Oh no, a Crapocamera.

[Gene McCluney]

For years now antique malls and flea markets have featured cheap copies (made in India) of antique Gramophones with highly polished brass horns. Anyone, like myself who has collected wind-up record-players can easily spot these and know them for what they are. Music collectors call them Crap-o-phones.

Yesterday I was in a large antique mall, and lo-and-behold I found a "made in India" view camera like object. It looked like a typical folding field camera, with a bellows and all, but instead of a lens, it had a clear piece of glass, and instead of a ground glass on a working film back, it had some sort of stenciled pattern on a piece of clear glass attached directly to the back of the camera. For a "shutter release" it had the bulb and hose from a blood-pressure tester. This is wild. It would be almost as simple to just build a working camera. This is all new material, not cobbled up from used parts. I dub this the Crapocamera.

[Robert Hughes]

Oh, yes, there's a flourishing look-alike industry in India. I recall a couple years ago trying to find a sextant. Dozens of brand-new sextants were available on that auction site, but they aren't worth the brass they're printed on. Telescopes, antiques of all sorts, they're good enough to hang on the wall, which is the intended purpose.

[vijayn]

It would be an interesting project to convert it into a working camera...

[Randy H]

It would be an interesting project to convert it into a working camera...

Can't. Materials are actually cheap plywood and the brass is not much thicker than shim-stock. Garden Ridge stores carry and sell them. They sell for around 60 -70 dollars around here in the stores, including a "tripod". I have actually seen people bidding on ebay and getting well over a hundred dollars for them. They are not a bad looking P.O.S. for display or decorative item, but are indeed a P.O.S. About 5 dollars worth of crap stuck together.

[Uusilehto]

They sell for around 60 -70 dollars around here in the stores, including a "tripod". I have actually seen people bidding on ebay and getting well over a hundred dollars for them.

I see a formidable business opportunity here.

EDIT: By the way, there appears to be one on eBay right now: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=270154673104

[Glenn Thoreson]

Ha! What a hoot. At least that seller seems responsible. It's clearly stated it's for decorative use only. Don't forget to buy the "coordinating wooden binoculars, too. Ya gotta hand it to those folks over there in India. They can pound out just about anything from some junk car parts and a pile of used tin cans. Very creative. :D

[Vaughn]

Even their "real" cameras can be less than desirable. My first 4x5 was a Rajah -- bought new in a camera store in San Diego in 1979. It was an exact copy (except for workmanship) of a Deardorff Special (but it came with the sweetest lens I have ever owned -- a f6.3 210mm Computar Symmatron). Tested it on a 11-day backpack trip into the Grand Canyon -- had a light leak problem on some negs and figured it was the used holders I had bought.

New holders and off to New Zealand I go for 3 months of hitch-hiking with 60+ pounds of stuff on my back. Ended up that there was a major light leak between the film back and the rest of the camera -- live and learn!

But I eventually got a Deardorff 5x7 back that fit on it perfectly...and with the 210mm Computar, it was not a bad set-up. But I still cringe when I see a Rajah on ebay...but maybe they have gotten better in the past 20 years.

Vaughn

[wclavey]

Oh, yes, there's a flourishing look-alike industry in India. I recall a couple years ago trying to find a sextant. Dozens of brand-new sextants were available on that auction site, but they aren't worth the brass they're printed on. Telescopes, antiques of all sorts, they're good enough to hang on the wall, which is the intended purpose.

It is actually quite amazing how much effort is put in to make them look real... in a prior life, I used a Brunton field compass in my daily work (a "pocket transit"). There is an Indian-made decorator version of the same compass that is an exact copy... absolutely exact... down to the fine adjustments, the engravings on the face plate, everything! But it doesn't work. The compass does not point to north, hence you cannot take an accurate reading with it, and the fluid levels have no fluid in them, so you cannot measure inclination.

I use it in a display in my office (...a fond remembrance of when I did not sit behind a desk 10+ hrs/day) but that is all it is good for. But that was why I bought it... it looks like a cool antique version of the real thing.

[Wayne Crider]

Knockoff's are used in the interior design industry. Having old looking article's are sometimes a design scheme for restaurants and other venues. The real version of old folders are used quite often.