A few years ago I acquired the camera gear from an estate. I was mostly interested in the 3 MF kits, but it was an all or nothing deal. This beauty was included, but I never gave it a serious look until about a month ago. It's a Keith Portrait Camera Model 1. I can't find much info on them, apparently they were used a lot by school photographers with a roll film back. This one has a standard 5 x 7 back and it also came with a dividing back for passport photos.It is a very basic camera, painted wood construction and very limited rear tilt. It came with a Wollensack Velostigmet Series II 9 1/2 inch. Also included with the deal was a box of 15 year old 5x7 paper. Might as well give it go. It took it it out one sunny afternoon to get an idea of the paper speed and actually got a couple decent exposures.
Going through my boxes of gear again I came across a Spencer Port Land lens. Back to the internet. Again, not much info, but what there was, seemed very positive. I knew it would never be a perfect union, it's a 15 inch lens which according to the old catalog was intended for 11x14. I was able to temporarily mount it but didn't have enough bellows to focus any closer than about 30 feet. Maybe an extended lensboard would help so I started cobbling one together. It will now focus down to 7 feet.
I took it out for a dozen shots, I could see some potential. The paper had too much contrast to for me. A yellow filter seemed to be the answer but, of course no threads on the Port Land. Time to fire up the lathe and make a filter retainer that slips into the front of the lens.
The filter seems to help on the contrast, although it was more cloudy than my first outing with the Port Land ,so I'm sure that also made a difference. I need to get busy and make a nicer lensboard, it all designed in head, just need to get motivated.
Going through my boxes of gear again I came across a Spencer Port Land lens. Back to the internet. Again, not much info, but what there was, seemed very positive. I knew it would never be a perfect union, it's a 15 inch lens which according to the old catalog was intended for 11x14. I was able to temporarily mount it but didn't have enough bellows to focus any closer than about 30 feet. Maybe an extended lensboard would help so I started cobbling one together. It will now focus down to 7 feet.
I took it out for a dozen shots, I could see some potential. The paper had too much contrast to for me. A yellow filter seemed to be the answer but, of course no threads on the Port Land. Time to fire up the lathe and make a filter retainer that slips into the front of the lens.
The filter seems to help on the contrast, although it was more cloudy than my first outing with the Port Land ,so I'm sure that also made a difference. I need to get busy and make a nicer lensboard, it all designed in head, just need to get motivated.
