NikonGear'23
Gear Talk => Camera Talk => Topic started by: Airy on August 25, 2020, 21:54:22
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Dear friends, I'd like to introduce to you the first camera we had in our family. My great-grandpa (1868-1968, so we had the pleasure to meet on earth) had a bookstore, printshop, and also printed postcards he shot himself. His postcards from the WWI battlefields around Verdun are widespread: he apparently produced 1/3rd of these, and they were sent around for decades, since "war tourism" attracted lots of visitors to Verdun, as still is the case today...
His first postcards date back to 1904. In his very long career, he had several cameras, and it seems that the first one he used is now in my possession.
The DMR (De Maria) "Congrès" was built from 1904 to 1908, so he probably bought an early copy. It traversed two world wars, complete with bag, shutter, plates, and two objectives. One of the objective mounting plates seems to be missing, as well as the tripod. However the bellows are in a good condition, and the cloth shutter too (while certainly needing calibration).
I guess there should be a special frame with ground glass for setting the focus : seems to be missing too. I plan to put the camera back into service with no modifications of course, and using photo paper instead of glass plates, thus getting direct paper negatives that I could scan and invert. That would be my nod to the pioneering Mr. Jean Édouard Martin-Colardelle.
About the two objectives : the longer one (FL around 25cm) is simplest, with an internal thread probably to mount plates pierced with holes of variable diameters (see 5th photo; front doublet removed), and a shorter one (FL around 20cm maybe) with a "modern" diaph, f/8 to f/64, and no clicks. The longer one shows some signs of cement alteration, making the lens edges look like something is broken inside, but should still be usable. The shorter one is pretty clean.
For reference, my ancestor's print shop was destroyed twice: in 1916 (German shells - that was in Verdun!) and again in the 2nd World War (not sure about where the bombs came from - probably those US flying fortresses scattering their stuff from high altitude, and hoping to hit the train station...). He rebuilt it twice, and formally retired around 1953, so one of his younger sons, then already 47, could finally take the business over...
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Small addition - the Mackenstein objective may well be a Petzval (with two doublets and a central aperture stop) used for portraits.
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Wonderful you can hold that very tangible personal history, wonderful project--looking forward to the images you create...
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Airy, Alan Lesheim in Tasmania is having great success with using printing paper in lieu of glass or film negatives. He has resurrected a number of older large format cameras. PM me if you are interested and I can put you in touch with him.
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Thank you for sharing this historical family story! What a blessing to have the camera and lenses still in the family, good luck with the job of reentering it into service again, sounds like a perfect option to use photo paper!We have a small but very active camera shop here in Copenhagen that restore, use and sell similar old cameras, they are always very helpful, let me know if you need any assistance locally!
Oneofmanycameras.com
I would like to see some of his and your work in the future!
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Thanks all for your support and suggestions. Unfortunately (fortunately, actually, given the troubled times) I have resumed my professional activities, so the photographic ones may suffer some delay, but they will take place for sure.
Yesterday I cleaned the optics. Many arrangements and checks will have to take place before I make the first shot, e.g. I need to set up a small dark room in my cellar, find screws to mount the smaller (Tessar ? Aplanat) lens, check the bellows, replace the missing knob that keeps the rear plate in place after focussing, find some sort of replacement for the ground glass plate, find a tight lens cap that will act the shutter...
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Great family story and historical artifact :)
My own family view cameras are alas in another part of the family but apparently nicely stored (usual breakdown in heritages after a few generations)! The two wars, especially in that region, makes one wonder how we still find wonders in our old attics :o
For the ground glass, I did find a practical replacement (when younger) by using a frame with a polyester tracing paper (architectural and artist shops). polyester doesn't wrinkle with hygrometry and makes an effective ground glass (much lighter)...
I hope you'll be able to share your progress in time... Passionnant 8)
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Thanks Jacques ; as a matter of fact, I already considered "calque" as a possibility, but was not aware of those modern polyester versions. I'll ask my daughter to get me some in the course of her next shopping spree. By the way I suggested her to become an architect, but she went another way ;)
The camera survived WWI because my great grandpa took it with him as a refugee in Domats (Yonne). Proof is, I got some family shots from that time, including his nine children (and, towards the end of the war, with two of them wearing the grey/blue uniform. Fortunately, they were not hurt - just lost everything they left back in Verdun).
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Look not in my eyes, for fear
Thy mirror true the sight I see,
And there you find your face too clear
And love it and be lost like me.
One the long nights through must lie
Spent in star-defeated sighs,
But why should you as well as I
Perish? gaze not in my eyes.
A Grecian lad, as I hear tell,
One that many loved in vain,
Looked into a forest well
And never looked away again.
There, when the turf in springtime flowers,
With downward eye and gazes sad,
Stands amid the glancing showers
A jonquil, not a Grecian lad.
... one of those wonderfully sad poems by A.E. Housman.
I could not help thinking about it when shooting the iris of the old Tessar Aplanat. Df, Nikkor 55/2.8 @f/16.
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Having done some web searches (no serious optical measurement so far), it looks like the lenses:
1) are both Aplanats (symmetrically arranged doublets),
2) the small one having a FL around 28 cm, which makes it a slightly wide lens in relation with 18*24cm plates.
I could however not find any documentation specific to the two samples so far. By the way, I found a photo of a similar objective with "rectilinear" engraved on its barrel though, and "rapid rectilinear" was another designation for "aplanat".
There is no EN Wikipedia page for "aplanat", but you will find pages in FR and DE, among others. In EN, the page is under "rapid rectilinear".
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There it is, assembled and operational (but for the shutter). The bellow is in a perfect condition, and the front plate shift and rear plate translation mechanisms are fine, nothing got warped.
I put a sheet of tracing paper, following Jacques Pochoy's tip, instead of the missing ground glass plate.
The shot is our dining room. I simply shot the tracing paper using the Df + 55/2.8, thereby making ends meet - my great-grandpa's 116 years old camera and his grandson's favourite DSLR. Feels good.
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Bravo... ;D
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Great story, Airy. And a successful experiment !
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Great story, Airy. And a successful experiment !
Bravo... ;D
Wonderful
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There it is, assembled and operational (but for the shutter). The bellow is in a perfect condition, and the front plate shift and rear plate translation mechanisms are fine, nothing got warped.
I put a sheet of tracing paper, following Jacques Pochoy's tip, instead of the missing ground glass plate.
The shot is our dining room. I simply shot the tracing paper using the Df + 55/2.8, thereby making ends meet - my great-grandpa's 116 years old camera and his grandson's favourite DSLR. Feels good.
How nice! This is literally the camera obscura of digital age. Love the image, too!
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thanks a lot for sharing this with us
it looks very good and I wish you a lot of fun in using it
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The "dream" would be to shoot my ancestor's postcards again. The next big step would be to test photo paper. Since the shutter, though working, is in a dubious condition, I'd use a lens cap and a long pause. Normal photo paper should be OK; direct positive paper (Harman or derivated) is available too, but might be too contrasty; otherwise its sensitivity should be just right (ISO 1 to 3...). Some users recommend developing it with a mix of instant coffee, soda, and C vitamin: finally, chemicals that you can pour into the sink without remorse.
I'd also need a tripod (the original might not have been preserved, and browsing through my grandparents' attic will take time). Maybe my current tripod + an adapter for the bottom plate thread will do: the view camera is not very heavy. Used ones are available on eBay, too.
The ground glass is missing, but fabricating a replacement is no big deal.
I might also use the preserved chassis (two of them, double-sided) to hold the photo paper, but their sophisticated blinds (wood on fabric) are hard to manoeuver, still need to work on them.
For my darkroom, my son will lend me one of his bicycle rear lights :) wonderful technology.
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Nice to see the journey is off to a great start!
there seems to be only a free references to the lens maker, I think there is one on eBay but I have no knolage if it fits your DMR.
Very nice living room image and using the Df to capture it seems like a great connection indeed ;)
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I'm done checking the fundamental mechanisms. The "Congrès" has a pyramid-shaped bellow with the smaller front part mounted on a ring, so it is possible to rotate the rear plate and the bellow by 90° and switch between "portrait" (default) and "landscape" orientation.
(hey, what about rotating sensors? on mirrorless cameras of course. Better: square ones)
The bottom plate can slide forward, under the front plate, and allows to lock the unfolded camera in its unfolded state.
I'm still investigating the shutter (single curtain):
- it locks well in the "open" position, allowing to use the matte screen;
- I did not succeed, so far, in locking it into the "armed" position; some old bakelite stuff remains, maybe there is a broken part missing;
- the speed setting works, but I did not yet find the trick to release the spring (reduce the speed).
I found a thread (in French) about restoration of such sort of shutters, so there are elements available for my better understanding.
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Wow. That must give you a very special and proud feeling, Airy.
Thank you for sharing the story and please keep sharing examples!
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The sliding mechanism that moves the back plate back and forth. The plate with the spirit level, on the bottom of the 1st shot, is the one in which the rear plate is locked. It is turned upside down on the second shot, revealing the two racks. Note :
1) the spirit evaporated, gosh
2) the missing blocking mechanism and button. Too bad. With the smaller lens, the bellow extension is moderate, and the back plate stays in place even without that help.
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This is the frame waiting for a replacement matte screen. It can be moved aside to allow the insertion of photoplate chassis.
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One bottom plate can slide to lock the bottom and front plates at 90°; here, it is in "unlocked" position (moved to the right).
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The bellow and rear plate can rotate by 90° WRT optical axis, enabling "portrait" and "landscape" orientation without moving the camera.
Of course, in the landscape position, the frame lies on its long side and is too low, so...
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... this version of the DMR "Congrès" has an additional sliding plate to offset the whole front mount by 3 cm (moving the index from "centre hauteur" to "centre travers"), restoring axis coincidence. Vertical shift can be applied as before (max +/-3cm). The last pic shows the front plate "offset" drop (3cm) with no further vertical shift applied (see the right index).
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Very high workmanship and attention to detail! Wow
And still in very good condition, quite impressive ;D
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... this version of the DMR "Congrès" has an additional sliding plate to offset the whole front mount by 3 cm (moving the index from "centre hauteur" to "centre travers"), restoring axis coincidence. Vertical shift can be applied as before (max +/-3cm). The last pic shows the front plate "offset" drop (3cm) with no further vertical shift applied (see the right index).
Interesting that the shutter is at the lens board. I have a couple of Graflex cameras with a similar curtain shutter in the rear standard, but having it up front where it can be smaller and lighter is a good idea. I used to use photo paper with the 4x5 when I was a poor student. Would develop the "negative" then contact print (emulsion to emulsion) onto paper for a positive (but reversed) print. Contrast was substantially higher than film, but could be used to good effect. Now with scanners, maybe you can achieve a more normal contrast range. No need for a working shutter with paper negatives. Just carry a lens cap or opaque cloth and a timer. I think it was in the range of several seconds in daylight. It is possible you could use variable contrast paper, but when I was doing this the VC paper had printing on the back so would not work for contact printing.
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Airy, ole! What a project.
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I can smell that Antique wood through my monitor...
What a great looking camera..