Aléthoscope
The Aléthoscope[1] is a stereo camera made by Lucien Joux & Compagnie of Paris from about 1902.[2] It was made in two sizes, for 4.5×10.7 cm and 6×13 cm plates, in a plate-changing magazine back. A later advertisement offers the camera for 8×16 cm plates in addition to the two smaller sizes.[3]
The camera shares some of the features of Joux' earlier 'jumelle' style cameras. The body, excluding the plate magazine, is tapered toward the front (the greater depth of the 6×13 cm model gives it a shallower taper, closer to the usual 'jumelle' shape), and has a folding Newton-type viewfinder mounted centrally on the top. It has fixed-focus lenses and a guillotine shutter. There is a connection for a pneumatic release on the shutter.
Early examples are wooden-bodied, with leather covering.[4] Later cameras are metal-bodied (perhaps to better survive tropical use), and occur in black painted finish,[5] or silver-plated.[6] Some of the cameras have front rise.[7]
Notes
- ↑ The name refers to the Greek Aletheia (truth).
- ↑ McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p453.
- ↑ Advertisement from 1914 for the Aléthoscope at Sylvain Halgand's Collection Appareils.
- ↑ Wooden-bodied 4.5×10.7 cm Aléthoscope serial no. 6019, with four instantaneous speeds plus 'B' ('P'), sold at the nineteenth Westlicht Photographica Auction on 28 May 2011.
- ↑ Black-painted 6×13 cm Aléthoscope, with 90 mm f/6.3 Krauss-Zeiss Tessar lenses, sold by Breker in September 2009.
- ↑ Silver-plated 6×13 cm Aléthoscope from 1905, also with 90 mm f/6.3 Krauss-Zeiss Tessar lenses, and apparently with spirit levels on the top and end of the shutter unit, sold in May 2006 by Auction Team Breker.
- ↑ Undated brochure page (but it refers to the 1903 model of one camera) for Joux cameras, at Collection Appareils.
