I just picked up this 8x10 Korona Home Portrait with a 10.75" Goerz Dagar f/6.8 Series III No. 5 lens tonight on indefinite loan. aka, free. Pardon the PJs.
Dead Link Removed
Appears to be in very good condition for a camera that is roughly 90 years old. Even the shutter still looks pretty accurate, although I'll have to bust out my shutter tester to verify.
Fairly light for its size--my tripod doesn't seem to have much problem with it. Although I'll need to construct a larger baseplate adapter to find a better center of balance.
Front and rear standards have a little wiggle to them, though a c-clamp or four may be able to minimize that. Probably not enough to ruin a shot made on a windless day. The thumb screws that lock the rear standards swing are missing, so that doesn't help much. Hopefully I can disassemble it and find some replacements of the proper thread at Home Depot.
Is it sad that my first gut instinct was that the best use for this would be to wait until spring and then lug it down to where the tourists gather and hope that enough families would be willing to drop $35 or so on an impromptu old-timey portrait to make it worth my time?
Dead Link Removed
Appears to be in very good condition for a camera that is roughly 90 years old. Even the shutter still looks pretty accurate, although I'll have to bust out my shutter tester to verify.
Fairly light for its size--my tripod doesn't seem to have much problem with it. Although I'll need to construct a larger baseplate adapter to find a better center of balance.
Front and rear standards have a little wiggle to them, though a c-clamp or four may be able to minimize that. Probably not enough to ruin a shot made on a windless day. The thumb screws that lock the rear standards swing are missing, so that doesn't help much. Hopefully I can disassemble it and find some replacements of the proper thread at Home Depot.
Is it sad that my first gut instinct was that the best use for this would be to wait until spring and then lug it down to where the tourists gather and hope that enough families would be willing to drop $35 or so on an impromptu old-timey portrait to make it worth my time?