Century Penny Picture Camera

[Cecilsan]

Hey all, I just picked up a 5x7 Century Penny Picture Camera in pretty good condition, mainly to increase the size of my Gum Bichromate prints, but I have a few questions

1. Is there a way to move the ground glass into portrait (vertical)? Is it a separate attachment/back? So far I don't see how its possible but several other ads I've seen on ebay mention you can.

2. Through research on historiccamera.com I've read the main selling point of this camera was the horizontal and vertical movement for multiple exposures on a single plate. I understand you can slide the entire back across the focal plane and it would work for the first shot, but how did it prevent the next shot from overlapping? Was there a mask that was placed inside?

Thanks

Here are some pictures

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Also, I know the back is on upside down. Whomever owned it prior to me lost the vertical adjustment rod. For some reason instead of creating a new one they flipped the back and drilled 3 holes in the left side so the vertical axis could be adjusted up and down slightly *sigh* So if anyone knows where I can get the vertical rod or wants to sell one. I would appreciate it.

[C. D. Keth]

It looks like there are brass fittings that hold the top two corners of the groundglass back but I don't see those on the bottom. Perhaps if you lift the back up, the bottom will swing outward? Is there any other evident attachment method for the bottom?

[Cecilsan]

Oh, the ground glass definitely comes off but there is no way to rotate it and reattach, which makes me think there was some sort of mask or another back attachment that went vertical.

Here is the glass off...

81981

[taulen]

According to this site it should be able to just do it :P

The back is made to slide both vertically and horizontally and permits making one, two, four, six, eight, twelve, sixteen or twenty-four exposures on the same 5 x 7 plate.

reversible back,
http://www.historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium/pm.cgi?action=display&login=century_penny

[Cecilsan]

Well, it lies! hah...

Its really beginning to frustrate me, one of those problems you just can't solve but feel compelled to. As far as I can see there is no possible way to do it as other than detaching the ground glass, the back sliding portion is all one solid piece

[Jon Shiu]

Hi, once you have the ground glass back off, just rotate it 90 degrees and re-attach, ie put the "top" in the brackets first and swing the "bottom" so the pins are held by the spring brackets. Depending on the construction of the camera, you may find the back opens downward, but usually you can orient the back either up or down. Of course, if it only goes on downward you are going to have to repair/re-orient the sliding back.

Jon

[Steve Smith]

That looks like a very standard way of attaching a back as used by many LF cameras. If it doesn't have the facility to put the back on rotated ninety degrees, it should be very easy to adapt it.


Steve.


Steve

[C. D. Keth]

That looks like a very standard way of attaching a back as used by many LF cameras. If it doesn't have the facility to put the back on rotated ninety degrees, it should be very easy to adapt it.


Steve.


Steve

That's what I'm seeing. So what about the attachment won't allow you to put the back on in a vertical configuration?

[Cecilsan]

Thanks for the replies and help guys.

Unfortunately the ground glass is not square (see picture), when rotated the ground glass is taller than the mounts. Also if I take off the sliding back to try and rotate that, it only has tracks that allow it to be landscape. I even tried to flip the sliding back and see if the ground glass tracks would fit but they are too narrow. It really seams like there would be a separate back you would swap out but all the pictures I've seen (ebay auctions and google searching "century penny picture camera") show it in landscape

This is the first studio camera I've seen that doesn't have a rotating back or ability to do portrait.

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[Jon Shiu]

You are right, a non-square back can't be reversed in the normal way. Perhaps the reversible back was an extra-cost option for those who wanted it.

Jon

[Cecilsan]

I appreciate the responses. Looks like I'll just have to make an alternative back that is setup for portrait

[W K Longcor]

I have had a similar camera for a number of years. It DOES do vertical - portrait images -- 2 0f them, side by side on a single sheet of film. The entire design of the camera was "cheap" small images. Depending on the mask you used inside, you could get anywhere from 2 to multiple (I think up to 16) "gem" size photos. You have a camera designed for a particular use, and you are fighting it - trying to make it do something else. So get a mask for the inside -- and have fun making 3.5"x5" images!

[Cecilsan]

You're right, I didn't realize what it was when I purchased it. I was mainly looking for a 5x7 to increase my negatives for contact prints so unfortunately creating 2 on a single negative isn't what I wanted. Guess I'll have to comb ebay for another one.

Definitely appreciate the help

[Steven Tribe]

The only real problem you have is the maximum extension available. This is a simplified standard Century design with no extension on the base frame - but probably enough for most 5x7" lenses.
Many multi-cameras are much more restricted in extension than this and have no real use other than demonstrating how the photographers of yesteryear did it.