Really old GROVER? Lynn Jones please.

[hotwater]

Hi all,

I am moving down from 8x10 (KMV on CL) to 4x5 and have been shopping for bits. I stumbled on this odd B&J Grover on ebay with an old Tessar 210mm lens. While I have owned a few Grovers in my time I had never seen one like this, so, I bought it, for 72 bucks. It arrived today. First, it weighs a ton, the standards are chrome plated steel as are the carriages. The rail is not geared (friction focus ) and of light aluminum tube. The front takes 4x4 boards and is cast aluminum. the back is cast aluminum with a cool rotating system. the rear standard also has what B&J called extreme bellows plates. The knobs are larger and a little differnt than what I have had as well. Anybody have any idea what vintage this is? The Tessar is apparently from 1909 according to the good folks in the lens forum. If you use the zoom feature you can see most of the detail. Below is the ebay link

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...K%3AMEWNX%3AIT

Best Regards
Bill

[BarryS]

I had a really nice 5x7 Grover with the friction drive and from the B&J literature on Camera Eccentric--Grovers were fairly new in 1951 and by 1967 they had replaced the friction drive with a geared drive. Your camera likely fits in the same time period--probably 1950's to early 1960's.

[Brian C. Miller]

Bill, the link doesn't work anymore. You'll have to post some pictures of your "new" camera! :)

[domaz]

That link looks truncuated- no auction number and a "..." in there?

[hotwater]

Sorry about the link. I looked at the 1951 catalog mentioned by BarryS and it looks closer except they are still wooden fronts and backs etc. This should get you to the camera I purchased.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rt=nc&nma=true&item=300518347881&si=JctjFxFLzrx%252F4z5Y8%252Fmp7WxJHbc%253D&viewitem=&sspagename=STRK%3AMEWNX%3AIT

and just for grins, this just get you to my KMV

http://www.themidmorningwatch.com/kmv/camera/kmv/index.html

Regards to all
Bill