Ansel Adams Arca Swiss up for auction

Mainecoonmaniac · Jun 28, 2014

http://petapixel.com/2014/06/28/ansel-adamss-arca-swiss-4x5-camera-set-auctioned-next-month/

Bill Burk · Jun 28, 2014

Thanks!

But what I really want is a can of that Ansel Adams coffee...

snapguy · Jun 28, 2014

Leica

I am more interested in the Leicas but probably can't even afford to bid on the light meter.

Ken Nadvornick · Jun 28, 2014

He should put it up for sale in the APUG classifieds. Then it could go to someone who would appreciate it. And 3% would go to Sean.

I win it? Heck, I'm loading it up the following weekend and heading out to the Wheatland Inn in Colfax for a week of landscapes in The Palouse region of southeastern Washington state.

Cameras in glass cases are for sissies...

Ken

ChuckP · Jun 29, 2014

$300,000. I find that hard to believe. It will be interesting to see the actual selling price.

Chan Tran · Jun 29, 2014

ChuckP said:
$300,000. I find that hard to believe. It will be interesting to see the actual selling price.

What would the same outfit not owned by AA cost?

Bill Burk · Jun 29, 2014

Found a coffee can on eBay with a $200 starting bid... That's much more reasonable.

David Lindquist · Jun 29, 2014

Just posted this on the Large Format forum so I may as well get some more milage out of it:

I think the time frame given, "...about 1964 until 1968", for Adams's use of this camera is not accurate. From 1964 to 1967, with Liliane De Cock as his assistant, Adams worked on photographing the University of California system for that institution's centennial in 1968. Some of this work was published in the book _Fiat Lux_. Included as "Principal Technical Data" in this publication is a list of cameras and lenses used. Cameras used were a 5 X 7 Sinar with a 4 X 5 reducing back, a Hasselblad 500C, a Hasselblad Super-Wide and a Zeiss Ikon Contarex. With the Sinar he used 5 X 7 sheet film as well as 4 X 5, including 55P/N.
I have notes from a Fall 1972 workshop I went to in Yosemite where Adams said that he had changed from the 5 X 7 Sinar to the lighter Arca Swiss which wasn't as sturdy as the Sinar but was sturdy enough and also didn't use base tilts.

By 1979 he had a 4 X 5 Horseman, the mono-rail one with the "L" shaped standards. When he appeared on the cover of the September 3, 1979 issue of Time magazine with this camera I'm sure Horseman and Calumet, the U.S. distributer at the time, were tickled pink.

There were two rather different books published with the title _Fiat Lux_. The first, published in 1967, was a rather larger book with considerable text by Nancy Newhall. The second was published in 1990 by UC Irvine on the occasion of a traveling exhibition of photographs from this body of work. Both books have the same "Principal Technical Data".
David

Jeff Kubach · Jun 29, 2014

Love that camera, I wish I had $300.000.

Jeff

Poisson Du Jour · Jun 29, 2014

I'm of the learned opinion that the Estate of Adams is trading on his name and long history rather than the actual worth of the equipment being auctioned. A figure of $300,000+ is quite extravagant, even for old Leica cameras with some inherent value. An old Arca Swiss forby sold commonly on the second hand market would fetch around $500 to $700 with maybe two high quality lenses of equivalent vintage. I don't see how Adams' Arca Swiss is anything particularly special besides having been used by him alongside a number of other LF equipment.

Kyle M. · Jun 29, 2014

It wouldn't suprise me to see it go for $300,000 considering one of the 12 surviving O-series leicas recently sold for around $2million. Obviously theres more than 12 Arca Swiss 4x5's out there, but how many were owned by Saint Ansel?

BerndR · Jul 1, 2014

Just get the same model for $400 or less from the 'bay and say "this is one just like Anselm Adams" used. Or just try to take pictures as good as his. No need for his camera - there's no AA pixie dust or whatever.

benjiboy · Jul 1, 2014

No thanks, I don't believe in cameras as objects of religious devotion.

pentaxuser · Jul 1, 2014

Wow with David Lindquist's "corrections" the price has dropped to $300 and coffee thrown in

pentaxuser

DREW WILEY · Jul 2, 2014

It will actually cost $300,075 dollars by the time you modernize it by mounting your smartphone at the film plane. Would be lucky if they get $300 dollars for it.

pbromaghin · Jul 2, 2014

Any item is always and only worth whatever a willing buyer and willing seller agree it is worth. There is no such thing as intrinsic value.

Chan Tran · Jul 2, 2014

Jeff Kubach said:
Love that camera, I wish I had $300.000.

Jeff

Although I never own a view camera I think a horseman 45 LX or a Linhof kardan master would be much better.

RalphLambrecht · Jul 2, 2014

Mainecoonmaniac said:
http://petapixel.com/2014/06/28/ansel-adamss-arca-swiss-4x5-camera-set-auctioned-next-month/

if you miss this one and want one very similar at a much better price,email me at rlambrec@ymail.com

Mainecoonmaniac · Jul 2, 2014

Thanks Ralph!

RalphLambrecht said:
if you miss this one and want one very similar at a much better price,email me at rlambrec@ymail.com

But I'm faithful to my Swiss Sinar F2. It's like an old friend. I've had it for over 30 years.

DREW WILEY · Jul 3, 2014

Just imagine what an old spare tire from his 1950's wagon would be worth - y'know, the authentic one with the shooting platform on the roof.
Maybe there would still be some pebble embedded in the tread from Hernandez, NM. That alone would double its worth. Just by thinking about
it, you'll double your own photographic skills. It also helps to grow a beard and wear a cowboy hat. I don't have either. Perhaps that's why I'm
not famous.

RalphLambrecht · Jul 3, 2014

DREW WILEY said:
Just imagine what an old spare tire from his 1950's wagon would be worth - y'know, the authentic one with the shooting platform on the roof.
Maybe there would still be some pebble embedded in the tread from Hernandez, NM. That alone would double its worth. Just by thinking about
it, you'll double your own photographic skills. It also helps to grow a beard and wear a cowboy hat. I don't have either. Perhaps that's why I'm
not famous.

I still have one of his #2 pencils he actually used to mark his prints;only want $10k;an takers?

pbromaghin · Jul 3, 2014

DREW WILEY said:
Just imagine what an old spare tire from his 1950's wagon would be worth - y'know, the authentic one with the shooting platform on the roof.
Maybe there would still be some pebble embedded in the tread from Hernandez, NM. That alone would double its worth. Just by thinking about
it, you'll double your own photographic skills.

Just think about how much better pictures his camera took than yours..

DREW WILEY said:
It also helps to grow a beard and wear a cowboy hat. I don't have either. Perhaps that's why I'm
not famous.

That's gotta be it.

DREW WILEY · Jul 3, 2014

I dunno. I split a big public retrospective with him a long time ago. But all my own work was in color at that time. Come to think of it, I did have a small black beard back then, but for some reason it didn't cause my prints to come out in black and white. I shot exclusively a Sinar back then, so maybe that was the problem - I had the wrong Swiss camera all along? Guess it has a lot to do with style. So now for my impending geezerhood I've started using a lovely old Sinar Norma - can't get classier than that - and even found a totally unused genuine Glendale Calif made Kelty Tioga pack from the 60's to carry it. Now all I need is to turn a replacement ash handle for my old wooden ice axe (it snapped half on an, uh, er, unplanned thrill ride down a steep ice slope)... Don't want to grow my beard out however, or people will recognize my real age.

benjiboy · Jul 4, 2014

pbromaghin said:
Any item is always and only worth whatever a willing buyer and willing seller agree it is worth. There is no such thing as intrinsic value.

I agree it may be "worth" $1,000,000 but if the maximum any buyer will pay for it is $100 that's what it's worth. I learned this by bitter experience.

Ansel Adams Arca Swiss up for auction

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