Identifying camera with Dallmeyer lens

Hi,

 

I got a camera that is unlike any camera I've seen before.

I think it is custom made by Sharman Camera Works in SF, and all I could find is that they manufactured tripods.

It has a Dallmeyer Kinematograph 2" F/1.9 lens (which tend to be very valuable), and an IBSOR shutter.

It's quite simple in construction but very well made and in good shape.

The shutter, mirror, aperture ring all seem to work great.

 

Can anyone offer insight about this camera?

 

Do you know what kind of film it was designed to take?

 

The film door has a sort of advance lever that pushes a plate on springs with two sprockets. The sprockets are 28mm apart, which is an odd distance for film perforations (maybe 28mm film?). No mechanism for a spool takeup that i can see.

 

Thanks for any insight!

 

 

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2018 by aquaman

28mm is no problem: that's the distance between perforations in 35mm film. I think this would feed film from one cassette into another, like the agfa Karat. In fact, your camera is a bit like an Ansco Memo, the ancestor of the Karat, only with reflex viewing. Square format is odd, and this isn't a lens you'd choose for still photography: someone prioritised the wide aperture.Maybe this camera was made to photograph an instrument display, or something else happening in a lab. Is there a focus control?

Thanks @Dustin McAmera !

 

I've never seen the memo before. The film chamber and advance lever look very similar indeed.

 

Yes there is a focus control. It's the lever on the right when looking at the front of the camera, behind the aperture dial. The one on the left behind the shutter speed dial is the shutter release. Pulling up the shutter release opens the IBSOR leaves and lifts the mirror (blocking film exposure) and enables focusing. Then press it down closes the IBSOR leaves, lifts the mirror, and then opens the Ieaves to expose (at the speed selected) all in one motion. Or so it seems to me.

 

Do you think it was designed to use the Memo or Karat film cassette?

That shutter and mirror control is clever. I wish I had the skills to make things like that.

I guess the camera might take Memo cartidges (a little fatter than a modern 35mm cassette), though if it was as old as a Memo, I think it would be the first 35mm SLR! The Kine Exakta is generally thought to be the first, in 1936.

The Ibsor shutter was made from 1913 until about 1935; so I suspect this shutter wasn't brand new when it was put on the camera.

Maybe I'm wrong about it being a camera for a special purpose; maybe someone heard about the first 35mm SLR cameras, and commissioned Sharman to make one.

I found Sharman listed under repairers in Popular Photography from 1948 ;

Popular Photography - ND

In any case, it's a delightful item.

A fabulous find! Congratulations, aquaman; I can't offer any practical help or information regarding the camera, but thanks for a really intriguing post.

I know nothing about it, either, but it definitely has an industrial look to it, as if it's designed to be a scientific instrument more than an artistic tool.

Thanks guys