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SpiderMeema
21-Jun-2010, 10:38
I do not know if this is the right area of this forum to post this question about an 'antique' Lucigraph.

In the barn on my late Father's property, we came across what my dad use to call a 'Lazy Lucy'. I am 53 years old, and this thing has been around since I can remember. It is this huge black contraption, I believe it was used to maximize or minmize pictures.

My father was a Graphic Artist, and I know he used this in his work, as at the time when he passed away computer graphic's was a relatively new tool.

I need to check the manufacturer name out.

Do people still use these things? Should I donate it or sell it? (that is, if it is worth anything anymore!)

I'd appreciate any input anyone has out there on this thing!

Thanks so much!

Lisa

W K Longcor
21-Jun-2010, 11:01
SOME artists may still use a Lacy-lucy. But, indeed - computer assisted art is the way commercial work gets done these days. At the very least, there is probably a usable lens on it that would serve well on a LF camera.

bvstaples
21-Jun-2010, 11:54
I have a Lucigraph in storage that I've kept for some odd reason. I used it in my early days in publishing. The publisher was going to throw it out, and I grabbed it. It basically is a large ground glass table, where you would tape a piece of tracing paper. Below was a table that you placed original art on. Between the two tables was a lens-board with lens. A crank adjust the distance between the lower table and the lens-board, resizing the art on the lower table on the ground glass on the upper table. You then traced the resized artwork on the tracing paper. It was kind of a cool device in it's day, made totally obsolete in the digital age.

If I remember correctly, mine had a El-Nikkor lens in it. Probably the main reason I kept it.

Brian

Ron McElroy
21-Jun-2010, 17:09
I haven't thought about a Lucigraph in many years. After using one in college, I cobbled together a homemade one with an old enlarging lens and plywood. I used it for a while until I gained ready access to a copy camera. I still have the old 190mm Wolly enlarging lens.

Kirk Gittings
21-Jun-2010, 17:31
Definitely the wrong forum "Post your own (large-format only) images for sharing and discussion". It sounds like this is a copy camera of sorts.

Kamookie
20-Jun-2011, 14:15
Hello Everyone - I am looking for a Lucigraph (from 1966 or earlier), and I am in Los Angeles.

Does anyone know where I can find one - to rent or buy. Any help is greatly apprecaited.

Thanks very much,
Kama Hayes
kamahayes@yahoo.com

Kamookie
20-Jun-2011, 14:15
Brian - Do you still have your Lucigraph? Would you be willing to sell or rent it?

Thanks,
Kama
Kamahayes@yahoo.com

GPS
20-Jun-2011, 14:26
Hello Everyone - I am looking for a Lucigraph (from 1966 or earlier), and I am in Los Angeles.

Does anyone know where I can find one - to rent or buy. Any help is greatly apprecaited.

Thanks very much,
Kama Hayes
kamahayes@yahoo.com

They're still used and sold in some art supply shops. Don't know why and if you find ones not older than from 1966 (heck, what happened to the Lucigraph construction in 1966?? :) )

Rubie
19-Apr-2016, 10:59
Hi -- I came to this forum VERY late for this thread... just wondering if Kamookie is still around and wants a Lucigraph? I have one and would love to sell it. I am also in Los Angeles! I used it for several years as a graphic designer with Saul Bass just before computers changed the world.
OOOPS -- just realized I should not be trying to sell on this forum. Sorry -- you may remove this post from the site if you wish. I will try the classifieds in a month. Thanks, and sorry again.

DanSchon8
5-Aug-2016, 16:04
Is this still available Rubie? I would love to have one and am close to LA.

DanSchon8
5-Aug-2016, 16:21
I would like to just say that there is no digital equivalent of the Lucy, theoretically speaking. Say I have tiny drawings, thumbnails, like my professors taught us. I want to make it larger for my rough, but scanning, printing just isnt the same. The lines are then stairstepped even at high res because my drawing is so small. Maybe with a very expensive scanner, possibly but still when you when you trace that, your laying paper on paper and then drawing. That effects the pencils tip. On a lucy, its paper on glass allowing your very sharp pencils to be effective. Even then to take that larger, trace and transfer is a disaster for as well for finer subtler shapes, even at the mechanical stage and will degrade the shapes, maybe its negligible to some but I may disagree. You could take a 1"x1" drawing to a giant painting without compromising these perfect lines you had on that thumbnail. Projectors distorts and you have to stand. Lucy - you pull up seat, with a fresh peice of paper taped on the giant smooth glass, big bright light beind it. Scaling your art to the size that you want just so perfectly, back and forth you can see how it works on the page much more than electonically mocking it up. I had one in my community college and miss it function.