Reisekamera

A range of folding wooden plate cameras, comprising a baseplate with a hinged front panel and a sliding rear plateholder. Generally there are a number of limited movements like vertical and horisontal movement of the lens on the frontpanel and tilting of the plateholder at the rear. Front and rear are connected by a square bellows slightly tapering to the front. Usually the baseblate is extendible for close-up work.

The name indicates the use for which such a camera was intended. The majority of these cameras originated from the region aurounding Dresden in Germany, extending to its eastern border to Görlitz. Several unnamed fine workshops made these cameras to be supplied with brass lenses to wholesale companies sho sometimes put ther badge on the cameras, but more often than not, these cameras remain nameless. It is thought the type originated in the late 1800's and were popular for proffesional work until the middle of the twentieth centuray.