Agfa Ansco 8x10 parts help

[Dynasty]

Hi!

I bought an Agfa Ansco 8x10 camera. The camera came without "extension rails", but I really need to extend the camera more to use portrait lenses.
It took me a while until I figured it out, what I have is not the "base rail" but the rear extension rail. (so in my case the base and front extension is missing)
I would appreciate any advice from where I can get Agfa Ansco parts, specially the base rail. I looked around ebay, no luck.
Alternative solutions are welcome too.

Thanks

[Jon Shiu]

Hi, I believe you have the "tailboard" and extension rail. You need a "base" to mount your front standard on. There is no front extension on this type of camera. You can make a base from a block of wood. Here is a photo of a similar camera:


good luck!

Jon

[IanG]

It's not the extension rail you need it's a fundamental part of the base part that's missing. Unless it's a Commercial view which has longer bellow it won't take an extension rail.

This a complete Agfa Ansco Comercial View with an extension rail attached, you are missing the middle part that hinges.





You'll need to find someone who's breaking a camera up and selling parts off, it won't be easy.

Ian

[IanG]

Hi, I believe you have the "tailboard" and extension rail. You need a "base" to mount your front standard on. There is no front extension on this type of camera. You can make a base from a block of wood. Here is a photo of a similar camera:


good luck!

Jon

Actually Dynasty has an entirely different camera, your photo is of a much later post "Agfa Ansco" ansco camera, the design changed as did the build quality during the war (or rather after Pearl Harbour) when all production at Bingham switched to military optical equipment and the cameras were made elsewhere by a different workshop and employees.

Ian

[Dynasty]

Thanks.

Carpentry shouldn't be my problem. Finding the rails and brass sliders is difficult. And mount them perfectly on the wood-base also not the easiest task.

[Dynasty]

Thanks IanG.

That's the part what I am missing.
So it will be difficult. Hmmm.
Please let me know, if somebody willing to sell.

Cheers,

[IanG]

I'd think you've more chance of finding an extension rail, and then adapt that to fit, or a junk camera.

Parts do turn up here and on Ebay, you need to be patient, you can post a wanted advert on the Classifieds here when you've been a member for a month. Sometimes it's taken a year of patiently looking before I find the parts I need for restorations if I can't make them myself (or get them made).

Ian

[mdarnton]

John Shiu is trying to set you right, but Ian's having none of it. :-)

I think you're getting confused here. The camera Ian has shown is probably not relevant to your situation--it's a relatively rare model, the Commercial view. At this point, your camera is missing a fundamental piece of the original camera that is NOT the extension rail. This is the bed of the camera, attached by the hinge that is hanging in your photo. Whether you can then get an extension rail depends on which of the two possible missing beds you find-- one takes the extension Ian has illustrated, the other model stops with the bed, as in the illustration of the grey camera. However you won't be able to change a Universal into a Commercial by a different bed, because the bellows lengths are different.

About 1/4 of the way in from the left on the gray camera you can see the hinge, and the piece in front of it that you don't have, which I again stress is NOT the extension.

Essentially, you bought half a camera, and the missing half, which is NOT the extension rail, will most likely be impossible to find. If you find the bed from a Universal view, which is the grey camera, it will not accept a extension rail. If you get a Commercial view rail, it will accept the extension. The difference between the Universal and the Commercial is not the color: it's the fitting on the front of the bed you don't have, for the extension on the Commercial. The color is insignificant.

And the length of the bellows is different between the two, I will repeat: you will not be able to use the extension rail even if you find a Commercial view bed, unless your camera has the Commercial view bellows, which is about 10 inches longer than the 26" bellows of the Universal view. I'm betting you have the Universal, with the 26mm bellows, not the Commercial, but that should be easy to measure by stretching the bellows out and measuring.

At any rate, before you start thinking about extensions you need to find a bed.

[IanG]

John Shiu is trying to set you right, but Ian's having none of it. :-)

I think you're getting confused here. The camera Ian has shown is probably not relevant to your situation--it's a relatively rare model, the Commercial view. At this point, your camera is missing a fundamental piece of the original camera that is NOT the extension rail. This is the bed of the camera, attached by the hinge that is hanging in your photo. Whether you can then get an extension rail depends on which of the two possible missing beds you find-- one takes the extension Ian has illustrated, the other model stops with the bed, as in the illustration of the grey camera. However you won't be able to change a Universal into a Commercial by a different bed, because the bellows lengths are different.

About 1/4 of the way in from the left on the gray camera you can see the hinge, and the piece in front of it that you don't have, which I again stress is NOT the extension.

Essentially, you bought half a camera, and the missing half, which is NOT the extension rail, will most likely be impossible to find. If you find the bed from a Universal view, which is the grey camera, it will not accept a extension rail. If you get a Commercial view rail, it will accept the extension. The difference between the Universal and the Commercial is not the color: it's the fitting on the front of the bed you don't have, for the extension on the Commercial. The color is insignificant.

And the length of the bellows is different between the two, I will repeat: you will not be able to use the extension rail even if you find a Commercial view bed, unless your camera has the Commercial view bellows, which is about 10 inches longer than the 26" bellows of the Universal view. I'm betting you have the Universal, with the 26mm bellows, not the Commercial, but that should be easy to measure by stretching the bellows out and measuring.

At any rate, before you start thinking about extensions you need to find a bed.

Excuse me !!!!

The camera Jon Shiu posted is very different to the 10x8 Agfa Ansco Universal View I have, as well as my Commercial view, they were both sold Gray as well - the Deluxe versions -but they are very rare I've never seen one for sale.

The hardware and design changed more than once after production production was moved from Bingham.

I think Jon's suggestion of making a wooden block maybe as a temporary measure and having the front standard fixed except for front shift might be a good idea while you look for the parts needed.

I have seen 10x8 Agfa Ansco extension rails for sale, more than once which is why I made that suggestion.

Ian

[mdarnton]

I will have to learn to quote when I answer from now on.

Jon's camera is the last version of the deluxe universal view. I worked in a studio in high school with the previous version, plastic but sector-lock swings, and I have a 5x7 of the previous version, with knurled, plated knobs. We should map out all of the changes sometime. It's pretty interesting.

Notice the Dynasty's camera has plastic knobs, making it post-Binghamton, not particularly early, towards Jon's It would be interesting to see if it has the slotted struts of Jon's camera, also--we can't see that, but I don't think it will. I haven't seen a wood/brass version with plastic knobs, but have seen several like Jon's with the slotted struts.

Regardless, it's bellows length that will tell us what Dynasty has, I think.