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Houghton Victo
c. 1904

I purchased this beauty during my stay in Cambridge in 2011. Its previous owner had inherited it from his grandfather, who worked in a pottery factory making photos for the sales catalogues of the company. When I got it, it was in poor condition, but after a deep restoration process it came back to life.

wood and brass stand victorian edwardian english plate camera on tripod baush and lomb lens on garden

The brass overlays lacquer was damaged and impede to set up the camera easily. I took apart everything to remove the old lacquer, remove the corrosion from the brass to lacquer them again.

brass and wood plate camera deteriorated metal lacquer
The camera came with a Baush & Lomb anastigmatic lens with an in-built 'Unicum' shutter patented on 6th January 1891. All the metal parts were pretty dirty, the incredibly simple shutter with only two blades was stuck and one blade of the diaphragm had a broken pin. To get back to working condition I needed to take apart everything for cleaning, polishing and finishing. I lacquered some brass parts and nickel-plated others as they were before.  
Baush and Lomb Beck symmetrical lens Pat. Januay 6 1891
Baush and Lomb lens shutter blades mechanism restoration repair
Baush and Lomb lens diaphragm blades 1891 repair restoration

The lens metal parts had similar issues and the shutter was stuck, so I needed to take apart everything for cleaning, polishing and finishing. I lacquered some parts and nickel-plated others as they were before. The incredibly simple two blades shutter was dirty and the diaphragm didn't work properly because one blade had a broken pin. 

Baush and Lomb pneumatic lens 1891 obsolete camera

Now the lens looks and work almost like new! This is how it sees the world:

The fine detail of the images that the Baush & Lomb produces is astonishing. I could recognize some of the people crossing the old bridge!

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​New lenses

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Few years later, after establishing TheObsoleteCamera, I decided to experiment with a Dallmeyer N.4 'Stigmatic' lens from 1897. That lens lacks an in-built shutter and I bought a roller blind type from the same period. It was easy to make the lens functional just by cleaning it very carefully, however, the shutter needed a full overhaul. After few weeks everything was functional and light tight again and then I decided test it in London.

And here are the results:

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