Information on"Brand Camera"

[Mark Severson]

Does anyone have information on the Brand View/Press Camera, its quality, moveme nts, usability as a field camera? It was apparently made in the 1940s in Los Ang eles by the Brand Camera Company, but I can find no further information on it. T hanks!

[E.L.]

Brand became NuView. They are actually fairly nice. The big regret is that they do now fold flat. They have front tilt, swing, rise, shift, and back tilt. The back rotates...a great feature. The focusing is by a large screw thread which can become a little sloppy with age. The rails are actually double extension. They have little lock knobs at the front which release an entire other length of rails that hide inside the main ones. I bought one of these cameras very cheap because the store thought it was 3x4". The ground glass was a little undersized on the 4x5. Since I have other cameras, I do not use it for normal work. Except for the lack of folding flat, however, it has great features. Mine originally had a rangefinder and sports finder, but these are gone. I have always wondered if the camera is supposed to fold up better, but I have never been able to figure out how. I think many more of them were made under the NuView name than under the original Brand. A friend who attended the Fred Archer School in LA during the late 1940s said they used them there as the main camera for the students. I love the cast aluminum they are made from. It probably came from melted WWII bombers!

[Dean Lastoria]

OK, they don't fold up, but aside from that they are great. Get it. Tons of movement and solid. Not wobble like the Graflex that you could get for the same number of loonies.

Go for it.

Dean

[kris johnson]

hey i think i have one of these brand 4x5 s. mine has a handle built in to the rear standerd dose that sound right. do you have the same? and the large screw thread is not sloppy at all. what i really like is you don't have to lock the focus even when pointed down it hold focus. do you have any idea on the value of these cameras? i paid $200 with a great old lens on it. i changed the ground glass to a beattie bright screen. the lens i have has no coatings so it's not good for color. takes great B&W. thanks kris

[Ernest Purdum]

kris, lens coating isn't directly related to use on color film. Many fine color pictures were made with uncoated lenses. If you haven't tried it, have a go. If you like the lens on B&W, it might pleasantly surprise you on color.