Folmer Schwing Sliding Carriage View Camera?

**GEintern** · 7-May-2008, 07:49

Hello! I apologize for not lurking before posting, but I'm here on a mission!

I was hoping someone could give me some information about the Folmer Schwing sliding carriage view camera (either #7A or #9A); a patron of the museum I intern at was looking for documentation on the camera, and in my search for answers I discovered this forum~ Does anyone know anything about it?

Thanks a ton!
Julie

**Jim Galli** · 7-May-2008, 08:16

There is an on-line 1927 catalog that has similar cameras listed. The 4a and 10a were smaller and larger respectively. Many of the backs for 7a and 9a would fit and work on the 10a. I'm not sure what the minute differences were. I own and use fairly regularly a 10a 8X10 and an 8 11X14 camera.

A snapshot of my 2 cameras and some of the antique portrait and pictorial lenses only they can support. #10a on the right, and #8 11X14 on the left. Many photos on my web pages made with the antique lenses and these cameras.

**lenser** · 7-May-2008, 08:16

Julie,

You might check with Seth at www.cameraeccentric.com. He seems to have a very comprehensive amount of info on antique cameras and lenses in his info section and may have more information that doesn't appear in the site proper.

Good luck.

Tim

**Ernest Purdum** · 7-May-2008, 10:43

Sliding carriages were accessory items, normally sold separately. The idea was to speed up the operation. One side of the carriage held a film or plate holder and the other a ground glass. Some of them could present problems in present-day use because the plate holders were of a type that could be very difficult to find now.

One F&S model had a plate magazine built in. It held twelve plates or cut film in septums so permitted very rapid operation indeed, an ancestor of the Grafmatic.

Some were reducing backs giving two 5" X 8" exposures on an 8" X 10" plate. or two 7" X 11" on 11" X 14".