Ansco 8x10 studio camera

[removed account4]

that is a beautiful camera jay

i remember the one i used very well ...
does yours have a hand crank to focus / tilt the front of the camera,
or is that part of the stand ?


good luck with the stand-search!

-john

 

[seadrive]

How about posting a digisnap of it for us "small format" (5x7 here) guys to drool over?

 

[John Kasaian]

I think what you have may be a version of the "Universal" which was Ansel's camera without the back movements. I think it was called the "Commercial" but I could be mistaken. The Ansco studio models I've seen came with cast iron bases and definately weren't for the field---unless mounted on a railroad flatbed car ;-) I could be wrong of course. You might want to check out http://historiccamera.com/history_links.html for pictures of different models of Agfa/Anscos. Nice cameras!

 

[JHannon]

Jay, here is another link to view cameras http://www.fiberq.com/cam/scovill/agfacomm.htm This one is called the Ansco Commercial View. There are others there to look up. I can't tell if it is similar to yours with only a rear view.

--John

 

[JG Motamedi]

It doesn't look like the ANSCO studio I have, but I am sure there were many many variations over the years. However, I have never seen an ANSCO which had double bellows or extensions. Does yours actually have the name ANSCO on it? This type of camera was made by many different manufacturers.

In any case, these make GREAT cameras for those heavy portrait lenses which won't fit on wimpy field cameras. What size lensboard, 9x9?

 

[jonw]

Boy Jay, I knew it was going to be a neat studio camera, but I think we need some really LONG lens and a wheeled studio stand so it can be used outside the studio......and possibly a small crane to put it in the back of the pickup for field trips when we need more than a pair of V8s. I also think a nice 11x14 extension back would be the next step after the wheeled studio stand.
Merry Christmas!

 

[sharpnikkor]

Hey Jay,

Your studio camera is definately not an Agfa Ansco Universal View nor the Commercial View. Those were both Ansco's field cameras. Richard Knoppow is the expert on Agfa Anscos view cameras and he posts on the Google rec. photo. equipment forum. You may want to post your photo of the studio camera and questions there as well. He has been a great help to me with trying to identify an early 5 x 7 Ansco view camera. Let us know what you find out.

 

[removed account4]

hey jay

wow, beautiful

the camera i worked with said chicago ansco on it, big beast of a camera with small wheels to tilt the front of the camera down & focus it. didn't look like yours ... but then again it was reduced to 5x7 and had a split back, so who knows what it really looked like!

merry merry

john

 

[wfwhitaker]

Jay,

I was holding out to see what others would have to say, hoping someone would provide a positive ID on your camera. The only Agfa studio camera that I'm aware of in a triple standard/double bellows configuration is the Agfa Studio No. 5 from their 1941 catalog. Of course, there's a lot in this world that I'm not aware of, so that's far from conclusive. Your camera does seem to bear more of a resemblance to one of the Century cameras (here), especially in the fine focus mechanism.

One thing to keep in mind is that manufacturers may have occasionally made custom or slightly modified models to meet customer requests. I have an Agfa Studio 5a which is black, even though it wasn't offered in the catalog in black, as far as I can tell. One would assume that someone along the way decided to paint it black. But it's done so well that it really makes me wonder if it were not a factory job. I'll never know, I'm sure, and I like the black finish anyway.

And it's certainly possible that some cameras share parts from other cameras. Especially in the workaday world of studio cameras where one is interested in maintaining productivity and income rather than authenticity or aesthetics it's not inconceivable that a broken part be replaced by what's quickly available than by the OEM piece. But I'm just speculating. They're fun cameras to use if you have the room - and especially with the old lenses.

 

[Nick Zentena]

The little ID tag on the front of the camera reads: Folmer Graflex Corporation,

If the Ids are both Graflex and Agfa any chance it's two cameras pieced together? Graflex made cameras for Kodak [Kodak owned them] but Agfa/Ansco? If the tag is Ansco and not Agfa/Ansco that dates at least the tag to the time frame Ansco was on it's own. Post 1943. Or before 1927.