I found an AGFA-Ansco Universal View camera yesterday
at the Anaheim camera show. Its in good condition but needs
some TLC and minor repair. Its missing the sliding bed
block. The camera is quite usable without it and I could
probably make one since I have another similar camera so I
have a block to use as a pattern. But I wonder if anyone on
here might have one. I would be nice to have an original. I
think the same block was used on the AGFA Commercial View
camera.
This camera dates probably from about the mid-1930s. It
has the older style front without tilt. The tilt was added
about 1940-41 and the top brace eliminated about a year
later by an arrangement of interlocking L strips on the
sides of the sliding portion of the front rise. These were
medium-priced cameras in their day, more expensive than a
Kodak 2D but much less so than a Deardorff.
My other Universal View is a military surplus one
probably built in the mid-1940s. It has both front tilt and
new type front and also has the 6x6" lensboard necessary to
meet the military spec which appears to have been written
for the Kodak 2D, the original design had a 7-1/2 square
board. This is can be an advantage for mounting very large
portrait lenses.


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Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles, CA, USA