Is this a Calumet C-1 variation?

[Randy Moe]

Looking at this camera to buy, but it has a different back on C-! rails and the front looks very much like a C-1. What is this? Am early model? A variation? A modification? Seller has no idea, he barely knew the camera is metal.

Any ideas?

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Looks like it may be one of the earlier C-1 designs. The camera pictured at the top of the following page (click images to enlarge) looks like it might be the one in your photo:

Calumet C Series 8 X 10: a review
by Sean Yates

Ken

 

[Randy Moe]

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the information. I read the Sean Yates article some time ago while researching the C-1, but I failed to notice the early back variation in the pictures. That is the same model as the one I am looking at, including the front reinforcement rod across the top of the front frame. The white painted Weston C-1 appears to have a wood back.

The seller of the C-1 I posted had little to say about the camera and was not familiar with it's history.

In my static experiments I have discovered it is easy to adapt several backs to the C-! with very little trouble.

I am building a C-1 fleet and have 2 so far. I may go for 3. Suddenly they are coming out of the 'woodwork'?

Thanks again for the information and pointing me to a relevant web page.

Randy Moe

Looks like it may be one of the earlier C-1 designs. The camera pictured at the top of the following page (click images to enlarge) looks like it might be the one in your photo:

Calumet C Series 8 X 10: a review
by Sean Yates

Ken

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Happy you were able to identify the camera.



I too first read that page when researching C-1s before buying mine. I got it from a Hollywood screenwriter fellow. It was the filthiest camera you could ever imagine. (The seller was very honest, so I knew this in advance.) But I also knew that every single piece of the camera was present, authentic, and unbroken. Even the all of the tightening thumb knobs. The camera had only been used indoors for copy work, so even the original bellows was in really good shape.

I spent an entire winter taking it apart down to the last screw and cleaning, polishing and repainting every single piece. Then carefully reassembling it to be perfectly light-tight. By the following spring it looked better than new. And quite dashing on a sunny day when mounted on my old Zone VI heavy-duty wooden tripod.

It also came with two lenses (305mm and 210mm G-Clarons) that were also filthy. But after a professional clean-up I had the shutters checked and they tested near perfect at all speeds. The glass was flawless, and they also now both look new. Add to that an 8x10 back, a 4x5 rotating back, film holders, a pristine Calumet dark cloth, the best cable release I've ever seen, and a full Lee filter set with compendium shade and mounts for the two lenses, and it was quite a nice find.

I later added the authentic Calumet compendium shade, a still-in-the-sealed-box NOS 5x7 back, a nice condition Calumet 6x7 roll film back, and a bunch of 4x4 b&w contrast filters. This winter I'll probably also add new Steve Hopf ground glasses for all three backs.

The thing itself is so damned outrageously ugly that it's simply gorgeous. The 210mm can be a challenge to use with that portrait camera tailboard focusing design, but it's great fun to set up in public. And nothing beats an 8x10 contact print. Except maybe a 16x20...

Good luck with it, if you make the purchase.

Ken

 

[Randy Moe]

Your inclusion of a reference to Steve Hopf GG was timely. I did not have a good source. I have a number of cameras that need new GG and will certainly give him an order.

And, 20 minutes ago I got a lead on a Deardorff 5x7 at 3:00 am, the Internet never sleeps. I have yet to own one and this one is either fake or old, I will have a new learning curve. I shot Pentax H3 most of my life and now I am just getting into LF. I sure wish I had started earlier. Cameras keep me busy and safer than my old passion of motorcycle restoration. How did I end up with three 5 x 7 enlargers...Oh, nobody wants them.

Thanks for your advice and C-1 story, as a life long collector, I do chase the wind.