Pocket Magda
The Pocket Magda is a cheap camera for plates or film-packs, made by Henri-Armand Fauger of Paris in about 1920.[1] It was made in two sizes, for 4.5x6cm and 6.5x9cm plates or film-packs. The body of the camera is something like a cigarette case, which hinges open along its long side, one half forming a simple folding bed, and the other the rear of the camera, where the plate-holder slides into rails. The lens and shutter unit is another metal box, which lifts out of the rear on its bellows, and fastens to the front of the bed. A strut on each side of the bellows holds the arrangement rigid. A single strut on the bottom right holds the folding body open.
The lens is a meniscus. The shutter is a rotating disc. Fauger patented an 'I'-and-'B' shutter mechanism, and it seems likely the patent describes the type used in the camera.[2] Notes on a 6.5x9cm example at Collection Appareils[3] state that a different instantaneous speed is obtained moving the shutter lever upward than downward; but the patent does not claim this. Exposure can also be varied with an aperture disc.
There is a folding Newton finder on the top right of the rear part of most of the examples cited. The notes at Collection Appareils state that this is detachable,[3] but it appears fixed in some of the examples sold at Westlicht sales.
Notes
- ↑ 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). p.642.
- ↑ French Patent 509674, Obturateur photographique, filed in April 1919 and granted in 1920 to Henri-Armand Fauger; at Espacenet, the patent search facility of the European Patent Office.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 6.5x9cm Pocket Magda at Collection Appareils
Links
- Examples sold at Westlicht/Leitz Photographica Auctions:
- 4.5x6cm Pocket Magda offered for sale at the sixteenth auction, in December 2009. Several photos, including the rear with a plate-holder. Finder with cross-hairs, apparently rivetted in place.
- 6.5x9cm Pocket Magda sold at the twelfth auction, in November 2007. Finder with plain glass (or perhaps no glass left), apparently fixed.
- 6.5x9cm Pocket Magda offered for sale at the sixth auction, in November 2004. No viewfinder.