Introduction · to · Traditional · Plate · Camera · Photography

Notice the smooth deburred edges.
The glass can be cut using plain 2mm picture glass using a glass-knife/scorer and ruler.
Deburring of the glass edges can be used with a limestone knife sharpener. The reflectance of the glass plates does not matter if these plates are to be used as sheet film pressure plates. However if these are to be used for liquid emulsion or for collodion type negatives, then it is imperative that the glass is cleaned down with isopropyl ethanol to remove grease stains from handling which might otherwise cause the emulsion to lift from the plate or fail to adhere completely.

On the top, the bookform plate holder is closed.
On the bottom, the bookform plate holder has had its brass side-clasps unfastened and has not been opened and rotated 90 degrees.
Observe the following:

1. On both sides of the middle dividing plate are black areas
2. These black areas are the reverse side of the removable holders
3. Therefore these black areas represent the actual area of exposure
4. The black areas are also hinged with black cloth tape
5. This enables the holder cover to be flexed when withdrawn
6. The middle dividing plate acts as an internal darkslide to prevent fogging of the complementary negative.
7. The dividing plate holds two prongs which exert pressure against the plate.

However this is not all. A half-plate holder holds more. The current open position is primed to accept glass plates only. Users of glass plates place the emulsion side towards the hinged cover; fold over the middle divider, and carefully lock this before proceeding to do likewise with the contralateral side. The technique for loading film requires very little modification using the same principles.

The first step towards opening the bookform plate holder involves lifting the brass side-hinges as shown in the holder on the right.
This enables the bookform holder to split open from top to bottom. This is the position required for:

a) loading a plate or film into the holder
b) extracting a plate or film for processing post-exposure


In contrast, the bookform holder on the left is sealed and can not be opened. This is the standard position during carriage; pre-exposure and post-exposure.
More on the position of the holder during exposure later.

The traditional folding plate holder for half-plate camera.

At first glance, both holders look like similar blocks of wood. The mahogany wood is carefully selected and cut in position; carefully placed and glued in a specific pattern. Notice the panel grain runing across the main panels, and how the panels divide, enabling the front holder to fold above and over the body of the plate holder.
The plate holder on the left is a standard Gandolfi fit holder. It measures 154mm from side-to-side.
The standard English half-plate bookform holders are 154mm wide measured flange to flange. The flange lips are approximately 2mm wide each, rendering the wall to wall width (i.e. planed off flanges) 150mm.
This is the same distance as the space in a Gandolfi half-plate film back. Therefore any half-plate camera with a 150mm width space section will be rendered compatible.
On the right is a Thornton Pickard half-plate holder. Thornton Pickard bookform holders are 148mm wide measured flange to flange. Excluding the flanges, from wall to wall, its width is approximately 144mm. This falls significantly short of the 150mm required space to sit flush in a Gandolfi camera. Archives indicate that these were used with early Thornton Pickard cameras (Imperial, Triple Extension types) spanning 1890 - 1925 and are therefore later designs than the Gandolfi type holders..
Both holders take up the same thickness.

The Gandolfi camera arrived with no lens and an ill-fitting mahogany lensboard. A few years ago, I acquired a Taylor Hobson Series III Cooke lens in anticipation of this project. This is a legendary lens (over a century old too!) made of brass & English glass. The designation on the lens led me curious over plate cameras: stated for use is the inscription: "4 3/4 x 6 1/2 inch plates" with a focal length of 7.7 inches. Each lens from the factory was subject to tolerance tests, so I gather that other variations of similar focal lengths exist (more on this later). Diminutive in size, this Series III lens even has the seller's name engraved by the lens manufacturer. Seems like this was a common occurrence before global marketing made everything available on the internet. In any case, there isn't much information about the lens apart from the Taylor & Hobson website which makes some reference to Series III lenses. The lens is an uncoated lens (as all lenses of the era was) so I've added a custom fitted lenshood which really looks the part. Lens measures just under 3 cm from the lens panel making it highly compact and portable for landscape work.


Taylor Hobson Series III Cooke Lens
Focal Length: 7.7 inches, f 6.5
Fitted with a custom lenshood.



This is the successor to the radical Taylor Hobson Triplet of the 1890's which covers 5"x4" format, but not half-plate format completely. From the Cooke Optics website:
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The Cooke Triplet concept was a simple and elegant solution to design issues that plagued lens designers of the era.

Dennis Taylor was understandably excited about his development, and on 7th September, 1893 wrote a letter to Taylor, Taylor & Hobson, enclosing a photo of York Minster taken with "a trial lens constructed on my new principle, having a equivalent focal length of 7 1/4 inches. The exposure was made on an Edward’s Landscape Plate (Slow) and with a stop equal to F/7.7 (by careful measurement)."

He goes on to say: " You will see that the Minster wants a decidedly wide angle to get it all in, consequently I had to raise the rising front by 1 1/2 inches so that the lens is tried more severely than if used centrally opposite a 7 1/2 x 5 plate which size it is manufactured for. On submitting this print (or rather the negative) to an experienced amateur photographer, after looking carefully at it and without my asking, he said that if he had been using a 7 1/4 Ross Portable Symmetrical or other lens of such type, he would not expect to get so good a result without having to stop down to F/32, a conclusion which I had myself independently arrived at."

Having no desire to enter the photographic lens business, T. Cooke & Sons offered the manufacturing rights to Taylor, Taylor & Hobson of Leicester, optical instrument makers who had a reputation for producing quality optical products since 1886 when William Taylor founded the company in Leicester with his brother, Thomas Smithies Taylor. William Taylor's philosophy: "Don't do what everyone else can do; go out for something new," coined in 1886 holds true at Cooke Optics today.

The first Cooke photographic lens was made by TT&H in 1894 based on Dennis Taylor’s Cooke Triplet patent of 1893. (There is no familial relationship amongst Dennis Taylor and brothers William and Thomas.). TT&H went on to produce subsequent lens designs by Dennis Taylor through Series V. The licensing agreement stated that the lenses would be sold under the trade name "Cooke". The very first lenses made were brass and included the inscription "H.D. Taylor's patents."

Early Cooke Triplet design lens offered critically fine definition right up to the margins of the photographic plates.

In 1895, the Cooke lens was awarded the only medal of the "Royal Photographic Society given for improvements in lenses within recent times."

The TT&H Cooke lens catalog of 1897 states:
"Lack of sharp definition at the margins, and blackness and lack of detail in the shadows, are among the commonest defects of photographs. The introduction of lenses which, without the use of stops, yield definition uniformly fine throughout their plates, marks quite a new era in photography."

Today, triplets of various kinds are used almost universally for lenses of intermediate aperture sold on smaller still cameras.

This was the beginning of a legacy of superior and innovative lens design and manufacture under the Cooke name that continued throughout the 20th century beginning with still portrait, telephoto and process lenses, through the development of acclaimed Cooke cine and television lenses, and continues today by Cooke Optics Limited, with award-winning 35mm cine prime and zoom lenses.
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Side profile of a half-plate Gandolfi camera (restored).

Before opening, the bellows were very dry and required much leather refeeding before regaining its suppleness. The wood was repolished with a lacquer to bring back its lustre and the brass treated to cotton wool and alcohol.

Note the following features:

On the left, there are two eyelet metal bars at either end. These lock down the film back to prevent it being accidentally removed. The free locking clasp is used to hinge-lock the camera when closed down to its compact form.

The design of the half-plate camera is very symmetrical: note the mirroring of all the brass from left to right. In the front is the Taylor Hobson Series III lens with the lenshood. On full extension, the lens barely protrudes over the camera's centre of gravity - an important feature for balancing heavier lenses against the lightweight half-plate camera.

The so called book form plate/film holder.

You can see why it was so titled, being of similar dimensions to a book or novel (important feature to note for a half-plate camera revival). The book here is "Clyde Fans Book I" which is a brilliantly artistic animated book. It opens from left to right (my birthday present before retirement by the way).

The book form holder opens from above below. You can see its hinges on the base. It also has a white circular number which has been enamelled. Notice the wooden panels inset of the frame of the book holder. Nothing cheap at all about these. Nowadays construction of a bookform holder would be considered uneconomical. This is a reflection of the high quality workmanship and craftsmanship that existed before the modern technological era.

Book holders are amazing designs. I rather like these, having never handled one before. They weigh as much as a novel in fact. The mahogany wood matches the camera too.

The Gandolfi Half-Plate camera comes from the turn of the century (1900's) era. Here the half-plate camera has been opened.  The locking clasp on the top of the camera between the leather strap must be unlatched.  Then the lower brass knobs and the mid-level brass knobs must be loosened to free the bed drop of the camera.  Swinging open the bed drop, the plate camera bed falls 90 degrees and can then be tightened into position via the locking brass knobs.  The lensboard can then be fixed in one of two positions by unlatching the locks found on the plate camera bed at the front of the camera.  When positioned, the bilateral locks can be actioned to prevent destabiilsation of the lensboard.  The angle of the lensboard can then be adjusted to a normal plane and tightened with the brass knobs once the bellows ar extended using the rear base knobs.  With the following notes:

1. Lens & lens board has been mounted after the plate camera has been opened
2. The bellows have been extended to provide the focal length of the lens
3. The brass fittings control movements for this camera. There are 10 brass knobs in total.

From the perspective of the image, the shift capability of the front standard (lens panel) can be seen.

Gandolfi marketed the camera with a name plaque. Hence the identity of the camera is easy to make - once the camera has been opened. What is a plate camera? That was one of the questions I recall brooding over at college, studying Advanced Photography looking at Victorian plates. Seeing photographs of Victorian photographers underneath darkcloths was as technical as college ever allowed, and once in the field of work, plate cameras were unheard of, being the realm of interest for camera collectors or historians. I guess that is changing today. With the advent of digital imaging and its convenience; supersaturation of the viewer's eyes with digital images, photographic enthusiasts are turning in droves towards vintage plate cameras. Not lest, because these offer a low-budget entry into larger format photography.

It started off with this boxed contraption I knew little about it when I acquired it Guess I'm just like most people with too much time, drifting off after I discovered it being off-loaded on a popular internet site. This seems to be the fate of many antiques, or artifacts from the past as technology moves in its fretful digital pace leaving no time for restoration. The guy who sold it never used it; no lens; no film plates, he used it for decoration hoping one day to find the time that I now have. When it arrived, one of the challenges lies in trying to open it. Force has no use here other than for damage. The construction is mahogany wood and brass fittings. The above camera is a "half-plate camera" made by Gandolfi, one of the oldest camera manufacturers in England (and still alive, working away in Dorset:


www.gandolficameras.com/home_page.html

That's their website. This detail escaped me, however thanks to some guys on the Large Format Photography Forum it all started making sense.

Excited by this all, I'm about to become a plate camera photographer.




More on the history of Gandolfi Cameras:
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From Dashes Blog:

For over one hundred years, the name Gandolfi has been synonymous with excellence in photography. Gandolfi cameras are to the world of photography what Stradivarius violins are to music. Founded at a time before widespread mechanisation and mass-production, the company maintains to this day a tradition of craftsmanship. Gandolfi still make cameras using the skills of woodworker and instrument-maker acquired through long apprenticeship. In the nineteenth century Britain led the world in camera design and construction. Gandolfi maintain this proud heritage, the last representatives of a once-thriving British craft industry. A family firm, Gandolfi was founded in 1885 by Louis Gandolfi (left) - a Londoner of Italian and Scottish descent. From premises in Westminster, London, he produced and supplied a wide range of cameras and accessories which he had patented. His innovative designs soon brought in contracts for supplying government departments both at home and abroad. In 1913 the company moved to Peckham Rye, South London finally settling in 1928 at Borland Road (left) in what was once a Victorian hatpin factory. The 1920s were a difficult period for the British camera industry, facing economic depression and competition from cheap foreign imports. Times were so hard that, for a while, the company was forced to undertake cabinet work. By this time, Louis’ three sons, Thomas (left with friend), Frederick and Arthur were well-established in the family business.In 1928, due to ill health, Louis handed over the running of the business to his sons. Thomas was in charge of camera design and metal work, Frederick looked after the administration and Arthur, the youngest, did the hand French polishing. Louis Gandolfi died in 1932, leaving his company to his sons. From the late 1930s onwards the company prospered. As well as standard designs, some unusual orders for one-off special cameras were placed. Lord Carnarvon took Gandolfi equipment with him on his Tutankhamen expedition. Gandolfi also won the contract to supply the cameras (right) used to take ‘mugshots’ of the inmates of all H.M.Prisons in Britain. During the Second World War, the firm did their bit for the war effort by making specialised equipment for military use. In 1968 Thomas Gandolfi (left) died, leaving Frederick and Arthur to carry on the business. By this date, the company was making only a limited range of medium- or large-format plate cameras for professional or technical work. Never employing more than a handful of people, they specialised in individual orders where the cameras were designed to meet the particular requirements of each customer. In 1981, Frederick Gandolfi was forced into semi-retirement as the result of a car accident. A new company, Gandolfi Ltd, was formed in 1982 and occupied new premises in Andover, Hants. Frederick and Arthur (right) personally trained a small team of craftsmen for two years, passing on some of their lifetime of experience to a new generation. They ensured that their own exacting standards were maintained and that Gandolfi cameras would retain their reputation for fine craftsmanship. Frederick Gandolfi died in November, 1990. Arthur Gandolfi, the last of the brothers, died in January 1993. However, the name, and all that it stands for, lives on. In 1998 the company moved to new, purpose-built premises in Berwick St Leonard, near Salisbury. Here, Gandolfi cameras are still made using traditional techniques and materials - keeping alive the long tradition of quality and craftmanship.
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Further references:

http://www.gandolfi-film.co.uk/

http://www.photo.net/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg?msg_id=004Pn9