Old Time-y Portrait Camera

[PaulVI]

Ever seen one of these?...

More than a decade ago, in Manila, Philippines, I went to a studio where they use this old-looking camera about the size of a large CRT computer monitor, with an accordion-style front end, on a wooden tripod. The front element looked like it was 6 inches in diameter. After setting up the subjects in their pose, the photographer removed the cap, did a 3-second duration (est.) sweep with his hand (holding the cap), then replaced the cap. The resulting color 8x10s were not awesome, but the camera was.

(On the other hand, I'm a photo newbie, so maybe the soft focus was deliberate. Chromatic aberration? I'd have to look at the pics again. But the operator was probably 20-ish in age, and he did not measure the distance to the subjects.)

I have a feeling that you can find things like this in Manila, dating from WW2. My aunt had a stand-up electric fan at one her properties in the Philippines. It was brass-colored and heavy, possibly ten times as heavy as any fan available in the big box stores today. I'm thinking that it's WW2-era, also.

So what do you think, was the camera a WW2-era item? Earlier? Any idea as to make/model?

[OsmosisStudios]

Probably an old 4x5 film camera. Theyre still around and being used, though they can be a bit of a pain to use.