It may be an 8x10 version of the Japanese made Prinz View which was a dual rail 4x5.
Lou, doesn't the Prinz View use a central leadscrew for focusing?
Someone hacked a The Brand Camera Co and changed the front lens board assembly & possibly the back. The twin rails and focusing mechanism are unique I think. I had a The Brand 17 at one point, though I never actually used it. It had a rotating back arrangement and no bail.
It just looks too good to be a DIY hack, and according to the almighty Web, Prinz View in 8x10 was something altogether different. No results at all for Brand Press View / 17 in 8x10. The back definitely doesn't seem home-made, and is almost certainly metal. Puzzling.
Do you have more detailed pics of how the back is attached to the frame and standard?
Tin Can
The beast focuses by rack and pinion on one of the two tubes. The Brand 17, IIRC, focuses with a central lead screw and has cast standards; the beast's standards are quite different.
The camera is vaguely familiar particularly the side view (1st image), it's not the first dual rail lf camera I've seen. After WWII there were quite a a lot of short lived companies making & selling cameras mostly 35mm and medium format but a few making LF camera. I'm more familiar with UK products mainly because I have every British Journal Photographic Almanac from about 1935 to 1963.
I've no time at the moment to look, two names come immediately to mind Barco & Criterion, but there were a few more British companies.
Just adding that's a UK company Criterion not an a much earlier US copmpany of the same name.
Ian
Last edited by IanG; 31-Oct-2014 at 12:21. Reason: add
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