To my eye it isn't remotely like an aerial camera.[/QUOTE]The size and simplicity of design suggest it may be an adapted WW2 aerial reconnaissance camera.
I'm not suggesting it is an aerial camera, I have seen large, flat, box type cameras being loaded into Lancaster bombers, and the lack of control suggests an industrial or military context. I'm surprised someone hasn't been along to say what kind of camera it is.To my eye it isn't remotely like an aerial camera.
Is this sarcasm or are you going to contribute to the topic? I'm sure we're fascinated to know your expertise in aerial reconnaissance devices employed by the allied forces, but this is about the origins of a 1950s studio camera.Lancasters? I don't recall anything like a "large, flat, box type camera" in Roy Conyers Nesbit's book Eyes of the RAF. Were you very young when you saw a Lancaster being loaded?
Well spotted. It's a Kodak department store camera. The Polyphoto explains the origin of some family photographs, which were too early for photo booths, but not large enough for a studio portrait sitting. The camera looks like it was designed to be used by non-experts. An interesting gap in photo evolution is now filled!https://collection.sciencemuseumgroup.org.uk/objects/co8210180/polyfoto-camera-plate-camera
http://www.photodetective.co.uk/Polyfoto.html
I was not even able to count correctly above...
The "48-Camera"
http://www.polyfoto.co.uk
From the information you linked to, it states the manufacturer as Kodak. In all likelihood it was an amalgamation of the Polyphoto company and Kodak optical. Department stores go back to the c19th though they proliferated in the 1930s, when this camera came into being. The one in the film looks like a post-war example based on the same principle. The camera could be used by a semi-skilled operator who could undercut traditional portraitists. I have a vague memory of such a device being employed for shots with Father Christmas, and certainly recall seeing the photographs which matched the format of those in the film.The way you word it, it reads like being one of those many Kodak cameras offered. If that camera being of Kodak origin is right at all, to me it rather seems the camera (actually 2 models) were custom-made for Polyphoto. More so seen the several photographic inventions of their founder, including multi-image.
It is a pity that the text at the front of the 48-Camera at the Science Museum site is not readable.
Furthermore I am interested in what kind of enlarger was used.
No sarcasm. During WWII the RAF's big aerial cameras had enormous roll film backs, not a flat back like y'r studio camera.Is this sarcasm or are you going to contribute to the topic? I'm sure we're fascinated to know your expertise in aerial reconnaissance devices employed by the allied forces, but this is about the origins of a 1950s studio camera.
Manners maketh man.Exchange your skin for a thicker one.
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