New (to me) charten field camera

[daveandiputra]

HI,
I've been wanting to get a large format camera, for plate ( either dry or wet) and finally just got a charten field camera, not sure with the format, I measured the opening on the holder is about 6 1/4" x 4 1/2"
It's in a bad condition, and the bellows are useless. And some damage thread. So it going to need quite some restoration before use.
With this camera I got three lenses,
1. Voigtlander Braunschweig heliar 18cm 4.5
2. Doppel-anastigmat helioplan 135mm 4.5
3. Busch rapid-aplanat 14cm 6.5
I don't even know If all of this lenses cover the format now as the bellow are ruined. So would love some more information on the camera and lenses if anybody have some experience with them.

Regards,

Dave

 

[Ian Grant]

Post some photo's

It's probably a continental metric film/plate size.

Ian

 

[daveandiputra]

Hi Ian,
I'm planning to post some pictures later

 

[Monito]

I don't even know If all of this lenses cover the format now as the bellow are ruined.

You can check visually, and even with film, if you put a dark cloth loosely around the bellows to exclude light. Visual detection of falloff is likely to be less sensitive than using film.

4 1/2 x 6 1/2 would be 5x7 film, would it not? The film is not as large as the nominal dimensions and the opening is slightly smaller still.

 

[Barry S]

Dave-- You have a Japanese half-plate field camera. The diagonal of half plate is about 20cm, so the Heliar will likely cover, but the other lenses may fall a bit short--at least at infinity. If they do cover, it'll likely be with no movements.

 

[daveandiputra]

You can check visually, and even with film, if you put a dark cloth loosely around the bellows to exclude light. Visual detection of falloff is likely to be less sensitive than using film.

4 1/2 x 6 1/2 would be 5x7 film, would it not? The film is not as large as the nominal dimensions and the opening is slightly smaller still.

Hi Monito,
thanks for the reply, actually when i mean useless bellows what i really mean is non existent i found this article with an ad for a charten camera with two option the one i got and the 13x18 (which i guess the closer one to a 5x7) so i think Barry is correct here.

Dave-- You have a Japanese half-plate field camera. The diagonal of half plate is about 20cm, so the Heliar will likely cover, but the other lenses may fall a bit short--at least at infinity. If they do cover, it'll likely be with no movements.

Hi Barry,
so that,s what half plate really means, before this i always thought 4x5 is half plate
i suspect that is the case with the lenses because of the much smaller elements, i think the old owner use this as a portrait camera with smaller film, as evident with the markings on the ground glass.


i just realised, this post maybe will be more at home on the plate camera forum so i think i'll just move my next discussions there

thanks for all the reply guys, appreciate it.

 

[Ian Grant]

There's adverts for the cameras Charten were selling in one or two of my BJPA's (British Journal Photographic Almanac), not sure if those years copies are here in the UK or in Turkey, I'll look later.

However F. Charten & Co is not the manufacturer just an agent exporting Japanese cameras and other photographic equipment in the 1930's, In the 1935 BJPA they list a "Universal Commercial camera" in three sizes 8½"x6½", 10"x8" and 18x24cm. There's no illustration of the camera.

The most common field cameras camera exported from Japan were the Asanuma's but we'll await your photo's.

Ian

 

[daveandiputra]

There's adverts for the cameras Charten were selling in one or two of my BJPA's (British Journal Photographic Almanac), not sure if those years copies are here in the UK or in Turkey, I'll look later.

However F. Charten & Co is not the manufacturer just an agent exporting Japanese cameras and other photographic equipment in the 1930's, In the 1935 BJPA they list a "Universal Commercial camera" in three sizes 8½"x6½", 10"x8" and 18x24cm. There's no illustration of the camera.

The most common field cameras camera exported from Japan were the Asanuma's but we'll await your photo's.

Ian

Hi Ian, i've uploaded some photos, not very good quality i'm afraid but i hope it helps.

on the camera itself there's a plate that states charten as a manufacturer (see attachment) but of course that does not prove anything.

i googled asanuma cameras and indeed there are similarities with my camera, and the one from this cameraquest article http://www.cameraquest.com/tanaview.htm also have very similar parts

 

[Ian Grant]

Looks like it's the Asanuma King, it'll be months before I get hold of my BJPA with the pre WWII advert naming these cameras, but I'm fairly certain F.Charten & Co were the exporters of Asanuma.

Meanwhile here's all I have at the moment. See attached.

Ian

 

[daveandiputra]

Looks like it's the Asanuma King, it'll be months before I get hold of my BJPA with the pre WWII advert naming these cameras, but I'm fairly certain F.Charten & Co were the exporters of Asanuma.

Meanwhile here's all I have at the moment. See attached.

Ian

Have you seen this article Ian?

http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Charten

The illustrated camera is different, but it state there two choice of format.

 

[Ian Grant]

Yes I'd seen it here, on the non commercial site, this site gets updated. Many people have removed their photo's etc from the Wkia version.

Ian