Interesting mysterious camera

[redu]

Firstly i would like to say i have no relation/affiliation with the owner/seller of this item. This thread is purely out of the intersting nature of this camera.

Surfing the auction site i came accross with this one. A KENHANSEN camera... Something i see for the first time. A strange design though. Looks quite portable but rigid at the same time. It has geared movements... at least rise and focus. Also looks like it has both base and may be even axial tilts. However both are above swing level.. so it is not yaw free... Any body having experience with this camera?

[Marvin d martian]

Sorry dont know much but its very similar to my S&K view camera, in fact the back has the same design and pat numbers. I cant find much about S&K either.
[IMG] S&K-1-3 by Marvin d martian100, on Flickr[/IMG]

[IMG] S&K-1-2 by Marvin d martian100, on Flickr[/IMG]

Mart

[redu]

Not exactly the same design but they were most likely produced by the same OEM company in Japan.

[IanG]

Seems quite OK for the price, though what's it's origins are it's difficult to say.

Ian

[Steven Tribe]

This is a lister with a very tenuous link to reality and the real market value of the things he lists. Never known to do any research!

[Dan Fromm]

http://www.largeformatphotography.in...p/t-18017.html

I'm surprised that no one remembers Ken Hansen.

Man from Mars, if you look closely you'll see that your camera and the KENHANSEN one have quite different rails.

[Deane Johnson]

The great thing about this camera is that, according to the seller, it has "awesome movements". Let Deardorff try to beat that.

[Marvin d martian]

Dan, yes I could see the rails are different, but the front and back plates are the same down to the patent numbers.
Cheers,
Mart

[IanG]

A trawl back through old catalogues etc would probably identify the true manufacturer. A problem then was not all cameras were imported/exported into every country.

Few if any outside the US would have heard of Ken Hansen but he may well have been a private importer.

Steven's right about the seller but they do seem to have some realistically priced items at the moment, not thir norm

Ian

[redu]

Pricing is also very odd. Reduced to $294.79 from $719.01. A 59% reduction to be exact. Surely the lister is more interesting than the camera.