My Older Cameras

[Ian Grant]

20 years ago my then partner gave me a scrap camera she'd had for some time which sat like this on my mantle piece for over 15 years/

While on a visit home from Turkey where I was then living I was clearing my house for sale and decided to through it away. Instead I thought hey this could be fixed

A few days later it looked like this.

It's a Quarter plate Houghton Victo. I need to re-photograph as I've added the missing brass work and made a handle.

Then I acquired and restored a half plate Houghton Duchess

With a TP shutter and Wray 7x5 lens, but also with a modern Compur shutter (1913) and a 165mm Tessar, both shutters are accurate.

That's the Aegean in the background . . . . . .

Ian

 

[Kev Pugh]

NAh you should of thrown it away IMO..........like over to the shires...... nice job Ian

 

[Ian Grant]

There's two more to finally finish, a half plate TP Triple extension that awaits new bellows (when I get motivated to make more bellows), and a whole plate Houghton Victo that needs a quick strip down, the brass cleaned and the wood French polish.

Then there's the mysteries in a box of camera junk I bought over the weekend, they'll arrive later this week maybe early next week,. There's most of I'd guess a quarter plate camera and either an extension focal plane shutter or a camera with a focl plane shutter, maybe Continental 9x12cm or if I'm really lucky 5"x4"

Then there's 6 more TP shutters . . . . . . . and the medium/large format Reflex cameras, TP, Ensign, Dallmeyer, Graflex. Too many restorations.

Ian

 

[Pete Askew]

Very nice Ian and an interesting read too. Don't worry, we'll keep encouraging you!

 

[Ian Grant]

Very nice Ian and an interesting read too. Don't worry, we'll keep encouraging you!

Don't encourage me too much, I'm planning a buying spree of Wood/Brass cameras, oh and lenses.

Ian

 

[Pete Askew]

Ah yes, lenses. I do have a bit of a weakness for interesting glass...

 

[Chris Dodkin]

Ian - You and Pete are going to cost each other a small fortune while we all watch and learn

Fabulous looking restoration - what lovely piece, and even better that it becomes functional

What do you use for new bellows?

 

[Hamish Gill]

Yeah... Thats lovely!! Good work!

 

[Ian Grant]

What do you use for new bellows?

A variety of materials depends on the camera. I make shutter cloth for Thornton Pickard shutters which I light-proof myself and use a variation of this for some bellows, in fact I've 4 sets to make in the next few days. I've an Ensign King horizontal enlarger that just needs bellows and a a lens board to complete its restoration, and a half plate TP Triple Imperial camera also needing bellows and I'm making replacement bellows for a couple of Speed Graphics.

I'm hoping to get some bellows leather from the US, it came originally from a UK supplier but is now surplus to requirements. I've already had a roll of thin shutter cloth suitable for 35mm/120 cameras but it's not suitable for larger shutters like the TP roller blind type or the TP Ruby reflexes and other British SLRs I work on.

Ian

 

[Pete Askew]

Very interesting Ian. I was reading about making bellows a while back when planning the DIY camera but decided on a sliding box design for that (it needed to be quick, cheap and simple for the competition). Having said that, I'm think about building a 12"x16" camera to shoot paper negatives (a friend is trying to persuade me to go the 20"x24") and have decided it needs to be done in wood and brass (I have a workshop and the equipment necessary, I just lack the time). For that I will use bellows I suspect.

I also have a Speed Graphic that I really should service the focal plane shutter on. The curtain appears to be OK and I guess it just needs a clean and lubricate. It is not a priority though as I have a Sinar shutter that I can use with older lenses and that gets me up to 10"x8". But, if I want to use older glass in the field, the Speed Graphic would be a useful option.

 

[Dave Young]

Beautiful work Ian, great to see the before and after.

 

[Lesley Jones]

Absolutely wonderful! You've made me determined to dig out my old Leica IIIb before the end of the year