Camerawork

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I thought a topic for the Cameras you use for daguerreotypy might be order, We have added a plugin to the forum that allows easy uploading of images to Forum posts. Starting things off are the cameras of Walter Johnson, if you have any questions about a camera displayed, post them in this topic as well.

 

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not so new with the old

 

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another of Walter’s

 

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[dagist]

Walter et. al,

What lenses grace these contemporary image makers? It would be useful to know the lens’s maker, focal length and maximum aperture, as well as how large an image circle the lens can produce before significant fall-off occurs on the ground glass. The camera manufacturer’s name and the camera’s format would also be helpful, along with the size of the final image if it is different than the camera’s format.

Many of us cobble together parts from several different manufacturers in order to achieve our daguerreian image-making goals.

Cheers,

Rob McElroy

Buffalo, NY

[70’s Dager]

Hello all,

The first camera is made from a Graphis camera focus bed, a copy camera back focus panel, and has the Kodak 178mm F2.5 lens.

The second camera was made from an old wood camera body with a modern spring back that was the right size to fit the back, the lens is unmarked but does fill the 4X5 format; I think that it may have been a projection lens.

The third camera is a Rilex 6X9 comverted to the Hasselblad format; I use the cut film Hassy holders for Dag images of 2 1/2″ square; you can thank Irv for that idea, I sat for him while he detailed his methods and use of the Hasselblad to make less expensive Dags. I have two Hassies, but thought that the Wollensak 75mm F1.9 lens should work even better.

I’m now in the design process of making two Dag looking wood camera bodies, but with modern insides so I may use a common film pack adapter to hold the Dag plate or wet-plate glass. One each to use 2 1/4″ X 3 1/4″ packs; and the 4″X5″ packs; when I’m done all I’ll need is the funds to purchase plates.

Any other questions I’ll try to answer….Walter Johnson

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Back view of Walters Rilex camera

 

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[Jon Lewis]

I’ve finally finished assembling my first camera made specifically for daguerreotypes! It’s a Graflex Speed Graphic FP (from ebay) with an Aero-Ektar 178mm f/2.5 lens (also from ebay) on a JoLo lens board (from Jo Lommen). The lens is the same as one Walter used above and I’m hoping it’ll work well with dags, the speed is certainly promising. 🙂

 

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[jgmotamedi]

I am curious if people are able to successfully use those Aero-Ektars for Dags. I tried one several years back and found that the yellow/brown stain in the glass (allegedly from radioactive thorium glass) cut down the blue light so much that it became effectively an f5.6 or thereabouts, but with the depth of field of its actual aperture. I tried to “bleach” the stain with UV light, but never completely removed the color cast.

Anyhow, I have a few lenses I regularly use for Daguerreotypes and a pile of lenses I don’t use but can’t get myself to sell. For 4×5 or smaller nothing beats my 150mm f2.8 Schneider Xenotar. It wasn’t cheap, but it is so much sharper than anything else out there. Not much movement though. I also use a 11″ f3 Dallmeyer 3B Patent Petzval, wonderful image quality and surprisingly sharp on 1/2 plate, but too big to fit on my 5×7. Finally, I have a 240mm f3.5 Schneider Xenar which is also wonderful but heavy.

[Jon Lewis]

Jason, thanks for the info. The aero-ektar I have doesn’t seem to have a yellow/brown stain in the glass but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll have any better UV transmission. Once I get a new batch of plates made I’ll have to experiment. I hope it’ll be as fast as advertised 🙂

 

[Andy Stockton]

Aero-Ektar radioactivity.

http://home.earthlink.net/~michaelbriggs/aeroektar/aeroektar.html

The camera looks great, I hope it performs well.

[jdanforth]

I’ve been cramming dags from quarter plate to 8×10 into my big-ass 8×10 view camera. I decided to build a camera to shoot some fisheye plates. I made the box out of some baltic birch plywood that I normally use for daguerreotype cases if they’re stick-built instead of CNC-cut. The box is butt-jointed together, is mostly square, and is painted matte black on the inside. A standard 4×5 film holder slides into place for shooting and a simple ground-glass slides in for viewing.

The lensboard was made on the CNC and the lens mount (since it’s designed for a 6×6 Hassy) was made on the mill/lathe. Quite a time consuming project, really. I may paint it or veneer it. I’m thinking that a metallic Ferrari red finish would be bitchin!

The lens is a laughable but cheap Arsat 30mm circular fisheye. It will completely cover my 2.5″ diameter solid fine silver discs.

Of course I had to modify a poor, defenseless 4×5 holder to make the whole thing work so I chucked it up on the big lathe:

and bored a whole straight through the septum:

and it fits perfectly!

I haven’t shot anything with it yet since I broke the lens 😡 but I will get it repaired soon. I laser-cut and sand blasted some acrylic to use as a ground glass. 30 seconds in the sand blaster makes a DANDY ground glass! I’m not sure about the spectral sensitivity of that lens but my plan is to polish off all the coatings with some 1µ polishing paper if the first images don’t pan out!

[AgNO3]

You should have turned a brass body and made a cradle stand like the Voigtlander cannon camera. That would work really well with the circular plates and keep down the size.

[Andy Stockton]

So the silver disk rests on the lip around the hole and the “backside” dark slide holds it in place? Or do you put some tape on the disk?

[botticelli1972]

I used a 175 aero-ektar for the first 5 years and had decent results. Jon your lens looks very clear, I did do aa UV bleach to mine which was very stained. I took the lens appart and put the offending elements in a southhern window for nearly a year when I first got it. I would say the staining was 80% removed. The lens is now an effective F/3.8 (see pic over white paper). It is fast but not all that sharp. When I want to do a still life or architecture and can get back far enough and have the time for a long exposure I use a trusty Kodak Commercial Ektar 210mm F/6.3. My new lens of choice for portrait work is the 8″ f/2.9 Dallmeyer, still not super sharp but is a true 2.9 so it is a full stop faster than the Aero-Ektar (pictured on my 1940’s 4×5). I have also been working on a 19th century magic lantern lens it is HUGE. It is a four element 11″ lens that tests out to be close to f/3.5 and will cover whole plate with ease. I have done little testing with it as I just completed the box in box camera.-larry

 

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[botticelli1972]

This is the magic lantern lens on a box in a box camera made from Liptus plywood.-Larry

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[CasedImage]

Hey Larry, nice chamfered box camera. Is the lens a Darlot? They hve that black shoulder to the lens hood. Even though the petzval is a formula the Darlots and the later 19th century lantern slide lenses tend to have longer focal lengths, which I think reduces the speed of the lens. I have found that for the same sized petzval lenses you can swap element around, My sixth plate lens use too have a lot of bokeh/swirl to it but I swapped the rear element set for one from a similarly sized Darlot and this muted the effect while still working nicely,

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[botticelli1972]

Alan, thanks for the compliment on the camera. In the end I think I made it too small. I am going to make another one to fit some whole plate holders, originaly for glass plates, I just got. I too think the lens is by Darlot but it only has an importers mark. I have only made one image from it and it was OK. The glass is 4 1/4 inches across and it weighs a ton. At 4×5 I only use the center of the image circle and it is very distortion free at infinity. I do not know how it will look at whole plate or on close ups till I try it when I get a ground glass of sufficient size. I have a friend who uses mammoth size cameras with film and he uses a plexi ground glass for safety, I was thinking of trying that for the next camera. -Larry

[CasedImage]

Darlot lenses usually have the name written in pencil on the edge of the glass elements. I imagine finding a good petzval lens for whole plate is a real challenge, the brass lens market on ebay is so cut throat with unstoppable bidders on the really good items. I keep a eye on ebay france (searching for “laiton objectif”), its where I got my third plate camera lens which is daguerreian period for a reasonable price.

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[jdanforth]

Quote:

So the silver disk rests on the lip around the hole and the “backside” dark slide holds it in place? Or do you put some tape on the disk?

The disc rests against a very thin lip around the hole. I put a piece of cardboard between the disc and the rear darkslide that holds it in place.

[CasedImage]

So I guess this sort comes under this topic, but here’s a new piece of equipment for my third plate caemra. Its a shutter that works on gravity (and a rubber band to a lesser degree), quite handy for faulty vintage shutters or when there was never one at all, as is the case with the petzval lenses. More pics and a video on my website journal

 

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[Andy Stockton]

I had noticed these on eBay, and was quite intrigued. Thanks for the pics and video. It looks like it is held on the lens by friction. Is there any way to adjust it for different size lenses?

[CasedImage]

This model fits up to 3″ wide lens, it comes with a bit of foam which allows it to hold on to my sixth plate lens. I fitted it with some card and velvet for my third plate lens and will do the same for the sixth plate. It fits very snugly on the lens so doesn’t move about.

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