[LargeFormat] REALLY Large Format 30x40
LNPhoto
largeformat@f32.net
Wed Mar 10 00:52:28 2004
I've always wondered what their use was for....my theory is it (now
they!) were made for a trade fair....1904 World's fair, & 1901 World's
fair in Buffalo come to mind. The Chicago fair in '93 was too ealry
for F&S.. they were still farming out the construction, and after '04
they were a Division of EKC and George made sure everybody knew it.
This one has problems too. The ground glass was replaced with a silver
mount/matte board, then they cut slots in the bellows so you could see
the image from inside the camera. On the back of the board they added
information with those die cut letters made for titling home movies and
the like that were popular in the 50s
Was yours a Folmer and Schwing or just an overly large camera by
somebody else?
On Mar 10, 2004, at 12:31 AM, k4sb@niia.net wrote:
> Ditto from me. Now......Drum roll please.....There's another one.
> In a varnished wood finish. I saw it at Bel Park Photo YEARS AGO!
> I'd love to know who owns it. Had a B&L APLANET on it in BBL.
> Bad bellows but nice wood and 2 holders. It was on a three wheeled
> carrage. Barney Copeland wanted 2000.00 for it in 1981. Anyone on
> list have it?
> Ken
>
> ---- Original Message ----
> From: LNPhoto@twmi.rr.com
> To: largeformat@f32.net
> Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] REALLY Large Format 30x40
> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2004 00:10:48 -0500
>
>> I"m not sure which version you know. I'll tell my version, you can
>> tell his.
>>
>> The camera sat in the lobby of the Gannett building (aka Photo
>> building) at Rochester Institute of Technology for many years
>> including
>> the years I was there. I remember marveling at it and even asked a
>> couple of old timers about it, but nobody knew anything about it
>>
>> A couple years back I called master tinkerer PRof Andy Davidhazy
>> about
>> a Bausch & Lomb microscope camera I had found and wondered if there
>> was
>> a market up there for it. He responded that not only was there no
>> room
>> for it, but that he had a bigger white...er black elephant that he
>> couldn't get rid of.... It seems the lobby was being refurbished and
>> this camera was no longer welcome.
>>
>> I told him under threat of life was he was not to allow this camera
>> to
>> be destroyed. If nothing else I would rescue it. As I hung up the
>> phone I had madcap visions of shooting little league groups with it
>> by
>> putting this beast on some sort of scissor jack in the back of a van
>> a
>> la Professor Fate's car. He couldn't think of what to do with it and
>> I
>> have to admit I don't know why I didn't think to tell him to call the
>>
>> Eastman House.
>>
>> Luckily for me somebody did.
>>
>>
>> Todd Gustavson curator of cameras at Geo Eastman House got a call, I
>> assume from PRof. Davidhazy, about this very large, very old camera
>> that had lost it's lease in the lobby and if somebody didn't take
>> this
>> thing, it would lose its lease on life. Todd was torn between
>> making
>> space and saving a piece of history (the camera is 24 x 36 INCHES in
>> format, made between 1897 and 1904 and had a Taylor Taylor Hobson
>> mammoth plate Rapid Portrait Lens on it from about 1870.) Todd
>> looked
>> into the records and found that a camera with a similar description
>> had
>> once been in the collection. So he went and rescued the camera and
>> within a couple of hours found the extension rail that fit it AT the
>> Eastman house!
>>
>> It seems the camera collection was a very poor orphan division for
>> many
>> years (Ken Hough will say it still is) there was no room to keep
>> cameras at the house, so the previous curators would "loan" cameras
>> out
>> for storage. This camera had been a part of the Eastman collection
>> many years before, but poor records and bad memories nearly lost it
>> forever.
>>
>> And frankly its in a much better place there than here. If I had
>> implemented my plan and rescued the camera, I would've had to
>> convince
>> my wife that it really was small enough to fit in the house and that
>> I
>> was too big to sleep in it outside. A tough sell on both counts.
>>
>> Les
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 9, 2004, at 10:07 PM, k4sb@niia.net wrote:
>>
>>> Hey Les! Ask Gustafson at George Eastman House about that "camera"
>>> Neat story.
>>> Ken
>>>
>>> ---- Original Message ----
>>> From: LNPhoto@twmi.rr.com
>>> To: largeformat@f32.net
>>> Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] REALLY Large Format 30x40
>>> Date: Tue, 9 Mar 2004 21:46:18 -0500
>>>
>>>> I corrected it once, but that post never made it to the list for
>> some
>>>>
>>>> reason...
>>>>
>>>> the full url should be
>> http://home.twmi.rr.com/lnphoto/F&SBIG2.jpg
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mar 9, 2004, at 8:50 PM, Richard Knoppow wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "LNPhoto" <LNPhoto@twmi.rr.com>
>>>>> To: <largeformat@f32.net>
>>>>> Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2004 1:53 PM
>>>>> Subject: Re: [LargeFormat] REALLY Large Format 30x40
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> here's one a bit bigger, a Folmer & Schwing to boot
>>>>>>
>>>>>> http://www.F&SBIG2.jpg
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>> This URL doesn't work, is it complete?
>>>>>
>>>>> F&S built large copy cameras and studio cameras, I think up
>>>>> to 11x14 and maybe to 16x20 inches. They were owned by Kodak
>>>>> for a time and continued to build cameras for Kodak after
>>>>> they were divested. Kodak sold Century studio cameras up to
>>>>> 11x14 although they are rare.
>>>>> Up to the early 1950's at least 11x14 was not unusual for
>>>>> advertising illustration.
>>>>> ---
>>>>> Richard Knoppow
>>>>> Los Angeles, CA, USA
>>>>> dickburk@ix.netcom.com
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> LargeFormat mailing list
>>>>> LargeFormat@f32.net
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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