Help needed to recognize camera made by Century

[Laval]

Hi all, I'm looking any info on this camera(value, number of them made, model...). I found it on my grandmother's attic this summer. Unfortunately I managed to snap 2 pictures...

 

[removed account4]

hi

you might poke around here: http://www.historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=1462
there is a list of all the cameras they made and if you click on the links there is a catalog photograph.
it looks like it might be a #5
http://www.historiccamera.com/cgi-bin/librarium2/pm.cgi?action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=389
you can probably get information about the lens here: http://www.cameraeccentric.com/info.html
( it says around the rim what make and model it is most of the time )

if you are interested, there is also a link about century company: http://www.historiccamera.com/cgi-b...action=app_display&app=datasheet&app_id=1153&

the stand is a semi centenial stand ( guessing )..





pertty much the rolls royce of camera stands ...

https://books.google.com/books?id=irYaAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA181&dq=semi+centennial+camera+stand++fisher&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi7xr-fx4bPAhWCrD4KHXmRDYgQ6AEIJzAA#v=onepage&q=semi centennial camera stand fisher&f=false

have fun!

john

 

[Mr Bill]

Hi, I don't know anything useful about them, but you might get an approximate date from Rudolf Kingslake's interesting article, A History of the Rochester, NY Camera and Lens Companies.

http://bvipirate.com/Kodak/Rochester.html#Century

Another story I greatly enjoyed is about the "Doyenne of Carnegie Hall," Editta Sherman, who used one of these cameras for many years. She had gotten a "forever" rent-controlled lease in "artist apartments" built into the Carnegie Hall complex, and was a thorn in the foot of the administrators who tried to evict her for years when they wanted to modernize the building. She had photographed a great many prominent people, mostly actors and actresses I believe, using the Century Camera. Eventually they did get her to move out, but photos of her with her camera helped keep public support in her favor for years. I believe she passed away several years ago.

A photo of Editta in her younger days is here: http://150597036.r.cdn77.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/carnegieeditta11.jpg

Ps, John, as I recall, you used to have a Century Camera (sans the big stand?). I think it would be great fun to use one of these for modern day portraits.

 

[ic-racer]

Nice find. You should be able to make some nice portraits with that.

 

[Laval]

Ok I brought it to my home last night, wiped half a century old dust and can't stop looking at it. Lens Vitax portrait no4 f3.8 Wollensak- Rochester unfortunately looks like one of the shutter leaf is broken inside... Focus knob is working well. There is few extra parts. One of them has a plate saying that it is "Sliding Carriage for no.4 camera"
U fortunatelly I'm unable to recognize if camera is actually number 4. There is no number on it and looks like there was no number on the front side previously. Is there any other spot I should be looking for model of this pearl? Everything looks oryginal and is in working condition. Few scratches but it appears to be in excellent visual condition.
Do anyone know if I can still use it? Could I get any directions?

 

[Laval]

Nice find. You should be able to make some nice portraits with that.

Thank you. I'll try to put this to work for few portraits. What kind of photo material should I be looking for this project?

 

[removed account4]

the person who had it used a reduction back from
an eastman #4 on it to save $$ and make smaller portraits.
the carraige back allowed to slide the ground glass/film
and put 2 images on 1 sheet of film
there should be an insert that blocks off some of the light ..
it has a rectangular cut out and a 2-sided rectangualr
box projecting back to the lens the size of the image you wanted on the
of the reduction back. if no insert, it is just a smaller film back ( think rollfilm back on a 4x5 )

it looks like you have a couple of packard shutters
and probably one inside the camera that opens and closes with the hose/bulb sticking out of the lens board
it probably still works. ...
( http://web.archive.org/web/20020207030445/http://www.hubphoto.com/photography-products.htm )
hub photo is still around, but i don't know if they are involved with packard shutters anymore, nothing on their new website about it ...

your vitax is a barrel lens it doesn''t have a shutter of its own.
sorry to read of its blade problems.
from what i remember its aperture blades were made out of some sort of weird early 1900s celluloid
and dissolves in water and might be difficult to find/make for repair

have fun making photographs with that nice camera and "stuff"
john