And another question, are there still new 9x12 glass plates available? I'd like to try them, there should be no problems with uneven film planes.
I've also got a similar 9x12 plate camera. I used it with sheet film by putting a piece of cardboard behind the film to account for the different thickness.
Are there generic adapters available to use sheet film in glass plate cameras?
I have quite a few in different sizes, quarter plate, 9x12, 5x4 the first two sizes are Kodak and unbranded, the 5x4 Graflex & MPP. You need to keep an eye open for them on Ebay but I also go to camera fairs. Best place is in job lots.
Ian
but as I said -- none of the sizes ever seem to match. The only hope you have of finding plate backs for your camera is to take it with you and try them out.
but as I said -- none of the sizes ever seem to match. The only hope you have of finding plate backs for your camera is to take it with you and try them out.
As new as the day they dry in your darkroom.
If you can find a supplier, Pilkington Microfloat would be ideal.
Finding someone that stocks and can cut glass of the required thickness is a problem. Most glass suppliers will not have anything thinner than 3mm - I needed some 5"x4" plates, 1.2mm thick and eventually found a company by the name of Chance Glass who could supply what I needed.
9 by 12 plate cameras like that were pretty common 100 years ago, not so much now. GIs brought a lot of them back from Germany after World War II.
The biggest problem you would have if you wanted to shoot with it would be finding plate/sheet film backs -- or a roll back -- to fit it. Every maker of those cameras had different measurements of backs and roll film holders, while available, don't fit interchangeably either. I have an early camera similar to that that had a roll back on it and it doesn't fit on any other plate camera I've come across.
Vario is the type of shutter, probably made by Agfa. It is not the name of the camera's maker, which might be impressed into the leather on the camera body somewhere, or might not. There's a lot of pretty generic cameras like that floating around. Could be anyone -- Zeiss, Voigtlander, someone else.
It takes a certain amount of dedication to use one of those -- finding plates, cutting your own film if need be, etc -- and from the looks of it, that camera is pretty rough. Bellows leak light?
Assuming all is well and you can find plate holders (originally made for glass plates, often with inserts to hold film) your best bet might be to use it to make paper negatives, using standard photo paper, which you can then print from or scan and reverse in photoshop.
Cameras like that make wonderful bookends, too. Just saying ...
It really depends on the camera. In my experience, most of the "generics" have had the same back dimensions as Voigtlaender, Kodak AG/Nagel, usw. Ian has a really extensive list of the various specs, and it should be possible to measure everything carefully and match up against that list. I can't tell anything from the pictures of this camera---it would be helpful to see some clear images of what the edges of the ground glass back look like.
Kodak made combination film/plate holders that don't require a sheath; they have a built-in pressure plate that works with both. They aren't too uncommon on eBay. As far as I know they only made them to their own standard, though.
Usually a camera with a Vario shutter is pretty low-end; I'd expect the lens is a triplet. If everything is clean and light-tight, it should be perfectly capable of good images---you might get vignetting and/or softness in the corners, which can be quite an appealing effect in some images.
The thing about plate cameras is...they're addictive. So look out.
-NT
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