Re: Restoration of tri-color camera

Hello Sandy,

There were several european brands of tri-color camera's like:
Reckmeister, Schünemann, Reckmeier & Schünemann, Bernpohl

some information: <http://mitglied.lycos.de/geya/Vorstufe/vorpic08.htm>

One of my workshop-students recently bough a Reckmeister tri-color
camera. Unfortunately the semi-transparant film-like mirrors were gone.
As he said: "there were tiny leftovers of them in the corners of the
camera. Probably the last owner vacuum-cleaned it thoroughly before
selling it."

I will ask him if he has found a restoration solution yet.

Kees

Sandy King wrote:

> Richard,
>
> Thank you very much for replying to my question. I was hopeful that
> you could provide some leads for me and your comments are indeed very
> useful.
>
> The camera is in transit and as of this moment I do not know the
> brand. I have done some research on the subject and have some name
> recognition of the three US makers of these type of cameras, as well
> as those made in Europe. Hopefully my research will allow me to
> recognize the camera when I see it. I have been told that the 5X7
> holders are very non-standard so this may or may not provide a clue
> for identification of the camera. But, we make holders (S&S brand) so
> that should not be a problem.
>
> Should you find any additional information on pellicle manufacture I
> would be most appreciative if you would forward it to me.
>
>
> Sandy
>
>
>
>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sandy King" <sanking@clemson.edu>
>> To: <alt-photo-process-l@sask.usask.ca>
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 5:25 PM
>> Subject: Restoration of tri-color camera
>>
>>> Depending on how you look at it, lucky or damned, I have been gifted
>>> with a rare 5X7 tri-color camera from the 30s or 40s that I hope to
>>> restore and use to make real in-camera separations. Yes, I know that
>>> I can make separations from color negatives and color slides, and/or
>>> directly via the digital mode, but I am really excited about making
>>> some three-color carbon prints using original technology.
>>>
>>> Thing is, to restore the camera I will need to acquire a new
>>> pellicle mirror and filters. Any leads as to where I might be able
>>> to buy one or both of the above would be appreciated.
>>>
>>> And thanks in advance.
>>>
>>> Sandy
>>>
>> Do you know who made the camera? In the US there were three main
>> makers, two of whom merged. Devin, National Photocolor, and Thomas
>> Curtis. Devin and National Photocolor merged some time around the
>> 1940's. Curtis was here in Los Angeles.
>> It seems to me that Dick Sullivan may have gotten interested in
>> these things, you might try contacting him. I am not sure of the
>> exact process used for maiking the pellicles but I am pretty sure
>> they were gelatin silvered on one side. The idea of using gelatin is
>> to avoid "color wedging" from the spherical and chromatic aberration
>> of light passing through a parallel glass plate at an angle. Gelatin
>> is both very thin and also lower in index of refraction than glass
>> both of which contribute to good performance as a beam splitter. The
>> color filters were probably standard Wratten color separation sets.
>> There may also have been some neutral density content since the films
>> must be exposed and developed so that the characteristics lie on top
>> of one another.
>> Bostick & Sullivan have been working with three color carbro for a
>> while and I think have suitable materials available.
>> These cameras were driven out of existence by Kodachrome although
>> some studios continued to use one shot cameras and color carbro for
>> reproduction originals due to the control available.
>> I think this is a great project.
>>
>> ---
>> Richard Knoppow
>> Los Angeles, CA, USA
>> dickburk@ix.netcom.com
>
>
Received on Thu Mar 10 04:28:14 2005