Ever heard of a B&W Press King?

[richardhkirkando]

I just picked one of these up at a garage sale for $20, and I have to say, it looks pretty capable. Its all metal, seems to be pretty solidly built, and has as much movement capability as I've seen in any other press camera. Rotating back, too. Lens boards seem to be a weird size - a few mm smaller than my pre-Aniversary Speed Graphic - but I'm sure I can make some. Appearance-wise, it has a lot in common with a B&J. I'll post some photos of it, but I was curious to see if anybody had seen or used one these.

[brian d]

I have one but its in very rough condition
I agree it looks like once fixed up it will be a very useful camera

[David Karp]

Here is a bit of information: www.apug.org/forums/forum44/27960-help-informatio-about-press-king-camera.html

[Ernest Purdum]

They are so close to the Burke & James design that I think there has to be some commonality somewhere.

[Lynn Jones]

To ERnest P,

Nope, I was VP of B&J, no relationship, and they looked differently. The owner of B&J decided that the B&J Press (which I personally liked) was so difficult to make that he dumped the tooling off the Lake St. into the Chicago river about 3:00 AM one morning just beforeselling the company to Ilex.

Lynn

[Ernest Purdum]

Lynn, are you sure no Canadian trolled the river about 4:00 AM that morning? Maybe the only commonality was that the designer had seen a B&J.

Ernest