late 40's 6x9 camera

[sknowles]

Recently the family closed our parents estate and my sister sent some stuff no one wanted. In the boxes

was three envelopes of color slides from Ansco Color Lab postmarked 1948-50. They're 6x9 cm Ansco

color slide film. Does anyone know where I can find information what 6x9 cameras were on the market

and especially used by the military in the late 1940's. I never heard Dad had or used a camera, and the

slides are from three locations over the two-plus years (1948-50), Kansas, Tennessee, and Puerto Rico

when our family moved a lot and before we moved to England. And now no one is left in the family who

knows. I plan to clean and scan the film and post the better shots on my Website. I'm just curious now

what camera he may have used. Thanks.

[alan c.]

there are literally thousands of cameras that could/can make 6x9 exposures on either

120 or 620 film, and in 1948-50 there would have been several hundred on the

market. Some were more popular in the US, some were more popular in Europe. The

US military at the time did use Kodak Medalists but average people often had cheap

folding cameras made by many different companies. Also it was popular to put 6x9

rollfilm backs onto press cameras. You could do some research and see which

cameras were the best sellers in 1945-50, and judging from the slides you can

probably tell if it was a high or low quality lens, and therefore figure which general

category, which is about as far as you're probably going to be able to narrow it down.

are you sure there isn't an old camera in the attic?

[michael schub]

6x9 and 9x12 plate film (glass and gelatin) were popular formats in the first half of the 20th century. Many of the cameras were so-called "hand and stand" cameras; folders that could be focused on the distance scale or by ground glass back. There were 6x9 roll film adapters that could also be used with them (and with the 2x3 Graphic)as well as roll film cameras (mostly folders) that shot 6x9 on 120 film rolls. All of these were quite popular during WWII. I still have my father's Voigtlander Bergheil 9x12 folding plate camera on which I learned photography in the late 1940s.

 

A good place to start your research is the Zeiss listings in the Photographica pages of Pacific Rim Camera.

 

http://www.pacificrimcamera.com/pp/zeiss/zeiss.htm

 

Check out eBay under "folding plate camera" and "folding camera" to see many examples and prices.

[michaelging]

The Kodak Medalist is a 6x9 rangefinder camera made for the millitary in the 1940's . It is a excellent camera, mainly used by navy personal, but could be used by anyone.

[sknowles]

Thanks for the responses. I wish there was a camera in the box in the closet. I think you're

right, I won't really know, and can only guess, which I think was a Army/Air Force camera he

had at the time. Dad served 1940-1964, and there aren't any photos around the 3 sets from

1948-50. Knowing Dad, he likely picked it up, used it, and passed it along among his staff,

and had it for that period on his movement from Idaho, to Virginia with stops along the way.

After that no one remembers him having a camera, but I'm still inquiring with cousins.

Anyway, it's a good exercise in family history and some of the photographs are very

interesting (aerial and landscape). Now to find a scanner.

[stephen hazelton]

In addition to the cameras mentioned above, there were cheap box cameras made in that size- Ansco Shur-shot, Shur-flash and similar cameras from other companies.

[tgh]

When you scan them, include the entire frame on at least one when you post it. The exact shape of the image, such as rounded corners, little "ears" at a corner etc, can sometimes give a hint about the camera used. Also the angle of the shot can suggest whether it was an eye-level camera such as a folder or a waist-level camera, like a box camera.

[profhlynnjones]

Hi Scott,

 

I'm not going to be much help to you either, as you have previously heard. I checked out my early Pop Photo directory issues from 48 and 50 (I was a working photographer from 1947 on), and found that including box cameras, un-sophisticated folding cameras, and advanced cameras, there were dozens of 2 1/4 X 3 1/4 (commonly called 6x9 but should be called 6x8)cameras around available in the US. If your dad was in Europe in the military in WWII or slighly after that, his coices would be well over 100. In addition to that, there were many, many more which were 6x4.5 and 6x6.

 

Now for the good part, I was photographing during this period and Ansco Color (there was no color print film from Ansco, only from Kodak and it was a "dog")was a much better product than Kodachrome. Ansco Color Daylight was ASA 12 as was Ansco Color Tungsten. Kodachrome Daylight was ASA 10 (and some of us didn't like it verymuch), while Kodachrome Tungsten was ASA16.

 

If the transparencies look reasonably good, I would suggest that you scan them and put them on CD. If you are good in Photoshop you can restore them to original quality. I have recently found a 1954 Ansco Color transparency which expired in 1948 but was frozen until I was in Med Photo School, where i shot it and processed it in 1954. At the time, it was better than the then current EktachomeI. While, when I found it slightly faded 4 years ago, I was able to easily restore it and use it as one of my work examples with out telling anybody that the film was 58 years old and the photo was over 50 years old.

 

Lynn