Stephan G

From the shots, it looks like you have the central parts in good condition. The "bellows" may need to reworked.

I suggest that you check to see if there is a "residential artist" program running in your area which might have interest in having such a large camera in their repertoire of creative equipment. There may be a tech school which may like to have it in their bag of Art.

If you have a few lenses to go with it, that would be a plus.

Checking with museums is also a good direction. Especially if they are Industry Tech directed.

Do not be ready to "junk" it. Too few remain in such good shape.

BillFeffer Loc: Adolphus, KY

Brings back memories of my days as a printer. Process camera for making the negatives used to burn the plates for offset printing and making halftones of photos and such. Essentially just a big camera.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

Looks like a Kodak Century Camera that has been set up to take photo copies of documents or other photo's.

fetzler Loc: North West PA

this is it!

Kishka Loc: Grafton, WI

Process camera, used for making litho negatives for the printing process or direct PMT (Photo Mechanical Transfer) type plates for direct use on an offset press. It is capable of precise enlarging or reducing the image size, our's was occasionally used to reduce and filter PC circuitry artwork for a local electronics firm, due to the precision sizing ours was capable of. Very nice for copying flat artwork or photos, or transparencies if the camera had a transparent back and the lights were placed behind the copyboard. All of this became obsolete with the introduction of computers.

dougbev3 Loc: Pueblo, Colorado

So what would you do with it. Scrap it, save it. continue to use it, but not making copy.

Earnest Botello Loc: Hockley, Texas

I worked in the darkroom of a few print shops in the early 80s to shoot negatives to be transferred to printing plates for printing on paper.

AngusPT

Really can't wait to find out what happens to this, It seems like it would be really cool to have for an artistic community.

Bob Werre

I was taught how to use one in photo school, then my first job out of college, we used an old one for shooting copy transparencies up to 11 x 14, from flat artwork. We also had a strobe light fastened to the back of the backboard so we could copy backlit items. That photo mechanical shop, I worked at for one year had several super large cameras that typically used 20x24 films for separations-3 shots on separation film positioned at different angles. At the time scanners were new so the Unions asked more money for their technicians, so the company shut them down, going back to these process cameras. The shop had about 80 employees ...camera operators, strippers, pressmen and two lonely, underpaid photographers! Yes there is a lot of high-grade steel so scrap metal they are!

Gort55 Loc: Northern Colorado

It's a process camera, used to shoot line shots and halftones for the printing industry. Ortho film was used. The negatives were then used to burn plates for offset presses. The camera back uses a vacuum pump to hold the film in place. The lights could be wired to high voltage.

ecurb Loc: Metro Chicago Area

You have a through the wall graphics camera. The rear end was in a darkroom. Most graphic materials were orthochromatic so red safelights were the norm for the darkroom. The camera could shoot printing plates, high contrast negatives, PMTs and more. I also reversed the copyholder in the outside room and printed 11x14 inch negatives to 20x24. The motor would be a vacuum pump to hold sensitive material flat on the darkroom side of the camera. This would be a great addition to any school or workshop program still doing wet photography or graphics. I'd love to have one for my shop but that's unrealistic at this time.

Morry Loc: Palm Springs, CA

I worked as a printer for a newspaper most of my working life (The Seattle Times). Our engraving department had large full newspaper page size cameras similar as pictured. They were used to make negatives from which zinc engraving plates were made which were mostly used in display ads put together by printers. They were also used to make veloxes.

MrPhotog

What do YOU want to do with it, and the space it occupies?

First, this is a ‘process camera’. That is one of several names for it. Historically these things go back about 400 years. Yours is not so old.

History, really briefly:
The word ‘camera’ in fact is based on the Latin word for ‘room’, and comes from the term ‘camera obscura’, roughly translated as ‘dark room’. Art historians believe Rembrant and many other artists used such tools in creating their paintings. When silver-based chemistry was found to be sensitive to light, these tools were already common. The light-sensitive material was placed on the focal plane and exposed for minutes or hours.

The back half of the process camera is a darkroom where light-sensitive materials can be handled either in total darkness or under red light, depending on the material. To permit the use of film, or other sensitized materials, of various sizes, the back of this camera holds these materials in place with suction supplied by a vacuum pump.

Depending on the condition and age a used vacuum pump could be worth up to $200, but $25 or $30 would be closer to typical at an auction. In unknown condition they are nearly worthless to photographers, however woodworkers are discovering how to use vacuum processes for gluing veneers and infusing plastic resins into wood, The vacuum pump is easily removed: unplug it or cut the power line and remove the air line (vacuum line).

The other valuable part is the lens, but few people are using these in other areas, so prices are much lower than nice optics should be worth. Usually there is just one lens with an older process camera, though ‘newer’ models from about the late 1970’s occasionally had a second lens.

These cameras are basically built around the lens. The chains under the bed, or track, move the location of the copy stand and lights. With more expensive process cameras these chains are geared to move the lens as well, so the camera always stays in focus. With other cameras, as the copy stand moves the chain moves an indicator which displays the position of the copy stand. Rarely is this in inches or millimeters. Rather, this is usually expressed as the ratio of size between original and image. Commonly this was 1:1. The original would be the same size on film. With a longer bed the copy board could be placed further from the lens and the image would be smaller, so in the old days if you had an 8 x 10 photo and wanted to reproduce it as a mug shot in your newspaper you needed a camera with a long bed. To enlarge a small original it would be placed closer to the lens.

Once the copy position was set you would use a similar scale to set the lens into position for proper focus. Just match the numbers from one scale to the other. Usually you would measure the original and calculate the copy’s size beforehand. Rarely would you try to compose the image from inside the darkroom.

The focussing scales usually had matching scales for exposure compensation. If not, then the F/stop scale on the lens might have a matching chart, or there might be a chart showing timing compensation, typically a percentage of an exposure at 1:1 magnification. That lens moves a long distance, and the actual f/stop is based on that physical distance from the film, so either you open and close the diaphragm or change the exposure time—and you want to get it right every time. Those big sheets of film are expensive!

Can it be removed? Yes. I strongly suggest you not do it yourself. If you want to get rid of the thing as a working camera (assuming it still works now) then sell it in place. The purchaser can see it working, or note defects, and you ca arrived at a fair (but probably low) price. Let the purchaser do the removal at their own expense and their own risk. If THEY knock it out of alignment, then THEY can pay for the realignment, as well as shipping.

The copy board can be removed from the bed and tracks out side the darkroom. The bed and tracks are probably screwed or bolted to the floor. That’s the easy part. The back of the camera is built into the darkroom wall and that wall needs to be (carefully!!) demolished to gain access to the mounting bolts holding the back half of the camera to the wall. Personally, I’d start cutting into the drywall/plaster about a foot to either side of the camera and slowly remove plaster until I had a good gap to work in for finding the mountings. After doing the sides I’d do the top and then cut off the bottom of the wall close to floor. Then I could support the weight on the remaining wall section as I pulled the camera forward. Very messy.

There may be electric wiring for remotely turning on and off the copy lights. The camera may have an electric shutter attached to a timer. Besides the vacuum connections (electric and air) there should not be too many connection to trace, identify, and tag.

If you want the camera out to remodel the building, this is either a good time to remove the rest of the wall, or to repair it. If it is a supporting wall you should be able to free the camera without damaging supporting studs and header. Otherwise, you’ll need to fit in temporary bracing, and install permanent studs as soon as the camera is free.

Look for:
Long before these cameras were used for making offset-printing plates they were used to make halftones. A pair of glass plates with diagonal lines engraved in them were set in front of the film. The lines were about 50 to an inch at first and got closer and finer as technology improved. They were as wide as they were spaced apart. The two plates were arranged at 90 degrees to each other and the combination formed a collection of regularly spaced pinhole lenses. This halftone screen was placed in front of the film and light coming in through the lens of the process would be broken up by it. The INfocus image from that light would create thousands of tiny OUT-OF-focus dots of light behind the screen. The size of each dot would be related to how much light passed through each tiny hole. The combination of big dots and small ones gave the impression of gray shades on printed works. The process came out in the late 1800s. In the 1960s (or a bit earlier) those glass plates were replaced with cheaper and less fragile plastic films which had the halftone-creating patterns printed on them. If you camera is old enough it may use the glass plates, and they may be stored in the back door of the camera. Or not. Keep an eye out for them, just in case. If they are there and carefully cleaned they are useful. Don’t break them or scratch them in moving. If they do break you can still buy the plastic halftone screens.

A bit long of a message, hopefully entertaining if not useful.

Good luck with this.

Paul Jacobson

P.S. If you can get $500 from this and the buyer removes it you’ll be lucky. But, that might not cover repairs to the wall. Half that would be realistic. These are mostly junked with the lens saved to display as an antique, and vacuum pump salvaged. A shame. But no one has the room to hold these things and their functions were replaced by electronic scanners 30 years ago.

rayban991

It’s called a process camera. Used to copy flat originals for the graphic arts industry. I can’t see anyone using it these days. The scanner has taken over the need for the process camera. Some of the lenses have been converted for use on a view camera, but they tend to be rather slow for traditional photo use. F9 is a common speed. As far as worth goes, it’s nada. Sorry

btsken

It is a camera used to copy pictures or text to an offset printing plate. My father had one and made reproductions of antique car manuals