I have been asked to do a presentation for a car club showing which cameras would be appropriate for cars made between 1899 and 1956. (Packards, since you asked....)

Can anyone suggest useful resources on this project? Everything I find on the web is either missing in action or so far off point as to be useless.

You mean an old camera next to an old car, that shows the same style of the car? Leica, but you will have some holes in your wallet .

It's not as simple as that.

I want to keep it relatively simple, so would leave out exotics like the Tourist Multiple, Or the 35mm twin lens Contaflex.

Up until 1935, Packard was a very high end car. In 1935 they introduced a less expensive line, which got them through the depression. For some, the question is which cameras would such an owner want and use, and which are appropriate for what time period. Leica, many Zeiss offerings seem appropriate, as do a number of high end Kodak cameras. Rolleis, of course....

I don't see press cameras as appropriate because most Packard owners would not have been working photographers.....

For the thirties through the fifties, many choices seen relatively obvious. What about the period from 1899 to the depression? I see mostly roll film of some kind, almost no plates or sheet film because of who the owners were.....

You can find many vintage cameras on the Virtual Camera Mueseum.http:/ /http://www.virtualcameramuseum.com/

Argus Model AF dates back to 1935. They can be had for downright cheap. Kodak has both box and folding cameras dating back to then.

I would think a 4 x 5 view camera or speed graphic would be appropriate for that age car. The range of years is huge. You can get a 4 x 5 view camera cheap on eBay now and would have the nostalgia appropriate to their request. http://www.ebay.com/itm/CROWN-GRAPHIC-4x5-VIEW-CAMERA-w-NIKON-15mm-f-5-6-LENS-/380557416738?pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item589afd5922

Remove for redo

dennishh wrote:
I would think a 4 x 5 view camera or speed graphic would be appropriate for that age car. The range of years is huge. You can get a 4 x 5 view camera cheap on eBay now and would have the nostalgia appropriate to their request. http://www.ebay.com/itm/CROWN-GRAPHIC-4x5-VIEW-CAMERA-w-NIKON-15mm-f-5-6-LENS-/380557416738?pt=Film_Cameras&hash=item589afd5922

the camera there is probably late 1950s-ish. It has the newer style top rangefinder which uses AA batteries to project the rangefinder "spots".

the lense is not-original and the battery cover is missing, so that camera is not fully functional. There's no official Nikon lense cam for that camera either, so unless somebody made on, the rangefinder is not going to work.

For most of its existence, Packard was a very high end car, not the first choice of working folks I would think. From that perspective, I don't see the average owner embracing a speed graphic. Possibly a Leica, a Retina or similar. Remember tht the "Modern SLR" began in 1959 with the roughly simultaneous introduction of the Nikon F and the Canon entry (the first version of which fizzled badly as I recall).

RE the crown graphic: a 150mm cam should be findable; you don't need the batteries to focus...... No idea why the vendor persists in the idea of a 15mm lens.

Having had the Nikkor in question, it is a very nice, well mannered lens with reasonable coverage for corrections, which were not the Graphics forte.

papageno wrote:
RE the crown graphic: a 150mm cam should be findable; you don't need the batteries to focus...... No idea why the vendor persists in the idea of a 15mm lens.

Having had the Nikkor in question, it is a very nice, well mannered lens with reasonable coverage for corrections, which were not the Graphics forte.

The rangefinder will not work correctly with a cam not made for the installed lense, and Graflex never made cams for modern-ish nikon lenses. I even tested two different Schneider 135mm lenses. They are not drop in compatible even though they have the "same" focal length and close apertures.

If the cam is for a 135 it should work. You may need to realign the arm. I repeat, 150 arms can be found.

A 135 is a 135; a 150 is a 150. Once the arm is calibrated to the lens.

Some lenses ran slightly short (or long) if the cam was made for a specific lens and you have the same focal length TRY IT.

As Nike likes to say, "Just do it!"