Bermpohl Naturfarbenkamera

Naturfarbenkamera image by Uwe Kulick (Image rights)

The Naturfarbenkamera (natural color camera) is a three-color camera made by Bermpohl & Co., Berlin. It is wooden-bodied, with bellows focusing. A system of beam-splitting mirrors divides the incoming light into three identical light bundles projecting the image onto three plates, arranged so as to have the same focus, enabling them to be exposed simultaneously. Color filters are placed in front of each plate, so each captures, as a monochrome silver negative image, a single color component for a three-color printing process. Three-color photography was in use from early to the middle of the twentieth century, being replaced by color film photography later on.

Bermpohl also made cameras for three-color photography by successive (i.e. not simultaneous) exposure of the three plates. These cameras are simpler in construction; there is no need for the internal mirrors, or more than one place to attach a dark-slide.

Specifications

• Type: Color camera using three monochrome plates
• Manufacturer: Bermpohl & Co., Berlin
• Film: three black-and-white plates
• Lens: 1:4/220mm
• Lens aperture range: 1:4 to 1:32
• Shutter: compound shutter with speeds up to 1/50 sec.