internal shutter

Red bellows

as for Police, B&J sold it with 2 attached hot lights for mug shots


A Rembrandt figures into a short story I'm writing----the protagonist discovers and buys the camera at a police property book auction (or so the plot line goes) so I was wondering if anyone here can tell me what kind of box (color, approximate size, construction material---vulcanite?)The Rembrandt originally came in and how many film holders, etc. could fit inside? Thanks!