8x10 Anthony Normandie

I have a "second variation" 8x10 Anthony Normandie ca 1900 which I successfully use with slightly modifed wood 8x10 film holders, (well, one holder so far, as only certain types can be easily modified...), which brings me to my question - what was used for film in this camera - plate or cut film? The modification is to reduce the width of a standard (modern) 8x10 wood holder by 1/4 inch, by sawing off 1/8 off each long side of a certain wooden holders. The 10" dimension fits exactly as it should in the back of the camera.

Were the holders for this camera just made narrower, or was a different film size in use, or was it likely a glass plate in a holder with broader frame...?




Paul Coppin

With a 1900 manufacture date, it was almost certainly originally intended for glass plates; while roll film had been around for a while, I don't know that sheet film as we know it was available before the First World War. That camera might well have been "full plate" (a size that originates from Daguerreotypes) which, significantly smaller than 8x10 (6 1/2 x 8 1/2, IIRC) would have left room for quite a substantial frame around the plate. Or it might have indeed been made for 8x10; film holder standardization stemmed from everyone who used wooden holders copying the Kodak Premo 4x5, 5x7, and 8x10 holder format, which came along shortly after WWI.

Have you seen this page (http://www.fiberq.com/cam/anthony/norm2.htm)? Of limited help however as it does not say if it is film or plate... 8x10 film was available from Ilford at that date (a price list dated 1897 is at the back of my 1st edition (reprinted) Ilford Manual of Photography).

Bob.

I have a variation 1 in 11x14. It had a plate back in it when I got it. Most certainly a plate camera. Also much more rigid than a Korona or a B&J. Richard Ritter did a conversion to film back for mine.