DIY advice for rail/focus system for old 10x12 camera

dsmphotography · Sep 3, 2015

Hello,
I have an old (copy?) camera 10x12 that is in great condition but did not come with the correct bed/rail/focus system. The board the camera is currently on is very heavy, too short for this camera, and the sections won't lock in. My question is, does anybody have any good ideas on how I can build a bed/rail/focus system that will be effective, not too heavy, won't break the bank, and won't look horribly out of place on this camera? Thank you in advance!

removed account4 · Sep 3, 2015

hi

i can't speak for a rail bed system but i can suggest you look for a semi centennial stand if you want it as a indoor/studio portrait or still life %c camera.
scstands have a cantilevered/ spring system ( and/or sometimes a crank ) to raise and lower the camera on the stand and the camera sits on a long bed that sometimes extends
with the camera. there are elaborate ones and less elaborate ones and often times they are found on craig's list for free .. and well worth the trip to pick up.
other than that looks like a very nice camera, good luck finding a way to modify it if that is what you have your heart set on doing.
john

shutterfinger · Sep 3, 2015

What is on the plate on the top of the center section?

dsmphotography · Sep 3, 2015

shutterfinger said:
What is on the plate on the top of the center section?

It's a label that says: M. W. DUNSCOMBE - OPTICIAN, BRISTOL

dsmphotography · Sep 3, 2015

Thank you! I will keep an eye out for a stand. I really don't want to modify the camera at all if I can help it. I just want to be able to use the long bellows draw that it has.

dsmphotography · Sep 3, 2015

dsmphotography said:
It's a label that says: M. W. DUNSCOMBE - OPTICIAN, BRISTOL

I have been able to find information on Mr. Dunscombe but not the camera itself. This is from http://www.earlyphotography.co.uk/site/companies1.html
Dunscombe

Company Name

M.W. Dunscombe

1863 -

Company Address

St Augustine's Parade, Bristol

Matthew William Dunscombe took over the business of Braham & Co., to whom he had been an apprentice, in 1863. He was primarily an optician but supplied other optical goods including cameras. Still advertising cameras in the 1950s.
References:

The Science Museum in London holds a collection of spectacles amassed by Dunscombe.

shutterfinger · Sep 3, 2015

Dunscombe nor Braham show up in A Lens Collectors Vade Mecum, a primarily British publication that covers lens manufacturers and their lens that were available in the UK for pictorial photography.
I wonder if this was a clinical camera of some type. Early U.S. cameras have a 3/4 to 1 inch square frame with a cross bar every 6 to 8 inches, groves in the sides that the brass guides fit into. Brass gear tracks were embedded into the top of the bed with a pinion shaft on one or both standards. Common examples are Kodak #2 (D) and Ansco View Cameras.

removed account4 · Sep 3, 2015

there are always a few on ebay but they are pricy ( a few hundred dollars, and weigh a ton to ship, unless in the belly of a bus )
https://books.google.com/books?id=i...r2QWFpYFQ&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false
page 181 gives the low down on the stand, the camera stand of the future, the rolls royce of camera stands, designed by a photographer, for photographers and something like $25 and packed in a 95lb box.

DIY advice for rail/focus system for old 10x12 camera

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