Folmer & Schwing Div., E.K.C., Rochester, NY
Commercial View
EKC Professional Catalog, 1917, p. 44
8x10, c.1917
Date Introduced: - ;
Years Manufactured:
c. 1915-c.1923
Construction: front and rear focus
via rack and pinion (two gear tracks on sides of base rails);
reversing by removable back; three-piece lens board
Materials: mahogany body; cherry base;
black fabric bellows; brass hardware
Sizes Offered: 8x10, 11x14
Notes:
A substantial camera, made robust for heavy and constant use. It is essentially a studio camera of the era which happens to have a folding base. A bellows prop is present to support the long-draw (42") bellows. It is prettier from afar than close up. The finish appears to be a one-coat orange varnish-stain, the brass is not highly polished or lacquered and the wood is not smoothly finished, and the 1923 catalog states that the brass has a matte finish - it is clearly a utilitarian model.
Earlier Commercial View
Cameras had all brass thumbscrews, while later cameras had wooden
knobs for the rack and pinion focusing. The base connector screws
were knurled in the earlier cameras, and wing-nut-like in the later
cameras, and the brass was polished in the earlier camera and matte on
the later. The model had been
discontinued by the 1929 catalog.
The 1923 example above was apparently never used, still having its original un-cut lens board.
References:
Milwaukee Photo Materials Co. Catalogue No. 5,
Milwaukee Photo Materials Co. (Milwaukee, WI), undated c.1907, p.51
Eastman Professional Photographic Apparatus and
Materials, Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester,
NY), 1915
Professional Photographic Apparatus and Materials
Catalogue No. 30, Robey-French Co.
(Boston, MA), c. 1915,
p. 51
Illustrated Catalogue of Photographic Outfits and Supplies No. 38,
Sweet, Wallach & Co. (Chicago, IL), c.1915, p.59
Eastman Professional Photographic Apparatus and
Materials 1917, Eastman
Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY), p. 44
Cameras, Photographic Apparatus and Supplies,
11th Ed., Hirsch & Kaiser (San Francisco,
CA), c. 1917,
p. 31
Eastman Professional Photographic Apparatus and
Materials 1920, Eastman
Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY), p. 40
Eastman Professional Catalogue of Photographic
Apparatus and Materials, Eastman Kodak Co., 1923, p. 29
