Camera Equipment Company NYC Professional Junior Wooden Tripod

Another week, and another impulse buy from the camera store.

 

I've always heard wonderful things about how well damped wooden tripods are, and had the chance to buy this massive piece for a steal. It's about 4 feet tall without extending the legs, and has a nice heavy geared pan/tilt head.

 

Does anyone know anything about these? It seems sturdy enough, and weighs plenty, but I'm wondering if it's in the category of actually being worth packing out, or if it's a sit in the corner as an interesting camera stand.

I believe this company (later known as CECO) made professional grade movie equipment. A geared head for movie cameras is probably overkill for anything other than a 4x5 or 8x10 monorail view camera, and wouldn't easily allow vertical framing for anything without a revolving back. Only you know if your back is strong enough to haul this around...

The Professional Junior was standard equipment for the US Army Signal Photographic Corps to mount heavy motion picture cameras onto, like the Eyemo and Filmo.

 

 

Thanks guys!

 

The head is a bit slow to operate, but with that said I could see it getting used for a lot of my photography that takes place close to the car.

 

The only problem is I'm questioning whether or not it will fit in my MG :)

Just drive your MG with the top down and you'll be fine .

I did move a Beseler 23 that way once...it leaves me a fun quandry, though, as my other car is a lot more amenable to hauling big camera stuff, but for a photo outing on a nice day the MG both makes the trip more fun and also gives me a handy "prop" where appropriate.

A couple of years ago I bought a job lot of tripods at an auction. There was a nice solid Gitzo in there and the lot got knocked down to me at a steal. Anyway, point is that there were 4 wooden tripods in the lot as well as the Gitzo. The wooden stands altogether only weighed about the same as the aluminium Gitzo.

 

After a bit of minor repair and polish, I ended up with a nice mahogany and brass display piece, and two usable and lightweight white-wood tripods that make a bit of a talking point. FWIW, one of the wooden 'tripods' turned out to be an artist's easel that I gave away to a painter friend.