Help needed - Quarter plate camera

[Ezzie]

I´m considering building something along these lines. Simple foldable field camera. Lovely little thing that. Good work.

[paul_c5x4]

Paul will get back to you in a couple of days re- the knob/thread.

O.K. Will hold fire on posting these parts until then - Having done one set, I feel they would look better with a larger radius on the corners. 1.2mm looks out of place, so I may go for 3.2mm... Perhaps someone would like to comment ?

[Ian Grant]

Just found two comprehensive lists and diagrams of Brass and Wooden parts available for camera builders in the 1890's I'll copy then in the next couple of days.

Every single part need to build a plate camera is listed, boxes, front standards, focus rails & gear, knobs, bellows etc. Just what we need today, I'll copy the pages in the next couple of days.

It's obvious that a photographic dealer could offer his or herb own range of wooden field/studio cameras, and adverts show they did.

From the rather extensive scouring texts for details of my particular Quarter plate camera it seems the format wasn't that common until the advent of later hand-held cameras (quarter plate/9x12), which coincides with a n increasing use of enlargements, particularly on a commercial scale

Ian

[Ian Grant]

After looking at over 2,000 pages of camera adverts i found no identical Quarter plate cameras, however the details of the parts indicates that the brass work was similar to what was available from Lonsdale brothers of Leeds in the 1890's.

Based on that then perhaps the plate to adjust rise and fall might originally have had square corners on the standard side and quite rounded corners on the lens side, but as Londsdale Bro's parts aren't identical it's a guessing game. All missing parts to match Lonsdale's are in 2nd image coloured yellowish. (Not to scale)

It's all a compromise

Ian

[Wade D]

The second photo has some items that look like what Paul has made. Good stuff. Where can I find the same info? Do you have a PDF of it? I love old camera info.

[Ian Grant]

The second photo has some items that look like what Paul has made. Good stuff. Where can I find the same info? Do you have a PDF of it? I love old camera info.

I'll make a PDF of the info, possibly next week as we're quite busy in the next few days.

There's two pages of wooden parts, which are even more interesting, put all together and you could very easily assemble your own plate camera in the 1890's with almost no skills.

Ian