Photography in the Departmental Archives

Visited the local government archives this weekend as part of the "Journées Européennes du Patrimoine" (European Cultural Heritage Days?), thought that residents of this forum might find this part of their public display interesting:

Their first official camera (3.5 Planar), used to pre-catalog items.

 

The (privately purchased) camera that replaced it about 20 years later:

"Easier to use" - for copying documents, it probably was!

 

 

And, just for comparison, their current machine (not in the public display):

(There was a Pentax 645 digital on the table behind me, but I didn't get a photo)

 

I find it slightly amusing that they replaced the Rolleiflex with the Praktica, while many Photo.net users would probably do the opposite!

 

Apologies for image quality, ISO 6400 and <f2 was the order of the day.

Edited September 19, 2021 by steve_gallimore|1

Interesting! The Rollei does seem a poor and uneconomic camera for the task. How things have changed...

Rick, I think the absence of any high-quality options from the French still camera industry might have had a lot to do with the choices made.

 

And yet, France had/has a fairly strong history in optics and the Usine de la Marque was producing arguably some of the best cine projectors in the world, all of about 400 metres away!

 

Usine de la Marque | Site officiel Tulle agglo - Ville de Tulle

 

One or the other of these cameras probably photographed the demise of that factory...