Film Premo
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| image by Steve Harwood (Image rights) |
Eastman Kodak's Film Premo No.1 Folding plate camera uses 3¼×4¼ inch film packs (quarter-plate format). The camera was patented in 1903 and produced in 1906. It seems to be a budget version of the Kodak Pocket Premo C which retained more of the quality of Rochester Optical's original Premo cameras (wooden front door). George Eastman's idea to popularize photography may have inspired Kodak's camera engineers to make this cheaper variant after Kodak had bought Rochester Optical in 1903.
It has a Rochester Optical Co. Planatograph lens and Ball Bearing Shutter, giving speeds 1/25 - 1/100 second, plus 'T' and 'B'. This can be released manually with the lever, or with a pneumatic release (i.e. a rubber bulb and tube). The shutter is not synchronised for flash, but the manual describes the use of flash, using 'T' or 'B' shutter with a plate for burning flash powder.[1] The aperture is calibrated in Uniform System stop numbers, from US stop 4 (f/8) to 128 (f/45). The lens standard is simply pulled forward to focus using the scale on the bed (squeezing the clips on each side to release the standard to slide on the bed): it focuses down to six feet.
There is a brilliant finder, which rotates for use in both portrait and landscape orientation.
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| Film Premo with box and instructions image by PhotoShop Guru (Image rights) |
References
- ↑ Instructions for using the Film Premo No. 1 downloadable as a pdf from Orphan Cameras.
Links
- Film Premo No.1 on www.collection-appareils.fr by Sylvain Halgand
- Image of the predecessor Kodak Pocket Premo C at Caméra de Collection [1]
