Joined the LF World

[wittaero]

Well, I guess I joined the club. I just purchased two 8x10 LF cameras in need of some serious restoration.

I think one is a Century No 7, but I have get to find markings on the second. Both came with stands, the painted stand has an Agfa label, but from my research, the other is not a Century stand to match the No 7.

Any help on IDing them, thoughts on where to start on the restoration, comments... are welcome. I may be crazy, but I hope I can bring these two back to life over time.

Thanks!

Erin

Here are photos of the No. 7 and the stands. More photos of camera #2 in next post....

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[wittaero]

Camera #2

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[John Kasaian]

A noble undertaking for sure. Welcome aboard!

[Sirius Glass]

Welcome to Large Format Photography Forum

[Alan Gales]

Sweeeet! You even got the stands with them!

Welcome to the forum.

[Drew Bedo]

Welcome to the LFP forums and the LF world. The Pool of Knowledge and Experience here is both wide and deep.

My .02 worth is to figure out which camera is in yhe best overall condition and restore it to working order at first. Leave the museum quality restoration for a bit later and do some photography.

Cheers.

[wittaero]

Thanks! That was my thoughts too on a plan of attack. I doubt however, that they will ever reach museum quality. I'll be happy if they look nice and work. :-)

I'm learning wet plate photography and that is what these will be used for eventually.

Erin



Welcome to the LFP forums and the LF world. The Pool of Knowledge and Experience here is both wide and deep.

My .02 worth is to figure out which camera is in the best overall condition and restore it to working order at first. Leave the museum quality restoration for a bit later and do some photography.

Cheers.

[Milonian]

Welcome to the mystical world of LF! I restored a baby brother to your cameras - Century Grand 5x7 with triple extension. Great fun. I carefully took it to bits and took notes of where every screw went and the direction in which it was aligned. I cleaned the rack and pinion - it had a "carpet" of compacted dust, hair and oil (disgusting) that was causing it to jump off the track. I cleaned the verdigris from the metal parts and cleaned the wood but did not sand or revarnish. I measured and copied exactly the bellows and remade them - they were rags and dust - but I still can't find the right material despite 3 attempts. Fingers crossed for the 4th lot.
Good luck!

[wittaero]

Thank you all for the warm welcome!

Well, the cameras went through their first cleaning... I think there was 90 years of dirt on them. The chrome on the lens has a few cosmetic dings, but the lens is clean and works as it should!
These cameras will definitely be working cameras. (one for sure... I'm still in debate about the bellows on the other...) I doubt either will ever see "museum quality" restoration. They seem to be made up of a hodgepodge of pieces and parts. They were found in a building that used to be a commercial photo studio and the parts and pieces I found are definitely indicators of a place that had multiple camera models and brands over a time span. For being abandoned, they seem to be in pretty good shape. The need a bit of woodwork done (glue and screws), but other than that, I think I can have at least one up and working soon! I just need some ground glass and a few film holders.

The only thing they didn't come with that I really want is an 8x10 back. I got two 5x7 reducing backs, one is in working order... and another back that makes 4 wallet sizes out of a 5x7, but it is beyond help I think.

:-)

Erin

[Steven Tribe]

Few ex-studio cameras have the original backs. Formats changed during their active lifetimes due to consumer whims and and technology changes. Studio owners were often loathe to spend money at Eastman Kodak, so made all sorts of adaptions with screws, nails and glue with odd timbers they found. There is a very good Eastman Catalogue at cameraeccentric.com which shows the variety of backs which were available. There is something about the stands which looks more like the Agfa/Ansco copy version?

[wittaero]

There is something about the stands which looks more like the Agfa/Ansco copy version?

Yes. The painted stand has an Agfa label on one of the posts and another label that reads Agfa-Ansco. So it dates post 1928... The other one has no markings that I've seen yet. I think it may be a bit older though.

Thanks!

[Steven Tribe]

The Century bi post stand has more curved cast iron sections.

Ansco had E. Anthony as one of its founding companies and EA produced a lot of heavy studio cameras and, perhaps, bi-post stands as well? I can imagine that Ansco would just continue a design which was known to be very useful.