Rochester Optical Co., Rochester, NY
Premo View Camera
Premo Cameras Catalog, 1908, p. 37
6 ½ x
8 ½" 8 x 10" Date Introduced: 1905 ;
Years Manufactured: 1905-1912
(not in the 1913 Premo Cameras catalog & ff) References:
Back to Rochester Optical Group of Manufacturers
Construction: front
focus via rack and pinion (gears internal to
base); double swing; three-piece lens board; reversing by
removable back
Materials: mahogany body; mahogany bed;
black fabric bellows; brass hardware;
Sizes Offered: 6 ½x8 ½; 8x10 (photos)
Notes: English compact style. Premo
was the brand name of a popular brand of leather-covered, fold-out,
red-bellows "hand and stand" plate cameras made by ROC starting in about
1895. The perhaps popular name was applied to this view
camera introduced in the
1905 Premo Cameras catalog.
The camera has the built in tripod head similar to the
Carlton,
but it also has 4 rubber feet on its bottom as well. The camera
above is missing two critical knurled knobs on
the sides of its front standard. These knobs screw into extremely
shallow sliding metal plates - the shallowness of the threads allows
them to come off and be lost. The leather case
shown above is an aftermarket item; the original case would have been a
long-style canvas-covered one, have a compartment for the camera,
another compartment for plate holders, and a third compartment which is
the width of the lens board to store the lens and other small
accessories. Such a case having a lens compartment is rather
essential to a camera that folds up so compactly that the lens has to be
stored separately. To the consternation of collectors and
historians, English-style cameras such as this are often found
dissociated from their lens board and lens.
Premo Cameras, Rochester Optical Co.
(Rochester, NY), c. 1905, p. 38-39 ("in
introducing this camera to our customers")
Complete Catalog of Cameras, Apparatus &
Accessories for the Amateur Photographer, Catalog A, Sweet,
Wallach & Co. (Chicago, IL),
c.1908, p. 44
Andrew J. Lloyd Catalog,
Andrew J. Lloyd (Boston, MA),
1907
Premo
Cameras, Rochester Optical Co. (Rochester, NY, dated 1907, pp.36-37
Photographic Materials and Supplies,
The Gloeckner & Newby Company (New York, NY), c.1907,
p. 10
Premo Cameras, Rochester Optical Division,
Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY), 1908,
p. 37
Illustrated Catalogue of Photographic
Outfits and Supplies, Sweet, Wallach & Co. (Chicago, IL),
1908, p. 54
Catalogue of Professional Photographic Apparatus
and Materials, Eastman Kodak Co.
(Rochester, NY), 1909, p.32
Premo Cameras, Rochester Optical
Division, Eastman Kodak Co.
(Rochester, NY), 1909, p.
32
Catalogue Photo Supplies,
Milwaukee Photo Materials Co. (Milwaukee, WI), c.1910.
p. 51
Premo Cameras, Rochester Optical Division,
Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY), 1910,
p. 32
Photographic Apparatus and Supplies Catalog No.
35, Sweet, Wallach & Co. (Chicago, IL),
c. 1910, p. 55
Descriptive Price List of Photographic Materials,
George Murphy, Inc. (New York, NY), 1910-1911, p.
45
Premo Cameras, Rochester Optical Division,
Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY), 1911,
p. 34
Catalogue of Eastman Professional
Photographic Apparatus and Materials,
Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY), c. 1911, p.
46
Premo Cameras, Rochester Optical Division,
Eastman Kodak Co. (Rochester, NY), 1912,
p. 34
Illustrated Catalogue, The Gloeckner & Newby
Co. (New York, NY), c.1912, p. 14
Illustrated Catalogue of Photographic Outfits and Supplies No. 38,
Sweet, Wallach & Co. (Chicago, IL), c.1915, p.52
