| Author | Message | ||
     Glenn Tinkerer Username: Glenn Post Number: 855 Registered: 07-2006 Rating: N/A |
An educated guess would seem to point to a 7" x 5" or 12cm x 20cm cut film holder fitting the camera back; however the dimensions you give do not really help in working out the original format - the 1886 date would indicate the use of glass plates as the norm. You should measure the internal dimensions of the aperture in the screen frame, as this will give you the image size and thus the format of the camera. A quick search on Google or similar will then turn up tables of standard plate and cut film formats. It is a relatively simple task to adapt modern cut film holders to fit these early wooden bodied cameras - you just make a hardwood frame that will support the metal film holder in the same position as the glass focus screen, sealing any slots/mounting grooves with felt or velvet light seals. The major snag to producing images will be a supply of suitable cut film - the solution is often to go for a smaller format, for which a readily available source of film is available and mark out the mew image size on the screen with fine lining tape. |