PDA

View Full Version : Prinz? Who made it?



Dan Fromm
24-Sep-2012, 06:38
Please pardon my ignorance and lack of resourcefulness.

Who made this camera: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Prinz-View-4x5-Double-Track-View-Camera-w-Tominon-1-4-7-127mm-Lens-Board-/150908984879?pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item2322e05e2f ?

I don't recall seeing its type of double rail before.

BrianShaw
24-Sep-2012, 07:33
http://www.largeformatphotography.info/forum/showthread.php?41656-Prinz-View-Camera-Question

BrianShaw
24-Sep-2012, 07:34
http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/00HWeu

BrianShaw
24-Sep-2012, 07:36
http://www.ozcamera.com/prinz.html

BrianShaw
24-Sep-2012, 07:38
http://photo.net/filters-bags-tripods-accessories-forum/00C9fF

Sevo
24-Sep-2012, 07:40
If that is the same Prinz as the one on the LF lenses, these were sold by Bass (spelling?), a major US mail order camera dealer up into the eighties, and perhaps additional related dealers. The lenses were Congo (and at times cheap enough that some people were re-selling them in Europe), but AFAIK the maker behind Congo never made cameras. Most likely some Japanese maker, but the design could have been sourced elsewhere (there is a reference up in the thread to a Prinz field camera that seems to have been a Deardorff design manufactured in India).

Sevo
24-Sep-2012, 07:43
http://www.ozcamera.com/prinz.html

No, the Dixon's house brand was a separate entity.

BrianShaw
24-Sep-2012, 07:46
Thanks. Wasn't sure about that.

Dan Fromm
24-Sep-2012, 07:47
Funny, the camera I asked about doesn't look like a Deardorff. No trees involved ...

BrianShaw
24-Sep-2012, 07:51
Ya, but a clue is a clue. Did you see Kelly Flannigan's post on photo.net? Kelly was a smart guy... I often wonder what happened to him.

Bob Salomon
24-Sep-2012, 08:49
Prinz was a photographic distributor out of Chicago who was active at least until the early 80's. I was one of their reps for a period of time. They basically sold very low-end quality items based on a back pocket price which could change from day to day and dealer to dealer. They also used the Amcam name.

Dan Fromm
24-Sep-2012, 11:53
Ya, but a clue is a clue. Did you see Kelly Flannigan's post on photo.net? Kelly was a smart guy... I often wonder what happened to him.

Agree, even though the ones presented so far go nowhere near the target.

Yeah, I wonder about Kelly too. He was a fine contributor.

Sevo
24-Sep-2012, 12:32
Agree, even though the ones presented so far go nowhere near the target.


Well, we have names of dealers and even the location of the distributor/brand owner, from a former representative - which is more than I'd have expected within a day given such a very odd beast. But if Bob is right with the cheapskate strategies of the owner, finding out who supplied them could be near impossible, unless you locate somebody who was involved with procuring the camera - the base rail plate clearly says "MADE IN JAPAN", but this is as close as it gets. An existing maker would have reused some of his components, even more so on a budget camera, and nothing here looks familiar (indeed the back and base rail look weird indeed, like invented by someone unfamiliar with the mainstream LF cameras of the day), so I suspect that whoever made that thing was not otherwise making his own brand LF cameras, at least not all metal ones. The knobs look pretty generic too, I have had very similar ones on a light stand - probably out of some OEM hardware parts catalogue, so these won't give away the maker either.

jnantz
24-Sep-2012, 14:24
dan

it looks like the z in prinz is upside down and backwards
which means it was made for prinz not in india by rajah but
for rajah in a korean factory that used to make the assembled in the ROK
scheidre kruznakc symmmmar lenses we sometimes hear so much about.


have fun with your brain teaser ;)

john

Dan Fromm
24-Sep-2012, 17:34
John, it isn't a puzzle and I'm not holding the answer back. I genuinely don't know who made it. It sorta reminds me of the Newton NuVue view camera and Brand 45 and Rilex press cameras -- those two rods that the standards ride on -- but it looks nice than them ...

Sevo
25-Sep-2012, 00:09
It sorta reminds me of the Newton NuVue view camera and Brand 45 and Rilex press cameras -- those two rods that the standards ride on -- but it looks nice than them ...

But these are a full generation earlier - going by the knobs and other bits and pieces, this one cannot be older than the mid sixties, and is most likely a seventies product. As I said, someone sold Prinz branded Congo lenses through German camera magazine classifieds in the early eighties on a fairly regular scale, so the brand must have still been active at the bottom end of the LF market around then.

linhofbiker
2-Apr-2019, 15:52
Some time ago I bought a Prinz (made in Japan) double rail 4x5 view camera for its lens, a Steinheil Quinon-S 1:5.6/210 1:12/310 Germany in a No. 4 Universal shutter. I gave the camera away, but now it has come back in my possession. The camera is metal and quite substantial with a good range of movements. I can't find any info on it anywhere. Does anyone know about this camera? I know this is an old thread, but I want to re-instate it rather than start a new one.

4

Greg
2-Apr-2019, 17:27
Also owned and used a Prinz double rail 4x5 view camera many years ago. To say that it served me well would be a total lie. Got it at a tag/garage sale for very little money and wasn't worth the few bucks I paid for it. Came with a Fuji lens that was put together with the front elements of one lens and the rear elements of another. Lens looked cosmetically great but was a dog of an optic. Ended up throwing away the camera and lens... wasn't about to pass it on to another view camera user.