View Camera Magazine - pdf downloads available?

Hi everyone, are old issues of View Camera Magazine available to download? I could not find a source after a quick search. Thanks!

I seem to recall Steve Simmons announcing that their office had been burglarized quite a few years ago. If memory serves, he said that some issues from their master file had been stolen. While I would like to be wrong on this, the announcement makes me doubtful that he had ever digitized his archive.

Kodachromeguy said:

Hi everyone, are old issues of View Canera Magazine available to download? I could not find a source after a quick search. Thanks!

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only used printed copies are available for purchase.

Hi Gents, I thought subscribers could download their issues after some date. The would suggest some archive may have kept them, but things do disappear in internet land. I am looking for the 1996 articles titled, "The history of lens design" by Lynn Jones.

I have few of them from 2005 to 2011 I had as subscriber. I made a compress file you can download if you wan within few days, after that it will be deleted.
The link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/estz...mera.zip?rlkey=66ngq1rjexxz9i8gd6puwrsv8&dl=0

I have maybe 70 issues, for free if I can find them, for local pick-up.

payral said:

I have few of them from 2005 to 2011 I had as subscriber. I made a compress file you can download if you wan within few days, after that it will be deleted.
The link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/estz...mera.zip?rlkey=66ngq1rjexxz9i8gd6puwrsv8&dl=0

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Thanks for those.

There is quite a bit of content in the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine), at https://archive.org/. Just search for www.viewcamera.com. You can access the articles that were freely accessible at the time, just not the subscriber only content. PDF's are available.

plummerl said:

There is quite a bit of content in the Internet Archive (Wayback Machine), at https://archive.org/. Just search for www.viewcamera.com. You can access the articles that were freely accessible at the time, just not the subscriber only content. PDF's are available.

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I found 3 free articles in PDF format. I'd love to review and read more as I'm interested in starting large format photography.

Hello! 15 years as a photog, but new to the forum as well as large format. I wanted to find the 2003 issue with a breakdown on Caltar lenses, and realized these issues are quickly fading from existence.
It is clear that even with their faults that the magazine has a wealth of knowledge that is only found in other dwindling repositories. Even some of the best forums are going away or link to articles or sights that no longer exist.
So, as a pointless project junkie, I have decided to collect and digitize the catalog of view camera magazines for the internet archive. Hoping to even apply OCR and have them be easily searchable. The knowledge is fading but clearly interest is not!
I have already acquired about 65 issues from 1998 to 2010 (somehow missing the 2003 issue Im looking for, oh well!). Plenty of gaps, in there, as well as the years beyond those. So I am hoping others can help me track down the remainder and put together a complete collection.
Not making a dime off this, to be clear. Already about $450 invested, between issues and digitizing equipment. But would love to see it through!
Is anyone sitting on issues they would like to share? I cant find ANYTHING digital, yet. Perhaps you know of a library or similar that has them archived? Any leads are greatly appreciated. Will make a full post, soon. But want to piggy back off this great one.

ajmiller said:

Thanks for those.

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Could you upload the archive somewhere, please? The link has expired. Thank you!

Hi all. Back with an update that will become its own post when more gets done. Have acquired over 60 unique issues, from about 1995 to about 2010 thanks to an awesome user in here who got me in touch with a kind gentleman in Florida who shipped them to me at a reasonable price. Also acquired a really nice document scanner for well below market price.

Will hopefully be back before summer with all of what I have scanned and searchable. Hoping Steve doesn't mind, but cannot find contact info. Feel free to message if so!


Plan is to submit to archive.org for perpetual preservation. Final product will hopefully be a high res, lower sized PDF of each issue.
Did a botch job on the first debinding, and will be using my works hydraulic cutter for the rest, if possible. But I have my first proof of concept OCR scanned, text searchable PDF of the often sought after May/June 2003 issue featuring the Caltar lens history. My apologies if it affects the used market! haha

MODERATOR NOTE: Due to expressed Photrio concerns respecting copyright, poster has removed the URL that was here formerly.
We are advised by @GalexyPhoto that Steve Simmons has been contacted by @GalexyPhoto who will adjust approach based on Steve Simmons' input.

GalexyPhoto said:

Hi all. Back with an update that will become its own post when more gets done. Have acquired over 60 unique issues, from about 1995 to about 2010 thanks to an awesome user in here who got me in touch with a kind gentleman in Florida who shipped them to me at a reasonable price. Also acquired a really nice document scanner for well below market price.

Will hopefully be back before summer with all of what I have scanned and searchable. Hoping Steve doesn't mind, but cannot find contact info. Feel free to message if so!


Plan is to submit to archive.org for perpetual preservation. Final product will hopefully be a high res, lower sized PDF of each issue.
Did a botch job on the first debinding, and will be using my works hydraulic cutter for the rest, if possible. But I have my first proof of concept OCR scanned, text searchable PDF of the often sought after May/June 2003 issue featuring the Caltar lens history. My apologies if it affects the used market! haha

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That is great news! Thank you for doing that! I hope it'll get archived and preserved as there are a lot of valuable information that would be such a shame for it to disappear.