Association between Agfa/Ansco & B&J on View Cameras?

[Gene McCluney]

I have noticed some similarities between Agfa/Ansco and B&J view cameras. Some lens boards will interchange, some sliding tripod blocks will interchange. I was wondering if B&J inherited some design features from Agfa/Ansco when they stopped making wood view cameras?

[Glenn Thoreson]

Burke & James had contracts for relabeled products from many manufacturers. They also seemed to be very adept at buying up surplus and bankrupt inventory from all over the place. I don't know if anyone has been able to do enough research to find out exactly what all their stuff actually was. I doubt if much of it was actually made by them, if any.

[Mark Sampson]

Of course I lack the details, but as I remember it, Agfa, a German company, had to divest itself of Ansco during WW2. So Agfa/Ansco cameras were pre-1942, the battleship-grey Ansco cameras (like my old 8x10) were post-1945. Perhaps B&J came later than that.

[Brian Ellis]

Burke and James was a large Chicago camera store. They put their name on products made by others, similar for example to what Sears does with its Kenwood brand. I don't think B&J manufactured anything themselves so all B&J LF cameras were made by somebody else, most likely many different companies over the years. I've owned an Agfa Ansco 5x7 tailboard camera and have never seen a B&J camera that looked much like it but then I'm sure I haven't seen anywhere near all the LF cameras sold under the B&J name.

[Gene McCluney]

Burk & James was absolutely a manufacturer. There is documentation of this. In addition the last Vice President Lynn Jones is a poster here. (or has been). They have a long history of manufacturing view and press cameras, specialty cameras darkroom equipment, optics and etc.

[Merg Ross]

Burk & James was absolutely a manufacturer. There is documentation of this. In addition the last Vice President Lynn Jones is a poster here. (or has been). They have a long history of manufacturing view and press cameras, specialty cameras darkroom equipment, optics and etc.

Not only were they manufacturers, they were also innovators. An example was the Burke & James Press camera with a rotating back; I wish Graflex had incorporated that feature in the Speed Graphic.

Much of my early equipment was of B&J manufacture; changing bag, holders, lenses, trimmers, etc. They were great providers to the professional photographer for a good portion of the last century, until the 70's.

[Brian Ellis]

Sorry, my mistake. I never heard that B&J actually had manufacturing facilities but apparently they did.

[Gene McCluney]

Not only were they manufacturers, they were also innovators. An example was the Burke & James Press camera with a rotating back; I wish Graflex had incorporated that feature in the Speed Graphic.

Much of my early equipment was of B&J manufacture; changing bag, holders, lenses, trimmers, etc. They were great providers to the professional photographer for a good portion of the last century, until the 70's.

The closest thing after they (B&J) folded, would be Calumet, who for a long time were manufacturers, but that has about gone also, except for their Cambo line, which I believe they own the foreign factory of. Now Calumet mostly is just a retailer.

[Mark Sampson]

Calumet started out making stainless steel darkroom sinks and tank-type film processors. At some point (1950s) they bought the design for the Kodak Master View 4x5 camera, and sold it as the Calumet CC-400 for 30 years aor so. That was the start of their expansion into a full-line manufacturer and dealer. I had a copy of their catalog from the mid-70's and it was at least 50% things they made themselves, before they became the photo equivalent of Sears&Roebuck.
...and the summer I graduated from high school (early '70s) I worked for a local camera store. They supplied a lot of local industrial and institutional accounts. One customer ordered something I've never seen before or since- a B&J "Rembrandt" 4x5 portrait camera. It was painted gray and was a 'tailboard' style camera with no front movements and red bellows (IIRC). At 18 years old I thought that was the wierdest thing ever. I wonder who it was that bought it...

[Lynn Jones]

Hi Mark and all,

Yes at B&J I was VP and head of the "Lens Bank", knew the owner (from the 1920's through the 1960's) for decades as a friend before I worked for B&J. When hired as VP of both B&J and Burleigh Brooks Optics (sister corporations) The reason was that I was closely associated with B&J and worked for Calumet during their developmental years when we cleaned up all of the messes in the Master View. Ken Becker of Calumet bought the Master View from Kodak in about 1955 for about $55,000 (the tooling alone was worth over a quarter of a million) but there were manufacturing problems that EK apparently didn't understand. Calumet sold a few units over the years but unless the head of the machine shop was very good, the results were as bad as the EK version.

In 1964, Ken Becker brought Ben Booko (chief precision engineer from a major movie camer company), Bill Ryan (professional sales manager from Ansco), Bruce Renc (Ben's assistant for purchasing and production control), and me with my Brooks knowledge and my experience with motion picture processor design and photo chemical design experience plus I could write and do advertising which completed Calumet's management team.

We improved the camera markedly, improved the tooling, reduced the price to 89.95while the camera was one of the best in the world, the only thing that was different from other VC's was that the bellows was not removable, however, with the super recessed lens board we could use 65mm lenses with no difficult. Ken Becker's standing order was clear, you may NOT reduce the cost of manufacture unless the product was better. We did lots of things that were very exciting like my wide angle VC, our magnesium 8x10 VC, the 220 roll film, the 120 220 roll holder, the first SBC light meter, all of the U.S. made Caltar lenses, the most precision film processing ever, and like that.

B&J before I was with either company trying to get a U.S. government contract based on the Kodak Master View MILSPEC's. Calumet decided not to bid on the camera because they refused to use those specs (that was what made the camera unsuccessful). B&J copied the Master view so that it looked identical, and it was really quite well made, and bid on the government contract, making 400, later to be named Orbit cameras for that bid. The cameras were rejected, not necessarily because they weren't adequate for the job, but because they were not made to MILSPEC which was required in the bid request. SOOO, B&J had 400 cameras which had to be priced at about $135.00 while Calumet was making a somewhat better camera for $89.95! That took a few years!

B&J dated from about 1890 +/- 5 years, made lenses from the very beginning. The original building was brick several stories high near the loop and the last time I was in Chicago, you could still see the faded paint with that name on it. Before BBOI took the company over, the last fctory facility was at 333 W. Lake St. To the best of my knowledge, B&J was the first company to coat lenses for sale going back to about 1928 or 29, Kodak did it a couple of years later, my first recolection of coated lenses would be in Germany in about 1937 although that information is difficult to factually obtain.

I do know that both Leitz and Nikon in the mid 1950's made multicoating on certain of their internal lens elements without realizing that it could be valuable for other purposes.

Lynn

[Glenn Thoreson]

One customer ordered something I've never seen before or since- a B&J "Rembrandt" 4x5 portrait camera. It was painted gray and was a 'tailboard' style camera with no front movements and red bellows (IIRC). At 18 years old I thought that was the wierdest thing ever. I wonder who it was that bought it...

I suppose that would be me. I still have one of those contraptions hanging around here someplace. :D

[al olson]

Thanks for the historical summary, Lynn.

I have an 8x10 Arkay Orbit that from all appearances looks identical to pictures of the B&J Orbit and the Calumet C-1. The Arkay label shows it to be serial number 8 produced in 1978.

I had presumed that since Arkay seems to be more involved in doing fabrication work themselves and marketing their products through others that perhaps this camera was made by Arkay and branded by B&J and Calumet.

Lynn, would you perhaps have knowledge and be able to explain Arkay's role with this camera? Any additional history would be appreciated.

Thank you,
al olson

[Lynn Jones]

'There were some questions regarding Agfa and Ansco. Prior to WWII Agfa purchased approximately 85% of Ansco stock, largely because Asnso represented 89% of professional sales of film, chemicals, and various other photo specialties including view cameras and a really fine TLR. During WWII the U.S. Governent took the company over under the "Alien Properties Control Act" and over a decade and a half, screwed it up to its destruction.

Prior to the American Civil War there were two great photo manufacturers, Scoville Mfg. and the E. and H.T. Anthony company. They were both terrific photo companies that were enough different that the merged making it the largest N. American company in photography including large format cameras, lenses, flash powder, chemicals and everything that you could imagine. After the merger it was called Anthony & Scoville. Still later the name was shortened to Ansco, and headquartered in Binghamton, N.Y. The Reverend Hannibal Goodwin, a preacher and amateur scientist invented film base for sheet and roll (not previously imagined). When patents were applied for the patent office they delivered the information immediately to George Eastman who had his lab manager, H. M. Reichenbach duplicate the Goodwin research and 3 years later the patent was granted to Eastman (later called Kodak). Meanwhile the patent office held Goodwin's patent application so that this could be done (do you suppose that some money was involved)?

Anthony & Scoville/Ansco bought the rights to Hannibal Goodwin's invention (for substantial money) and sued EK and received the largest settlement in history at that point. Some of you may remember a similar suit between Polaroid and Kodak with similar results.

Ansco was the most knowledgeable company in the world relating to the chemistry of color photography. Due to Ansco, Agfa Neufilm and Ansco Color film were the first companies in the world with "user process" color films and were at about the same time as Kodachrome, perhaps a year later. In the 1950's I preferred Ansco Color to both Kodachrome and the then new Ektachrome.

Lynn

[Lynn Jones]

Be glad to Al.

Tony Mlinar of Milwaukee was the owner/founder of Arkay. He and I were good friends even when we were competitors. Tony made a whole series of stainless steel darkroom products competing with Calumet except that Calumet only sold direct to the user while Arkay sold only to dealers. We all sold products under GSA contract to the government without using dealers.

After Ken Becker sold Calumet, Calumet bought Standard Photo, the worlds largest professional photo and graphic arts stock house (originally owned and founded by Ken's best friend, Julie Lown). Tony Mlinar was in his 60's and wanted to retire so he sold Arkay to Calumet and agreed to run the Arkay division for a time until everything worked out. Calumet made some cheap 8x10 VC's for special purposes and also relabeled some of the regular Calumet cameras as Arkay, selling through dealers. A short time later, Arkay stopped making the stainless steel lab equipment and it was then made mb Calumet in Chicago instead of Milwaukee. Along the way the C1 8x10 view camera which was originally made out of magnesium took some heat from Osha/EPA over that construction. The new ownership was unwilling to sue the government over this and changed from magnesium to aluminum. This caused the weight to change from 13 1/5 lbs to 19 lbs and at about the same time, the camera color changed from turquoise to black for the C1 and from grey to black on the 4x5's.

Lynn

[al olson]

Thanks, Lynn, great information!

My 8x10 Orbit is the 19# black model. As I understand it then, my Orbit was produced by B&J and marketed by Calumet with the Arkay label.

I am curious about the timeline. About when did the C-1/Orbit cease production?

Thanks for your help.
al olson

[MIke Sherck]

I've had both Ansco and B&J 5x7 tailboard cameras and, while similar in concept, they're very different in construction. I don't believe the folding tailboard design concept was original to either Agfa/Ansco or B&J; they probably both saw a workable, inexpensive to build idea and went with it. My Ansco was better built than the B&J, but it was also heavier and a bit more bulky. The B&J was bit lighter, perhaps a tiny bit smaller when folded up, and not as rigid (although perfectly usable.) Both are inexpensive cameras which will provide fine service in the field, although not being nearly as light, small, or sexy as a modern self-casing design. The Ansco, being better built, is probably worth a little more.

Mike

[Lynn Jones]

It was the other way around, Calumet made them and private labeled them to their wholly owned subsidiary, Arkay. In about 1987, B&J and BBOI went belly up, it is possible that the B&J names could have been purchased by the paper work company that remained of the two companies. It is thought that they died through internal and external theft leaving the owner (about which he was unaware) with several million in debts which with new company he fully repaid.

Lynn

[IanG]

Agfa Ansco View cameras changed during WWII, or rather the US entry into the war.


Of course I lack the details, but as I remember it, Agfa, a German company, had to divest itself of Ansco during WW2. So Agfa/Ansco cameras were pre-1942, the battleship-grey Ansco cameras (like my old 8x10) were post-1945. Perhaps B&J came later than that.

The US Government had seized the company, Agfa (germany) didn't have a choice as they were enemy Aliens :D

The Agfa Ansco view cameras appear to be made differently after that, the Bingham factory was no longer making cameras in 1942 as it had switched to war production of sextons & optical products under Government control. It's possible View camera production was out-sourced at this time but the quality of post war Agfa Ansco's is not up to pre War standards.

Ian

[Bernard Kaye]

I used Ansco Color slide film in 120 size on an APD (Destroyer Escort converted to carry my Marine Recon Company of 72 or so) when I was 19-20 in Alaska. It was brilliant but even though kept in dark in controlled temperature, the slides faded to printable B & W negatives.
Bernie

[Lynn Jones]

Hi Bernie,

I was 9 years a Navy Corpsman 3 of which were with 2nd Div, USMC, first Nato operation, 1st USMC Provisional Brigade with "in air" nuclear bombs (1952) and briefly with a recon company. Some of us were "lucky" I was in the Corps and a corpsman as well, to tell the truth, I loved it.

Lynn