Goodkin Astro vertical camera (PMT) - I need help/advice

Hello, I inherited my dad's Goodkin Astro PMT, along with the accessories, paper, and the paperwork. Pretty much the entire thing. Last I heard, it was in full working order, but I don't know how to use it to test it out or anything.

It is also called an Astro vertical camera, and its dimensions are described as 18", or also 14x18.

It currently sits at my residence and I've had it for several years, wrapped in plastic (and other parts sealed in boxes).

I realize this is a vintage analog piece of equipment. But I believe it would probably be very interesting to somebody who collects this kind of equipment, or somebody who could use it for replacement parts. I assume it has a very good lens too.

Please advise me as to what my best options would be. Is anybody interested in obtaining it? Is it worth anything -- a lot, a little? It is not something that I could deliver -- it is large and would need to be moved in a truck or van. But somebody who wanted it could pick it up. I am in San Diego, California.

If you are interested please let me know. If you think it's worthless, also let me know. I just want to know what my best options are.

I am new here to these forums, and hope this post is acceptable. (The site says that due to spam issues, I can't correspond privately unless I have an active posting history, so please respond here.)

Thank you!

Welcome aboard @Doohickamabob !

Doohickamabob said:

I am new here to these forums, and hope this post is acceptable.

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Sure, mostly; the only thing we do ask you is if you want to offer this unit up for sale, please use the Classifieds section, and it takes a paid subscriber account to post there.
Asking for value estimates or technical questions about the item is OK.
Your post may be edited to conform to the above.

Doohickamabob said:

(The site says that due to spam issues, I can't correspond privately unless I have an active posting history, so please respond here.)

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It's subtly different - others will be able to initiate a private conversations with you, but new accounts cannot do the same until they reach a post limit or are manually enabled by us. Just FYI; technical discussion and valuations can of course be done in public responses just as well.

koraks said:

Welcome aboard @Doohickamabob !


Sure, mostly; the only thing we do ask you is if you want to offer this unit up for sale, please use the Classifieds section, and it takes a paid subscriber account to post there.
Asking for value estimates or technical questions about the item is OK.
Your post may be edited to conform to the above.


It's subtly different - others will be able to initiate a private conversations with you, but new accounts cannot do the same until they reach a post limit or are manually enabled by us. Just FYI; technical discussion and valuations can of course be done in public responses just as well.

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Thank you, Koraks.

Also, I understand about the classifieds. To those reading, please take my post as a request for advice. I do not know if this item is something that people today have any interest in. I personally would hate to send it to landfill, because it was my dad's and he really made good use of it (for a one-man commercial art business that he ran out of his home office). It would feel bad to just throw it out. I would rather it go to somebody who appreciates it and can make use of it (or its parts).

IF it is worth anything, then I would like to know the general value range. Realistically. If it is worth something reasonable, I will get an account and use the Classifieds. If it is not worth much at all, I would still like it to go to a good home, rather than just tossing it out.

Not a problem; I hope there will be some responses that give some background to this interesting camera.

This is a guess, but I think that is something that might have been found in a Print Shop - possibly designed to make PMTs - Photo Mechanical Transfers.

Looks like the company was one who did contract manufacturing of a few things.

MattKing said:

This is a guess, but I think that is something that might have been found in a Print Shop - possibly designed to make PMTs - Photo Mechanical Transfers.

Looks like the company was one who did contract manufacturing of a few things.

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It is definitely a PMT machine. My dad used it (I believe) to scan/photograph images, text, and change the size of photographs and pages, when he was running a small commercial-art business out of a tiny office attached to our home. This was all in the days before any digital equipment was in use.

He obtained the camera/unit in 1977. The manufacturer was the M.P. Goodkin Company, based in Irvington, New Jersey. I have much of the original brochure and operation material that came with the camera.

I was using something similar for a while in and around 1974.
I expect "Astro" in the name confuses the result from any internet searches.

MattKing said:

I was using something similar for a while in and around 1974.
I expect "Astro" in the name confuses the result from any internet searches.

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I think you are right. I seem to get more results with just "goodkin" or "goodkin" plus "vertical camera." There really isn't much out there about this machine.

If anybody out there knows anything or has recommendations about what to do with it, please let me know.

We had a LARGE Goodkin vertical stat camera in my parents' studio that they purchased around 1960. Its vacuum back was more like 20x30 or 24x36 inches. It was made of beige-colored steel, and with its mounted 45-degree lights on each side of the copy board, it was over six feet wide and five feet high. It was capable of doing major enlargements and reductions by moving the copy board and lens positions up and down via two big knobs. A big hunk of ground glass could be placed on top - at the focal plane for the vacuum back - for focusing.

We used it for making litho negatives - mechanical artwork, enlarging/reducing type and graphic elements, color separations for offset and silk screen printing, adding halftone screens and texture (fake mezzotint, engraving, canvas surface) screens to images...

Alas, I don't have any pictures of it. My folks sold it in 1983 when they downsized and moved the photo biz to the basement. It was replaced with a much smaller, not-Goodkin stat camera.

I agree that there isn't much out there about these cameras. I've been searching the web for pics of our Goodkin model or similar for years and have never found any...

You might try tracking down some of these books:


I bought "Photomechanics and Printing" by J.S. Mertle Publications at a rummage sale for the amazing photos of copy cameras and related machinery a few years ago.

Checked for Goodkin Cameras, but unfortunately they are not represented in this book. Other editions might have something...

Hmm. Time to state the obvious.

For all practical purposes, the camera is useless.

If its lens is present, it is likely an Ilex (or JML, successor to Ilex) 210/5.6 process lens in barrel. Supposedly very usable.

I used a vertical stat camera as a lucigraph or tracing machine long time ago.
Switched out the vacuum lid for a sheet of glass.
Worked great and much cheaper than the real thing.

FriedLouisStudio said:

We had a LARGE Goodkin vertical stat camera in my parents' studio that they purchased around 1960. Its vacuum back was more like 20x30 or 24x36 inches. It was made of beige-colored steel, and with its mounted 45-degree lights on each side of the copy board, it was over six feet wide and five feet high. It was capable of doing major enlargements and reductions by moving the copy board and lens positions up and down via two big knobs. A big hunk of ground glass could be placed on top - at the focal plane for the vacuum back - for focusing.

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Hey, that sounds a lot like my dad's Goodkin PMT, only larger. Your comment made me want to scrounge around for a better photo, and I found one. This is how my dad had the Goodkin Astro PMT vertical camera set up at the back of his tiny office.

From this photo (sorry, but there's a lot of stuff in the way -- the pic was taken when we were sorting out my dad's house), you can get a sense of the camera's size and shape, etc. It has the 45-degree side lights, like you mention (only probably smaller than what you had).

Also, you can see that there is a red light mounted on the wall above. I remember that my dad had to turn the lights off, and the red light on, whenever he was using the camera. (As a kid, I always thought it was fun to be in the room when the red light was the only light on, and the camera was in use.)

Dan Fromm said:

Hmm. Time to state the obvious.
For all practical purposes, the camera is useless.
If its lens is present, it is likely an Ilex (or JML, successor to Ilex) 210/5.6 process lens in barrel. Supposedly very usable.

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Yeah, I think you are right. I appreciate your honest reply. I was hoping there might be somebody who collected this sort of thing, like a realllly avid collector of vintage equipment, or something like that.

I am likely to trash the camera, but I would rather not do so unless that's the only remaining option. I guess it is a bit of an emotional issue too, because it was my dad's and I would rather the camera have some sort of life or use, and make somebody happy, or whatever.

But if that does not work out, I guess I will see about cannibalizing the lens. Is that easy to do? Is the lens likely to have a straightforward removal process?

Anyway, thank you and everybody else here for discussing this matter with me.

Doohickamabob said:

But if that does not work out, I guess I will see about cannibalizing the lens. Is that easy to do? Is the lens likely to have a straightforward removal process?

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I could be mistaken, but I think it should unscrew from its mount fairly easily.

Dan Fromm said:

I could be mistaken, but I think it should unscrew from its mount fairly easily.

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As I dismantle things (if that's how this ends up going), if possible I will take pics of the process in case anybody here is curious.

Though if anybody is interested in the whole camera or thinks they know of someone/someplace that would be, please let me know.

Don't forget to take the mount off as well if you scrap the rest! Should be a few screws on the face of the flange/mount...

Also, there MIGHT be a Packard-style shutter behind the lens; That would also be worth salvaging.

Kino said:

Don't forget to take the mount off as well if you scrap the rest! Should be a few screws on the face of the flange/mount...

Also, there MIGHT be a Packard-style shutter behind the lens; That would also be worth salvaging.

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Thanks. There was no Packard-style shutter that I could see. But I did get what I believe to be the mount. I was not paying much attention and probably could have removed the lens mount more easily, but instead unscrewed a bunch of stuff that perhaps didn't make a difference.

To everybody who has read this thread, thank you for reading. To those who replied, thanks for your help.
A couple of days ago, I decided to let the camera go off to camera heaven. I had no way to store, sell, or move it and had to leave it behind.
I was able to remove the lens, which I thought would be more difficult but actually was designed to be easy.

The whole thing was emotional for me, because the camera belonged to my late father, who used it to do work that made the money that sustained our family. He was a very talented commercial artist and graphic designer in the Phoenix, Arizona area. After he died, I had to fly to the city and was in a rush to put all his stuff into storage. Then months later I drove to the city, rented a U-Haul, and took everything to where I live, putting it in storage again. Then moved it to my house again later. It has sat there for years and I wanted to do something with it, like selling it, but it was always one of those projects I considered a difficult or time-consuming task, so I put it off. Then it became "out of sight, out of mind." Until recently when I needed to move again, and decided to either do something with the camera or leave it behind.

I guess it was kind of foolish to think it had value but I couldn't easily throw it away.

I took photos of the Goodkin Astro PMT camera in case anybody is interested. It shot photos straight down, and the focus or distance was determined by a large accordion-style contraption, which was lowered or raised using a hand crank. It had large light units on each side, which would illuminate the photographed material at a 45-degree angle in each direction. There was also some sort of square unit that attached with vacuum tubes. And a separate device to print or reprint copies. My dad had a complete analog setup for everything that today would probably be done with a large scanner and a computer.

I was able to get the lens out and save that much. I feel I have what is the "heart" of the camera, at least.

Again, thank you for reading.

That camera looks well and truly used.
I'm sure your father would have understood your decision.
In the end, it is the memories that matter, not the things they tend to attach to.