Rare American Ads from 1848-1875

Chazzy

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Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
2,942
Location
South Bend,
Format
Multi Format
You've made me very happy—I've read them all. I just wish that I could take some of those steam-engine Daguerreotypes!

I thought it was interesting to see that as far back as the 1860s camera format sizes went from 10x12, to 11x14, to 14x17—ULF sizes which are still in use today. I was a little surprised that the next larger size after 14x17 was not 16x20—apparently that format came in later.
 

pgomena

Member
Joined
Jun 25, 2003
Messages
1,391
Location
Portland, Or
Carleton Watkins' mammoth camera used 18x22" plates. That was in the 1860s too. His album images were frequently cropped to 16x20". I will venture to guess that the images were cropped to eliminate imperfections and fingerprints at the plate edges.

Peter Gomena
 
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