Restoring an Eastman View No. 1 from 1912

I recently met a photographer who specializes in wet plate portraits, cyanotypes, and silver gelatin printing. He uses a bunch of old cameras, much older than those in my collection. As I was telling him how I spent my last three weeks restoring a camera and how it wasn't perfect, he said something along the lines of how a restoration should never be perfect. If it is perfect, people won't believe it. An old, restored camera should have evidence of the restoration, giving it evidence of use, character, and life. I like this idea.

The Eastman View No. 1 is a beautiful camera made of mahogany for the top, and cherry wood for the beds. Here's the camera the day I picked it up. It came with a trunk full of wooden 5x7 film holders and two 8x10 holders. The set included an extension rail for the front standard and an extension rail for the rear standard, but no base bed for the camera. The wood slots under the rails were shattered and broken into many pieces so the camera couldn't even move on the rails.

I started by gluing and clamping the broken pieces together, then adding wood filler to the extensions.

It wasn't too long before it started to resemble a camera.

The leather handle on the top of the camera was missing, so I cut some leather and put some antique brass grommets in each end. In the second photo below you can see the serial number of the camera: 25.

I was missing several screws because there was no wood to hold them in place. A trip to the hardware store allowed me to find some antique brass screws which fit the camera.

 

At this point I was pretty happy with how the camera was looking. The bellows were light-tight. The standards were moving along the tracks and the rails were fitting in the slots in the extension. But I was still missing the base piece.

I purchased an extension with tracks on eBay for another large format camera and removed the tracks. Without knowing the dimension of the base I looked at a few images from an old Kodak catalog to see what it might have looked like. I also looked for online images of this camera, but couldn't find more than one site with some good images. I cut a piece of cherry wood, added a threaded insert to the center for tripod mounting, added slots for the rails and the track with a table saw, and then notched-out spots for two hinges.

The camera fits on the base perfectly, allowing the front extension to fold up against the front standard held in place by a brass lever. I bought some film and two additional (more modern) 8x10 film holders. The film was much easier to load into the plastic film holders compared to the ones made from wood.

The only thing left to do was to take some photos. I packed it up and drove to my favorite place, Teton National Park.

And finally, below are a few of the photos taken with the 1912 Eastman View No. 1, the Special Anistigmat 7.5 inch, and CatLABS 80ii.

This last image was taken during a storm. I stood as close as possible to the ground glass to protect it from the sand blowing in the air while the skin on the back of my legs was being sand-blasted off. The storm blew in some dramatic clouds and I only had minutes to capture this image before the storm moved on. The wind ended up breaking my Manfrotto tripod, but I'm happy with the image.

The Pentax K1000: A Cult Classic

 The Pentax K1000 was my first real camera. It was given to me by my parents when I was around 11 or 12 years old. This was before Google, YouTube, and the internet. The camera came with a few expired rolls of 12-exposure film. I quickly learned what not to do as I figured out how aperture and shutter speeds worked.

 

The K1000 is a stunningly simple and clean design. It is one of the most popular film cameras out there and was produced from 1976 until 1997. The K1000 is often recommended to students in film classes because it's simple and reliable. There are no unnecessary features to complicate photography. The camera is mechanical and only uses a battery for the light meter. I find I focus (no pun intended, or was it?) on composition more with the K1000 because I'm not worrying about settings, switches, and dials.

I sold my K1000 as a teenager to put gas in my car, but years later tracked it down and purchased it back. It's the camera on the right in the photo above. The K1000 SE came from the factory with a brown leatherette; a nice touch for a special edition. I still have and use my original K1000. Although it is in perfect working condition, I sent it in to be serviced last year just because it's getting harder to find good people to service these old film cameras. Now it should last me at least another 40 years. Here's a video review of my K1000:

End of the World Graduation Portraits

I've been having a lot of fun taking senior portraits right now. I hope you like them and I hope things go somewhat back to normal soon.

Bears at the Tetons

It's been too long since I've shared work here. With a resolve to do better at posting, here's a few photos of bears blocking the hiking trail around Jenny Lake in Grand Teton National Park.

Berlynn

Here are some photos from a recent fall shoot with Berlynn in a custom handmade wedding dress.

New Camera this Year

I've been using the camera below, a K10D for the past 10 years. It was time to get a new one, so the K-1 arrived in the spring.

During the last 10 years before I acquired the K-1 I tried the K20D, K-x, K-5 II, K-50, K-3, K-70, and 645Z. None compared to the K10D though, until the K-1.