Bill Brandt's Wideanlge LF - indentify?

[gui_maranhao]

Hello everybody,

 

Today I was looking at a couple books about the photographs of

Bill Brandt (1928-1983).

In one of his books the talks about a old Kodak wideangle

camera, later refered to as an old police camera. The camera

appears in two photographs in the book (Bill Brandt, Thames &

Hudson).

 

My guess it is some sort of wooden 5x7 body with a 90mm

Protar lens, fixed focus at infinity. Can anyone confirm? Does

anyone recognize the camera?

 

Thank you very much,

Gui

São Paulo, Brasil.

[tim_atherton2]

This one?

 

http://www.billbrandt.com/Research/talesfromthecryp.html

 

This is a post about it

 

> I can't tell you the exact name of it but it was a UK Kodak wide angle

> camera.

>

> It was an odd camera, similar to a HOBO camera being made now, in that it

> was a rigid box without any focus ability, the depth was designed for the

> hyperfocal focus of the lens-- a 4 1/2 x 6 1/2 Protar V.

>

> the front of the camera used nesting lensboards that were off

> set. Put the

> off-sets 180° apart and the lens was centered. Rotate either or both

> boards and you got shift, rise or fall. the odd part is, the lens barely

> covers 5x7 stopped down, there is no room for shift! Even in the

> instructions, they talk about dark corners. One of the English guys on

> ebay sold two of the over the past couple of years.

 

And if it isn't the same one, I think he used an old british police fingerprint camera as well.

[tim_atherton2]

BTW tons of stuff at

 

www.billbrandt.com

 

I often feel Brandt is underappreciated on the US side of the Atlantic. Especially when someone who is as successful as Michael Kenna is heavily influenced by him in his work

[c_p_goerz]

Strangely enough I noticed that when I took the 4x5 series V(90mm approx) off my camera and popped the 4 1/4" X 6 1/2" Series V on the focus didn't need to be adjusted but the image circle increased. I sold all my other WA PRotars but I kept that one.

 

 

CP Goerz.

[c_p_goerz]

PS:There is an excellent picture of Bill with the camera you mention on the inside cover of 'The Man Behind The Camera'.

 

CP Goerz

[allen_whittier]

I once saw an add for this camera on eBay. It showed a man holding it over his head pressing it into a corner steading the camera to take a picture of the room. I don't remember the exact details but the front of it has a series of boxes that move in and out. You can pull one set out to create a well that shades the lens exactly to the film size. I also watched one for sale that had a lot of photos and a good description. Please correct me if I'm wrong on any of this. I spent a lot of time looking at it, but it was a few years ago.

[andrew_crump]

the camera was called a "kodak angle camera" in whole plate size(8.5" x 6.5") I think ,I have a picture in an old kodak catalogue the wooden box on the front was a viewing device so you could set up a picture from the front of the camera ,the lens was fixed to focus from 4ft to inf ,it looks like it had a 110 protar with option of being mounted in a LUC shutter.

regards

[william_hahn1]

In one of the chapters in the two DVD set "The Adventure of

Photography", you can see Bill Brandt being interviewed holding

the camera in question. He turns it around to indicate the film

size and says it was used in police work.

[will_groff]

As a matter of film coverage with the series V protar, I often see f45 as the smallest stop, questions and debates arise over ability to cover 5x7, dark corners etc.

The Protar series V that I have goes to f 256, and nearly covers 8x10 before corner falloff, perhaps Bill Brandt had this version Protar.