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View Full Version : When was Wisner Tech Field 4x5 #941 built?



Peter Collins
15-Dec-2006, 08:29
I just purchased a Wisner Technical Field 4x5 camera with serial number 941 stamped on the front brass plate. Does anyone know when it was built?

I have part of a clue to this question: The camera came with a Wisner catalog which states that Wisner (at the time of catalog printing) has been in business 15 years. Assuming that #941 and the catalog were approx. contemporaries, I would have a "close enough" date of manufacture.

Thanks!

RPNugent
15-Dec-2006, 08:54
My old Wisner (since sold) was a 900 series and I bought it in 1984

Brian Vuillemenot
15-Dec-2006, 09:54
I had one that was purchased new in 2001 and the serial # was 1340 or something close to that (in the 1300s).

RPNugent
15-Dec-2006, 12:46
actually that was supposed to 1994 not 84 sorry

Lee Hamiel
15-Dec-2006, 17:31
I have a Tech 4x5 Wisner serial#375 - not a clue as to age but it's build quality & finish is very good.

alec4444
15-Dec-2006, 18:17
Were the serial numbers assigned in order per each format or are they in the order of the camera being built regardless of format? My 11x14 is #757....I'd be suprised if they built 757 11x14 Tech Field cameras.....

Maybe this is something Ron could chime in on, surely records have been kept. They'll be kept a lot safer if published online....

--A

alavergh
6-May-2014, 21:16
Hey forum viewers. This thread is from 2006 and it's now 2014.

This is the only thread I've found discussing Wisner cameras and their serial numbers. Last year I purchased my Wisner 4x5 Technical Field camera on eBay. I've had people ask me how old my camera is and I don't have a good year to give them. I think I usually say early 1990s.

My camera is #613. Any ideas? Somebody in the past on this thread brought up how the numbering works, that camera 614 could have been a totally different format and that the numbering went in order of cameras made and not models or formats.

Any insight?

Thanks!

RichardRitter
7-May-2014, 04:18
Wisner cameras got their serial numbers when they where shipped. So camera 401 could be a 4 x 5 and camera 402 could be a 11 x 14.

The highest serial number I saw was in the low 1400 range and he started the numbering at 100.

alavergh
7-May-2014, 07:27
Thank you Mr. Ritter.

With this knowledge, do you think it is a fair guess to say 613 was made in the early 90s? Or maybe mid 90s...

marinix
7-Jul-2014, 14:44
Hello,
my Wisner Technical Field 4x5 has #1388 serial number. I purchased camera as used item, so I don't know the manufacturing date, follow this thread camera was built around 2001 year.
Hope this useful for someone.
M.

Scott Sharp
23-Dec-2014, 09:51
This is an older thread but I will add another point of reference to dating a Wisner Technical Field.

I bought a Wisner Technical Field serial #375 from Lee in 2006/2007. It had the solid brass tripod plate with both 1/4" and 3/8" threaded openings.

I emailed Ron Wisner at the time on dating my camera and received this reply: "Your camera dates from about 1989".

I think #375 dates from the early 1980's but additions to this thread would be welcome to begin adding more Wisner serial numbers and dates.

Timothy Blomquist
23-Dec-2014, 21:21
My Wisner 8x10 Technical Field was number 284 and I took delivery in 1989. This camera built to order direct from Ron.

Scott Sharp
27-Dec-2014, 13:05
Anyone have any idea how many Wisner cameras were built and sold per year? And the years of production for the factory and sales?

don mishler
26-Oct-2020, 13:46
my Tech Field 4x5 is 1001

RichardRitter
26-Oct-2020, 14:06
The highest number I saw was in the 2000 rang. It was one of the last cameras made.

John Layton
26-Oct-2020, 14:16
Two entries...six years apart. Where does the time go? Where has Ron W. gone? I met him when I presented at the LF conference in Albuquerque in 2002 - good times those. Where have they gone?

What I think is needed is a "Large Format Photography Forum" conference...something to bring us together after all of this Covid BS is behind us...so that some of us lowlifes and miscreants could meet, hang out and share our work and our stories before we're six feet under. Anybody with me on this?

Robbie Bedell
26-Oct-2020, 14:40
941. That seems very familiar. I think I may have once owned that camera. Or it may be a very similar number to the one I had. It was nine-something-one. That sure sounds like it. But I bought mine new in 1994 from the company Charles Farmer had. I forget the name. I sold it some years later. I now have #823 which I bought used about 20 years ago.

Maross396
16-Jan-2021, 16:49
so I looked at a Wisner tech field (4x5) today that had a serial number of #004??