Cameras and Enlargers

CAMERAS AND ENLARGERS The original aim of the pioneers in Photography was to fix the image in the camera obscura (q.v.), and Wedgwood and other early workers chiefly employed that cumbrous apparatus in their experiments.

Historical.

Between 1816 and 1839 Nicephore Niepce, Fox Talbot and Daguerre used smaller box cameras, and it is on record that the expanding bellows-body principle was applied to some of the first cameras made in France for the production of Daguerreotypes. In England this construction was not adopted until much later, the usual practice being to make the camera in the form of two open boxes, one sliding within the other in order to provide the adjustment necessary for focussing. The two parts were supported on a rigid baseboard, the adjustment being fixed by a screw. A portable stereoscopic camera with parallel bellows Photographic apparatus may conveniently be discussed under the following heads:—(I) Cameras and their construction, (2) Enlargers, (3) Stands, (4) Lenses, (5) Light Filters, (6) Shutters, (7) Exposure Meters, (8) Developing and Printing apparatus and, finally, (9) Studio and Darkroom appliances. In the case of Cameras and Lenses further subdivisions of topic will be needed. Owing to the multiplicity of models it will be necessary to cur tail greatly the space devoted in former editions to historical development in order to deal at all adequately with features of construction, in relation, more particularly, to modern types. Even here severe compression has rendered unavoidable the omis sion of many details of mechanical and optical interest. For designed by J. Atkinson in 1857 was followed in 1858 by C. T. H. Kinnear's lighter pattern with conical bellows for general work. Thenceforward the manufacture of British cameras progressed rapidly in the hands of P. Meagher, G. Hare, W. Watson and other competent makers, one of the later models of the last-named, known as the "Premier," having survived to the present day as a typical "square-form" pattern for technical work.

Information on early cameras will be found in the photographic journals, in C. Fabre's Traite encyclopedique de photographie, Vol. 1, and in J. M. Eder's Ausfuhrliches Handbuch der Photo

graphie, and ed., Vol. 1, pt. ii.

With the advent of dry plates the demand for more portable cameras increased and has continued steadily to the present day when, the limit of compactness having probably been reached, attention is being concentrated on the provision of various move ments, and of accessories such as shutters and finders, with no loss of rigidity and no increase of weight or bulk. Up to 1888, when the roll-film camera known as the "Kodak" was introduced by the Eastman Co. of Rochester, U.S.A., the early portable cameras were for the most part on the lines of the present "hand or-stand" type.

Roll-film quickly produced a succession of Kodaks, box-form and collapsible, the latter culminating in a folding design which has been widely imitated in this country and on the Continent. To-day the output of roll-film cameras greatly exceeds that of any other type, but several other forms continue in request. Con tinuous roll Cinema film, cut films, either film-packs (q.v.) sheaths, have increased the popularity of the extremely portable "hand-or-stand" cameras, such as the "Sybils" of Newman and Guardia and the more substantial "Una" of James Sinclair and Co. Stereoscopic cameras of exquisite workmanship and extreme precision such as those of J. Richard, Voigtlander and Leitz have many users. The Reflex, both ordinary and folding, is a favourite for Nature study and other special work, and collapsible cameras, based on the original Goerz-Anschiitz pattern, are very freely employed for Press photography.

The outstanding feature of latterday camera manufacture is the preponderance of instruments to take plates and films of the smaller sizes including those taking 35 mm. cinema film. With modern emulsion negatives made with "vest-pocket" cameras will yield excellent enlargements. Naturally this facility appeals to the average amateur and also in a measure, to professionals. In fact to-day the enlarger is complementary to the camera to such an extent that in any modern photographic exhibition the proportion of contact prints from negatives taken directly in cameras is conspicuously small.