Folmer & Schwing Div., E.K.C., Rochester, NY
Commercial View Camera Variation 1
EKC Professional Catalog, 1917, p. 44
8x10, c.1917
Date Introduced: - ;
Years Manufactured:
c. 1915-c.1922 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.
Commercial
View Cameras Variation 1 had all brass thumbscrews, while
Commercial
View Cameras Variation 2 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:
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:
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
Catalogue No. 21 of Cameras, Kodaks, Lenses and Photographic Accessories
1923-1924,
Central
Camera Co. (Chicago, IL), dated 1923-1924, p.45
