Huge Bellows

illumiquest · Mar 10, 2011

An aerial photographer I know is scrapping his copy camera and getting rid of a huge set of bellows. They measure about 4'x3' in the rear, 15"x15" in the front and probably stretch to 10 feet or so. If there's any interest in something like that let me know and I'll do my best to rescue them.

Marco B · Mar 10, 2011

illumiquest said:
An aerial photographer I know is scrapping his copy camera and getting rid of a huge set of bellows. They measure about 4'x3' in the rear, 15"x15" in the front and probably stretch to 10 feet or so. If there's any interest in something like that let me know and I'll do my best to rescue them.

4x3 feet rear, 10 feet long? :confused:

At that size, it more sounds like a potential rare museum piece... maybe contacting someone in that world might be more appropriate.

I have only once seen something that big, and that was as part of an exhibition dedicated to a former Agfa camera collection displayed at the Antwerp Photo Museum in Belgium.

Another option might be to contact the owner of this website:

http://www.glennview.com/index.htm

He seems to be trading in a lot of unusual (U)LF photographic equipment...

Ian Grant · Mar 10, 2011

Bellows that size were common, there's thousands of old copy cameras being scrapped all around the world.

Ian

Marco B · Mar 10, 2011

Ian Grant said:
Bellows that size were common, there's thousands of old copy cameras being scrapped all around the world.

Ian

Do you have a link to a webpage with some images of such huge copy cameras? I'd be interested to see one.

Ian Grant · Mar 10, 2011

Marco B said:
Do you have a link to a webpage with some images of such huge copy cameras? I'd be interested to see one.

I don't Marco, but I do have plenty of adverts for some the cameras in old BJP Almanacs, but the relevant copies are back in the UK or I'd copy some adverts for you.

I used to see see various sizes of these graphics cameras in printing companies in the 70's and early 80's but the graphics industry switched to newer technologies.

Similar cameras were used for plan copying, Kodak had a specialist division, so did Ilford just after WWII.

Ian

Ian Grant · Mar 10, 2011

Try here Agfa Repromaster

Or here.

Even in the town I come from in the UK there were at least 12-15 repro cameras, most medium sized (still not small), but the two printers I used for Typesetting & printing had very large cameras as did two print bureau (graphic designers & plate makers).

Ian

Rick A · Mar 10, 2011

I worked with a horizontal repro cam in college(1969)that had a larger bellows than that. They were as common as PBJ sandwichs. Every major newspaper in the country had one.

altair · Mar 10, 2011

Very interesting, thanks for the info everyone, and to Giles for bringing this up. I do hope that beast of a repro camera, or at least the bellows, gets rescued.

gordrob · Mar 10, 2011

Here is a couple of pictures of a large copy camera and an explanation of the set up. Interesting reading if you are not familiar with monsters.
http://photo.net/large-format-photography-forum/00UrwC?start=0
Gord

Marco B · Mar 10, 2011

Ian Grant said:
Try here Agfa Repromaster

Or here.

Even in the town I come from in the UK there were at least 12-15 repro cameras, most medium sized (still not small), but the two printers I used for Typesetting & printing had very large cameras as did two print bureau (graphic designers & plate makers).

Ian

ralnphot said:
I worked with a horizontal repro cam in college(1969)that had a larger bellows than that. They were as common as PBJ sandwichs. Every major newspaper in the country had one.

Thanks, never knew this. This one is impressive:

Ian Grant said:
I used to see see various sizes of these graphics cameras in printing companies in the 70's and early 80's but the graphics industry switched to newer technologies.

"Newer technologies" being something like this possibly (copy stand with digital cam, picture from 2002), or large format scanners?

http://camera-wiki.org/wiki/Repro_camera

Marco B · Mar 10, 2011

I also had to laugh when I saw this picture. I know the dollar has lost much of its value, but that people now use them to fix pinholes in their bellows...

vpwphoto · Mar 10, 2011

Or two!

Huge Bellows

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