Help identify my plate camera!

[jnanian]

hi zoli

google images sometimes can help
type in "folding plate camera" + "schneider"

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22fo...AaSg2AWgnYydBQ

it'll be kind of like a needle in a haystack

good luck !
john

[degentd]

Zoli, welcome to APUG!

Thank You!

[degentd]

If there are no markings on the outside of the camera, (did you check _under_ the handle on the top of the camera? Sometimes the model markings are pressed into the leatherette there), try colapsing the lens board back into the camera and rolling the rack out without the lens. Sometimes markings are hidden under there. If there are no markings, your guess is a good as mine! ^_^

I checked all kind of places but i didn't found anything. I'll stay with what i found on Camerapedia (japanese First plate Folder made in ~1930?).

regards

[degentd]

hi zoli

google images sometimes can help
type in "folding plate camera" + "schneider"

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22fo...AaSg2AWgnYydBQ

it'll be kind of like a needle in a haystack

good luck !
john

Thank you John, i'll try this.

regards, zoli

[Ian Grant]

Hi Zoli, it's quite different to the Japanese First Plate folder (look at the handle, front rise etc) and these wouldn't have been exported to Europe anyway. Before WWII very few Japanese cameras were sold outside Japan itself and then mainly to other far eastern countries, only Hansa (Canon) were begining to sell world wide at that point.

What doesn't help is at that time some cameras were made without a makers name and were often badged with a store or distributors own name plate. In the UK Wallace and Heaton used the name Zodel on equipment they sold and there were many other similar rebrandings in the UK/US and I'd guess Europe as well. This make identification difficult.

What may help you is Schneider were still a smalller lens manufacturer at that time so their lenses were less common and used by fewer manufacturers. They seem to have benefitted from Nagel's leaving Zeiss Ikon and setting up on his own again (He had previously founded Contessa Nettel). Look up the Radionar's serial number as that'll tell you an approx date when the camera was made.

Ian

[degentd]

Hi Zoli, it's quite different to the Japanese First Plate folder (look at the handle, front rise etc) and these wouldn't have been exported to Europe anyway. Before WWII very few Japanese cameras were sold outside Japan itself and then mainly to other far eastern countries, only Hansa (Canon) were begining to sell world wide at that point.

What doesn't help is at that time some cameras were made without a makers name and were often badged with a store or distributors own name plate. In the UK Wallace and Heaton used the name Zodel on equipment they sold and there were many other similar rebrandings in the UK/US and I'd guess Europe as well. This make identification difficult.

What may help you is Schneider were still a smalller lens manufacturer at that time so their lenses were less common and used by fewer manufacturers. They seem to have benefitted from Nagel's leaving Zeiss Ikon and setting up on his own again (He had previously founded Contessa Nettel). Look up the Radionar's serial number as that'll tell you an approx date when the camera was made.

Ian

Hi Ian
Good point about serial number. Thanx a lot.
Unfortunately i don't know very much about prewar cameras. Thanx for your advice about japan plate folders, also

regards, z.

[Ian Grant]

Hi Ian
Good point about serial number. Thanx a lot.
Unfortunately i don't know very much about prewar cameras. Thanx for your advice about japan plate folders, also

regards, z.

You'll learn fast Zoli when you want to identify cameras It's a 9x12 camera and some times they were sold as Quarter plate in the UK/US, only the back and plate holders differed same width but quarter plate is slightly shorter.

I collect British Journal Photographic Almanacs and have a number now from the 1920's & 30's and it's noticable from the adverts that Schneider lenses were not common (here in the UK) except on Nagel and Kodak (Nagel) cameras until the mid 30's when Schneider began advertising themselves.

You might try watching German Ebay.de for 9x12 cameras being sold, I built up quite a list of makes, lenses and shutters, but ony 2 with Radionars. It took me a year to identify one of my British wood & brass camears and it was another 18 months before I finally saw an image of one the same size/format - so good luck

Ian

[bugbugbug]

Also, using the lens / shutter to ID the camera isn't a good idea since those could have been swapped out for something different over the lifetime of the camera.

[Ian Grant]

I think you start with the premise that in this case the shutter and lens are original, if you were going to the trouble of replacing them then it's unlikely you'd go for a budget shutter and triplet lens again. Add to that the camera itself has no front rise/fall so we have a budget camera with the appropriate lens/shutter combination.

In a seperate thread Umut has listed the German camera manufacturers which includes those of of the 1920's/30's era, then you realise that identification can be an uphill task as almost every manufacturer made 9x12 cameras that are superficially quite similar. In the UK in the late 1900's you could assemble cameras from parts, they came in kit form from a couple of suppliers, German companies seem to have been buying in some components for these 9x12 cameras in much the same way.

Ian