What is this, please? It's inside a building in an old mining town in Colorado.

[kennethwajda]

Is it built into the room? Any idea what it's for? Thanks!
Kenneth

 

[BrianShaw]

Gigantic process camera.

 

[kennethwajda]

Thanks, Brian. I've never see one before.

 

[pbromaghin]

When I worked at the headquarters for a pretty big convenience store chain, they had one of those for making in-store signage. Think HUGE pictures of donuts. The subject photo is vacuum-packed between 2 plates of glass on the rolling stanchion and the ground glass is viewed from inside the darkroom (image14). As I remember, the film sheets were something like 24 or 30 inch squares. The resulting photo would then be taken next door to the gigantic offset printer. The darkroom guy was a friend of mine and he used it to enlarge some 8x10 prints I had to around 20x30. They turned out beautifully.

 

[kennethwajda]

Wow! That's is some heavy duty work!

 

[Rick A]

I used to use one in college, the rear portion was inside the darkroom.

 

[glbeas]

I used to use one nearly identical to that in the ‘70s at my hometown paper, brand name was Clydesdale. 4,000 watts of light, held up to a 24x36” sheet or thereabouts on the vacuum back, could size beween 25% and 200% and it could be configured to copy transparencies as well. Had a ground glass the hinged from the top to check fine focus.

 

[AgX]

If some of you ULF fellows is interested in such, keep in mind that it would be troublesome finding an apt tripod...


By the way, the manufacturer of that camera is still active, but no longer with such cameras.

 

[peter k.]

keep in mind that it would be troublesome finding an apt tripod...

 

[kennethwajda]

If anyone is near Central City in Colorado, and is interested in it, I could get you in touch with the owner.

 

[glbeas]

Ther have been a few of these cameras adapted to fit in the back of a van for landscape photography and I guess anything else the van can be parked in front of. I guess any movements needed would be accomplished by the placement of the film on the vacuum back.

 

[bdial]

If some of you ULF fellows is interested in such, keep in mind that it would be troublesome finding an apt tripod...


By the way, the manufacturer of that camera is still active, but no longer with such cameras.

I think it would go on my big Linhof.

 

[pbromaghin]

Or you could build it into a truck like Ian Ruhter

 

[MattKing]

The rooms on either side of that camera are considerably less crowded than when it was in operation!
The version that I worked on was smaller, and it was vertical rather than horizontal. Even so, that camera was big!

 

[Pieter12]

The process camera lens is designed for a very flat field. I don't think it would do well with 3-D spaces.

 

[summicron1]

Newspapers used these as part of the printing plate production process -- a page was made up with printed-out pictures on paper held in place with hot wax ... a negative was produced with this camera that was then "contact printed" onto a special plate that was then exposed, acid-etched to produce a printing plate, and put on the press to print the daily news.

Newspapers went through one hell of a lot of negatives and printing plates. They did have silver recovery systems in place.

 

[mshchem]

Would make a great 20 x 24 horizontal enlarger. That's about half the size of the one my previous employer had. That one used 3x4 foot film. Smallest horizontal model I've seen is a 16x20. So cool.

 

[Pieter12]

Would make a great 20 x 24 horizontal enlarger. That's about half the size of the one my previous employer had. That one used 3x4 foot film. Smallest horizontal model I've seen is a 16x20. So cool.

You'd need a big light source.

 

[AgX]

Why? The lighting power so to say is dependent on the size of the print and not of the size of the negative.

 

[mshchem]

You'd need a big light source.

https://heilandelectronic.de/led_kaltlicht

Heiland has already made at least 1, 20 x 24 LED light source. 15,000 individual LEDs. Yikes. There probably is, or was some other goodies there, plate burner, sinks, big big trays

 

[Pieter12]

https://heilandelectronic.de/led_kaltlicht

Heiland has already made at least 1, 20 x 24 LED light source. 15,000 individual LEDs. Yikes. There probably is, or was some other goodies there, plate burner, sinks, big big trays

OK. Maybe just deep pockets.

 

[pbromaghin]

This thread brings up a story I just have to tell. It was a physical struggle to stifle the spontaneous guffaws that came to me when it popped into my head while Gramma Mary was already asleep.

The darkroom guy, who was a friend of mine, grew up not far from the St. Paul Ski Jumping club: https://www.google.com/search?q=st+...USV80KHSVGC5AQ_AUoAXoECAgQAw&biw=1920&bih=937

He was kind of a chubby guy. One summer night he got drunk and stole a plastic kiddie pool from some neighbor's backyard and headed for the ski jump. Imagine Captain Kangaroo's Dancing Bear re-enacting the Wide World Of Sports Agony of Defeat in a Plastic Kiddie Pool. How he didn't kill himself will never be known.

 

[kennethwajda]

Good info, thanks everyone!

 

[bsdunek]

Had one of these when I worked at Ford Motor Co. Was used for copying large drawings. This was in the early 60's, when Xerox machines were just being introduced.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

A co-worker's mother used a giant camera something like this mounted on a huge carriage in Egypt. The Egyptologists were copying the hieroglyphics on the temples in Karnak in full size. The lady has retired and I do not know if the program is still ongoing.