Biggest camera I've ever seen...

ChristopherCoy

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...and I didn't really see it, but I thought this was interesting. I found it funny that he's got this HUGE camera on two tripods, and she's standing there with her phone in her hand and then shoves it in her pocket.

 

mshchem

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This is a 11 X14 Deardorff, but Process cameras were crazy big. My former employer had a camera that used 3x4 FOOT film, it was a good 17 feet long. The shortest lens was 60 inch. Vacuum back for film.
 

mrosenlof

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so the photographer in the video is doing some sort of collodion process. I'm not all that knowledgeable but I think he's doing a tintype. The tin (or glass if doing a negative) is coated with a collodion material (don't ask me details, that's what google is for) and then sensitised in silver nitrate. The plate must be exposed and then developed while still wet or the sensitivity goes away. The plate is far less sensitive than modern films, thus the head clamp to help the subject stay still for the exposure. This is more or less the process Matthew Brady used for his famous civil war photographs.
 

glbeas

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I used to use a Clydesdale process camera daily when I worked at the local newspaper office. It maxed out at 24”x35” film, had 4000 watt lights, and would shoot from 25% to 200% sizes and had an anamorphic lens that could be swung in front of the main lens to narrow the page copy. Whole thing was probably 12 feet long and stood 4 1/2 feet tall.
 

FFullam

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Kino said:
I've see this 18 x 36 aerial camera many times. It would make a nice camper if you put wheels on it...



https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/V...-Sheets/Display/Article/197620/boston-camera/
Click to expand...

I first learned about the famed "Boston Camera" a few years ago - a real Cold Warrior. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Camera

I drove to Dayton, Ohio to see it but did not find much more about it. It was claimed it at 45,000 feet you could see golf balls. I thought there was a chance that that photo would be on display at the museum but it was not. You would think by now it would be declassified.
 

Mal Paso

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The largest camera I ever "handled" was a 36 inch Brown. The bed was almost 20 feet and the camera back was in a separate darkroom. There were opposing "doors" on the camera back, one was ground glass, one was a vacuum easel for the film. We had a dry to dry Kodalith processor and made tool masters for Integrated Circuits.
 
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