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"New" AGFA-Ansco Universal View
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. -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA |
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"New" AGFA-Ansco Universal View
"Cheesehead" wrote in message ... On Jan 24, 3:22 pm, "Richard Knoppow" wrote: 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. -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA Congrats. Good find. I got locally, off Craigslist, a 1923 Eastman 2-D for $400. The camera has a finish that looks like new. It came from a family member, so I'm really the first outside-the-family owner of this. Just the bellows has some corners in need of tlc. The best part was the lens that came with it. B&L Protar VII, triple convertible. 11 7/8, 18.xx & 23.xx. Super clean with its original front cap. I was also told that the lens was ordered with the camera, circa 1923. And the outfit even came with film! I am, well, excited. I am now officially camera-poor. (But I do have a bunch of stuff on eBay right now -- a C1 in need of TLC, and another Eastman 2-D as a project case.) The B&L Convertible Protar was originally built under license from Zeiss but B&L aquired the rights somehow after WW-1. It is a very fine lens. The individual cells are corrected for coma so they are sharper than the cells of a Dagor but the combined lens is about the same. The 2D was probably the most popular camera for studio use in its day. It was strong and not too expensive. Still an excellent camera especially for field use. You have a fine rig there. If the bellows have pin-holes they will probaby need to be replaced. While there are many cures for pin-holes proposed none works very well because the flexing of the bellows tends to loosen any patches. However, the one that seems best is the patching material sold for diver's wet suits. -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA |
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"New" AGFA-Ansco Universal View
"Cheesehead" wrote in message ... On Jan 24, 8:54 pm, "Richard Knoppow" wrote: The B&L Convertible Protar was originally built under license from Zeiss but B&L aquired the rights somehow after WW-1. It is a very fine lens. The individual cells are corrected for coma so they are sharper than the cells of a Dagor but the combined lens is about the same. The 2D was probably the most popular camera for studio use in its day. It was strong and not too expensive. Still an excellent camera especially for field use. You have a fine rig there. If the bellows have pin-holes they will probaby need to be replaced. While there are many cures for pin-holes proposed none works very well because the flexing of the bellows tends to loosen any patches. However, the one that seems best is the patching material sold for diver's wet suits. -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA Thanks. I would like to find a 4x5 reducing back for it. There was one on eBay a couple of months ago, but they don't come up very often. I was lucky enough to find a home made one, essentially the back from a Calumet 4x5 fastened to a panel that fits the back of the Agfa. Has the rotating feature of the Calumet back. I also have a factory one for my Calumet C-1. I also have a factory 5x7 back for the Agfa so I can shoot all three sizes with it. I also have a 5x7 Agfa Universal View. Its similar to the 8x10 but didn't have the sliding bed block. I have both 5x7 and 4x5 backs for it. Mine originally came with the 4x5 back, Agfa-Ansco sold this as a "deluxe" 4x5 camera. The extra bellows draw is useful for portrait and other work where longer than normal lenses are desirable. For some reason I have a fondness for the Agfa-Ansco cameras and like to work with them despite the fact that there are other, better, cameras. BTW, I found my 4x5/5x7 at a yard sale complete with Agfa studio stand, case, lens, and accessories being sold as furniture!!! -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA |
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"New" AGFA-Ansco Universal View
"Cheesehead" wrote in message ... On Jan 25, 10:56 am, "Richard Knoppow" wrote: I was lucky enough to find a home made one, essentially the back from a Calumet 4x5 fastened to a panel that fits the back of the Agfa. Has the rotating feature of the Calumet back. I also have a factory one for my Calumet C-1. I also have a factory 5x7 back for the Agfa so I can shoot all three sizes with it. I also have a 5x7 Agfa Universal View. Its similar to the 8x10 but didn't have the sliding bed block. I have both 5x7 and 4x5 backs for it. Mine originally came with the 4x5 back, Agfa-Ansco sold this as a "deluxe" 4x5 camera. The extra bellows draw is useful for portrait and other work where longer than normal lenses are desirable. For some reason I have a fondness for the Agfa-Ansco cameras and like to work with them despite the fact that there are other, better, cameras. BTW, I found my 4x5/5x7 at a yard sale complete with Agfa studio stand, case, lens, and accessories being sold as furniture!!! -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA Well, I do have the tools that would allow me to cut a wood back out of new material. Perhaps looking for a rotating 4x5 back @ a modest price might be the easier way. Glad to hear you did even better on your solution. One little thing -- the lens came with its original cable release. Unfortunately it is not repairable. I would like to get an original to replace it and keep it in the same state. It says "Germany" on the top of the plunger and is *roughly* 10.5 inches long end to end. While the rotating feature is a convenience its not a necessity and was part of the Calumet back. Its easy to adapt a Speed Graphic back. If you can find a Graflok back so much the better because it takes all sort of accessories. A Graphic or Graflok back will mount with a few screws, the camera adaptor back only needs a square hole. The Agfa-Ansco back is fairly simple to make. Most of the German cable releases were made by Gauthier, the same company who made Prontor shutters. It was aquired by Zeiss along with Deckel. I think a web search will find another, they should be cheap. You can also find air operated releases that are very convenient, the air cylinder screws into the cable release socket. The large format Convertible Protars mostly came in Compound shutters. These are regulated by an air cylinder at the top of the shutter. Depite this they are quite accurate. Some early ones had an air release cylinder built-in, they have a nipple for the hose on one side. They have both the air release and cable release and I think the air nipple is threaded inside for the cable release. Note that there are two cable release threads, Deckel (Compure and Compound) are tapered, while the Kodak pattern, used on Kodak, Ilex, and some other shutters, has straight sides. I am pretty sure Bausch & Lomb used the Deckel type since they were licensed by Deckel to build Compur and Compound shutters in the US and continued to do so without license after WW-1. B&L shutters _look_ like the Deckel originals but have some differences such as different threads and diameters. The parts are NOT interchangible. Generally a good cleaning will return Compound shutters to original performance. Another shutter that may be found in some Protar sets is the B&L Volute. This shutter combined the iris and shutter blades so can fit into lenses with very small air spaces. B&L used it for the B&L-Zeiss Protar extra-wide-angle lenses supplied in some Protar sets. They are extremely difficult shutters to repair. -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles, CA, USA |
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"New" AGFA-Ansco Universal View
On 1/26/2011 2:05 PM Richard Knoppow spake thus:
I keep a release in the kit of accessories for each camera. For view cameras I like fairly long cables. However, for a length over perhaps 18" a mechanical release becomes a bit stiff and an air release is more satisfactory. They may still be made. Some very old shutters have air cylinders built-in but mostly you have to find the parts. There's another method of remotely tripping the shutter, as you know: a solenoid. I rigged my Crown Graphic (w/127mm Ektar) to use the attached solenoid, using a box with 3 D cells in it and a pushbutton switch on a wire. That seemed to me to be the ultimate in remote luxury. Takes a little more gear to haul, but works really nicely. I actually made my own 2-pin connector: it attaches to the solenoid, and has a mini-power plug socket that attaches to the cable that goes to the battery box. I should post some pictures of it somewhere. -- Comment on quaint Usenet customs, from Usenet: To me, the *plonk...* reminds me of the old man at the public hearing who stands to make his point, then removes his hearing aid as a sign that he is not going to hear any rebuttals. |
#6
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"New" AGFA-Ansco Universal View
"David Nebenzahl" wrote in message s.com... On 1/26/2011 2:05 PM Richard Knoppow spake thus: I keep a release in the kit of accessories for each camera. For view cameras I like fairly long cables. However, for a length over perhaps 18" a mechanical release becomes a bit stiff and an air release is more satisfactory. They may still be made. Some very old shutters have air cylinders built-in but mostly you have to find the parts. There's another method of remotely tripping the shutter, as you know: a solenoid. I rigged my Crown Graphic (w/127mm Ektar) to use the attached solenoid, using a box with 3 D cells in it and a pushbutton switch on a wire. That seemed to me to be the ultimate in remote luxury. Takes a little more gear to haul, but works really nicely. I actually made my own 2-pin connector: it attaches to the solenoid, and has a mini-power plug socket that attaches to the cable that goes to the battery box. I should post some pictures of it somewhere. A solenoid works very well and one can use a very long cord with a pushbutton on it for tripping. Some shutters are better than others for solenoid use: the Kodak and Compur shutters, at least the older Compur, have booster springs for the highest speed which significantly increases the "trigger pull" so that a solenoid with a normal three-cell battery case can not overcome it. They used to make extra-high-voltage "photoflash" cells for this reason and Graflex offered an extension for their cases allowing an extra cell. The Wollensak Rapax or Graphex shutter has a uniform tripping pressure which is also a bit lighter than the Kodak or Compur shuttes. Wollensak made very good shutters but some awful lenses. As a result the synchronization point stays constant at all speeds and the draw of the solenoid does not reach the point where the bulb does not fire, a frequent occurance with other shutters. Of course, its also possible to use the internal synch of shutters that have it to fire the bulb and use the solenoid strictly for remote tripping. At least one manufacturer, I think King Sol, made a solenoid that screwed into the cable release socket. I've seen ads for them in old magazines but never saw one in the flesh. Ilex built shutters with a direct access socket for this kind of solenoid. It looks like an extra cable release socket, and will indeed take a cable release, but it acts somewhat differently. BTW, it was common practice for press photographers to leave the flash gun case on the camera all the time and use the solenoid as a sort of body release. Much more convenient than trying to reach around the camera. -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles WB6KBL |
#7
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"New" AGFA-Ansco Universal View
"Cheesehead" wrote in message ... On Jan 27, 5:23 am, "Richard Knoppow" wrote: "David Nebenzahl" wrote in message s.com... Lots of snipping here... When it comes to an alternative shutter release, I'm digging through the basement now and hoping to come across my old Kodak (or maybe it was Polaroid) self timer that will fit on the end of a cable release. There were a number of self timers available over the years. Most thread into the cable release socket. I think I have one somewhere but they never seemed to appear on the used market much. On the shutters made by Kodak and Compur as used on Speed Graphic cameras the self timers were usually omitted for something else. On the Compur Rapid it became the shutter blade arrestor for focusing without changing to T and on the Kodak shutter it became the flash synchronizer. -- -- Richard Knoppow Los Angeles WB6KBL |
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