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Care of Magical Creatures... |
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Sunday, 20 February 2005 |
Classic cameras have special needs that need to be adressed to keep them happy, and in order to turn them from museum pieces to usable cameras.
Now, just to be clear, by classic cameras I mean wooden view cameras from the 19th and early 20th century, not more recent classics like the nikon F... The issues here are about wood, brass, leather, and fabric, not about gears and circuits.
First off, one of the main problems with classic "professional" cameras, like my Century 11x14, is the lack of an extension rail. Since those are separate pieces, along the decades they often get separated from their cameras, and those rails are not really interchangable, unfortunately. From time to time an orphan rail will come up on e-bay or in shops, but you must consider that unless you buy an extremely common camera, like a Kodak 2D, that when you buy a classic camera, if it doesn't have an extension rail, chances are you never will have one. This limits your choice of lens significantly, and can also limit your close focussing ability.
Now, the part of classic camera that is usually in the worst shape is the Bellows. Sometimes the only practical option is to replace it completely with a modern bellows, which costs usually several hundred dollars, so this has to be taken into account in the cost of the camera. There were two main types of outer covering used in bellows at that time : Leather and fabric. Both can be made very brittle by years of drying, and extra care must be taken when opening the camera and drawing out the front standard. Leather can be oiled and treated to recover some of its original suppleness, and so can fabric, but with a little less success. But the problems can stem from the drying out of the glue used between the layers of the bellows ad cause the separation of the inner core of the bellows from the outer covering, and the interleaving cardboard stiffeners are sometimes in a bad shape.
In short, duct tape is not an option...
Stripping the outer or inner layer only and replacing the inner stiffeners and gluing back a new layer might be an option, giving you an instant template for the new layer. My take on the Century ? It a fabric bellows, and even if the layers are separated, I think that my first attept at saving it will be to fing a suitable outer covering and glue it in place on the outside of the bellows, using some fabric tape for the corner pleats. This will give a two-tone effect which will look like the Russian FK cameras.
Now, for the brass, be carefull when refinishing it because some of the fittings of classinc cameras are only brass-plated, which means that any scrubbing with most likely result in the removal of the brass layer.
Screws can cause problems when the wood hasn't aged well, and loose screws are a common disease of classic cameras. There are unfortunately no miracle cures. And one strategy is to use slightly larger screws in order to get the necessary "bite" in the wood.
So, these are the problems I've encoutered so far in the care of my beast, I'll be happy to share my progress in the rejuvenation of this magical creature.
Here is a book that might be useful if you decide to undertake major camera restoring. It's not necessairly an easy "made for dummies" book, but it covers a lot of restoring and repair issues regarding both cameras and lenses :
Restoring Classic & Collectable Cameras, by Thomas Tomosoy. |
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