Craig Tuffin
23-Sep-2019, 00:32
I've been contacted by the NGA in Australia about these rare and extremely large wet plates made by Holterman in Sydney.
It was reported that he used a specially constructed 100" Dallmeyer lens to cover this large format but I'm not convinced such a lens existed in Australia. The Dallmeyer catalogue had the 8D (37" lens) and Rapid Rectilinear No. 12 (25" x 21") but obviously none of the custom orders. This would have been a phenomenally expensive lens to commission but Holterman struck it rich in the goldfields and would have had the money.
Can any of you historians / lens experts offer any insight at all?
Thanks,
Craig
Here's a bit of background information:
The Holtermann panorama is one of the most impressive Australian
photographic achievements of the nineteenth century. Taken in 1875 by
Bernard Otto Holtermann and his assistant, Charles Bayliss, the panorama
comprises 23 albumen silver photographs which join together to form a
continuous 978-centimetre view of Sydney Harbour and its suburbs. The
photographs were taken from a specially constructed tower built by
Holtermann at his home in Lavender Bay on Sydney’s North Shore.
At the top of a 27-metre tower, Holtermann installed several large-format
cameras with telephoto lenses and at the base he built a dark-room in which
to develop the photographs. Holtermann and Bayliss used the collodion ‘wetplate’ process, so called because the glass plate negative was coated with an
emulsion of collodion and, while still wet, was exposed in the camera and then
developed.
The problems associated with handling these glass negative plates were
considerable, particularly as Holtermann and Bayliss preferred to use large
negatives, generally measuring 46 by 56 centimetres. In 1875, they also
made the world’s largest glass plate negatives, which measured 152 by 91
centimetres. After exposure, the negatives were carried by hand down the
stairs of the tower to the dark room.
It was reported that he used a specially constructed 100" Dallmeyer lens to cover this large format but I'm not convinced such a lens existed in Australia. The Dallmeyer catalogue had the 8D (37" lens) and Rapid Rectilinear No. 12 (25" x 21") but obviously none of the custom orders. This would have been a phenomenally expensive lens to commission but Holterman struck it rich in the goldfields and would have had the money.
Can any of you historians / lens experts offer any insight at all?
Thanks,
Craig
Here's a bit of background information:
The Holtermann panorama is one of the most impressive Australian
photographic achievements of the nineteenth century. Taken in 1875 by
Bernard Otto Holtermann and his assistant, Charles Bayliss, the panorama
comprises 23 albumen silver photographs which join together to form a
continuous 978-centimetre view of Sydney Harbour and its suburbs. The
photographs were taken from a specially constructed tower built by
Holtermann at his home in Lavender Bay on Sydney’s North Shore.
At the top of a 27-metre tower, Holtermann installed several large-format
cameras with telephoto lenses and at the base he built a dark-room in which
to develop the photographs. Holtermann and Bayliss used the collodion ‘wetplate’ process, so called because the glass plate negative was coated with an
emulsion of collodion and, while still wet, was exposed in the camera and then
developed.
The problems associated with handling these glass negative plates were
considerable, particularly as Holtermann and Bayliss preferred to use large
negatives, generally measuring 46 by 56 centimetres. In 1875, they also
made the world’s largest glass plate negatives, which measured 152 by 91
centimetres. After exposure, the negatives were carried by hand down the
stairs of the tower to the dark room.