Baco
The BACO Accessories Company operated at 5338 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA, in the 1940s and '50s.[1] The company made a wide range of photographic accessories, including film-holders, tripods and tripod heads,[2] enlarging easels, hard camera cases and accessory self-timers.[3]
The company also made at least two cameras:
Deluxe Press View
The Deluxe Press View is a 4x5-inch view camera, with front and rear standards mounted on two rails. It is made mostly from aluminium. It has a 22-inch bellows extension. Baco advertised the camera as suitable for use both as a press camera and a studio view camera.[4] It allows extensive camera movements.
Press Club
The Press Club is a smaller camera. It has a cast aluminium body, and the lens is mounted on a telescoping front tube. The extension of this tube is variable (for focusing, and presumably for use with different lenses). The standard lens would be a four-inch lens; a 1950 listing suggests an 8-inch Raptar can also be used.[4] It has a wire-frame finder and ground-glass screen. It can accept 2¼x3¼-inch sheet film in double dark-slides or film-pack adapters (or, presumably, a roll-film holder).[5]
The Press View (not described here as 'Deluxe') was also advertised by the Bleitz Camera Co., of the same company address as Baco's.[6] Donald L Bleitz held a patent for a dark-slide with improved light-seal,[7] so it seems very likely that he was also the owner of Baco (and perhaps the name Baco was derived from Bleitz Accessories Company).
Notes
- ↑ Advertisement by Baco for the Press Club camera, in Popular Photography December 1946, p168, giving the company address. Archived at Google Books.
- ↑ Advertisement by Baco for tripods and heads, as well as enlarging easels, in Popular Photography, March 1946, p135. Archived at Google Books.
- ↑ Advertisement by Baco for aluminium camera cases and accessory self-timers, in Popular Photography, May 1948, p 193. Archived at Google Books.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Description of the Deluxe Press View in Popular Photography 1950 Directory of Photographic Equipment; PP May 1950, p94, including a small picture showing the camera fitted with a side-mounted rangefinder. Archived at Google Books.
- ↑ Description of the Press Club as newly-announced by a dealer, in 'Trade Notes & News'; in Popular Photography July 1947, p176. Archived at Google Books.
- ↑ Advertisement by Bleitz Camera Co. for the Baco Press View, giving the same company address as Baco's own; in Popular Photography, May 1947, p150. Archived at Google Books.
- ↑ US Patent 253934, Plate or cut film holder, filed 6 November 1947 and granted 23 January 1951 to Donald L. Bleitz, describing a film-holder in which folded wire springs exert pressure against the dark-slide to keep it in close contact with the front wall of the holder. Archived at Espacenet, the patent search facility of the European Patent Office.