Categories: all aviation bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater

Wed, 09 Sep 2009

5x7

I was inspired today, by some random inspiration particle sleeting through space, to pull out my grandfather's great-grandfather's 5x7 view camera.

For my own future reference as much as anything else, it's a Korona 5x7 camera, and I was able to find two lenses for it: one about a 200mm, the other about a 140mm. The 200mm(?) lens is a Bausch and Lomb 5x7 Tessar 1c, with no size marked, mounted on a 1900s-looking ACME shutter (pictured); f/4.5-32, T, B and 1s through 1/300th. The 140mm(?) lens is a Wollensak 5x7 Symmetrical Wide Angle with a Wollensak Betax shutter; marked apertures are f/16-128 (with a large uncalibrated section on the adjuster that looks like it might go down to perhaps f/9), speeds are T, B and 2s through 1/100th.

Update: Thanks to information at The Camera Eccentric, I now think that the B&L lens is a 7.5" (almost exactly 190mm) lens. The 1920 B&L catalog lists the lens at $75, or $100 with a shutter. Also included is the code word "Haggle," presumably to make ordering by telegraph cheaper (telegraph messages were charged per word).

The Korona catalog from 1910 lists approximately the camera I have, making that a reasonable guess as to its age -- the 1905 catalog doesn't list it.

Posted at 22:54 permanent link category: /misc

Categories: all aviation gadgets misc motorcycle theater

Written by Ian Johnston. Software is Blosxom. Questions? Please mail me at reaper at obairlann dot net.