Reisekamera

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Reisekamera (meaning "travel camera"), or Continental View (meaning "Continental type of view camera"), type of folding wooden plate cameras popular in Europe around 1900, having front panel and a sliding rear plateholder attached to a baseplate(tailboard architecture), quite common from the 1880s until the middle of the 20th century. It can be seen as a subtype of the field camera.

Generally there are a number of limited movements to compose the image on the filmplate at the rear. The camera is focused by sliding the rear on the baseplate (or base frame), usually by turning a knob and observing picture on the focusing screen. A square bellows are attached between the fornt and rear part. Usually the baseplate can be extended for close focusing. Not supplied with a shutter other than the lens cap, some added rollerblind shutters. Some models were equipped with a simple pneumatically remote driven shutter behind the lens mount. Some models were supplied with a focal plane shutter on the rear of the camera.

These cameras came in various sizes indicated by the size of the plate for which they were made, like 18x24cm and 13x18cm. These plate cameras, having focusing screen at the film plane, require a sturdy tripod since they do not lend themselves easily for handheld photography like hand cameras. The name "travel camera" indicates the use for which they were intended, being collapsible for portability, they were designed for assignments outside the studio, but were no light handsome equipment for travelling tourists. Smaller variants, like those for 9x12cm plates, became popular among photography students at the turn of the century. Some Reisekameras were not designed as tailboard field cameras for rear focusing. Instead their focusing and all possible shift and maybe tilt movements had to be done by moving and adjusting the lensboard. The "Reisekamera" characteristics of this variant were a similar portability and the limited set of possible movements. Of course a few makers offered more sophisticated field camera types as "Reisekamera", "travel camera", "chambre de voyage" etc. going beyond the definition given here for the mainstream of these cameras.

These cameras originated in France but later many came from the region around Dresden in Germany which had become the center of thecamera industry. Several makers were also in the Austrian capital Vienna. These cameras were seldom marked with the manufacturers name and their origin usually uncertain, so usually the distributors name is asumed to be the maker. Since the mid-1920s other cameras types became common for amateur and professional use, but the old travel cameras stayed in use especially for purposes like making school class photos.

makers of the Reisekamera

makers of similar cameras, named "travel camera", "chambre de voyage" or else

Several makers made a different type of Reisekamera or travel camera, with a fixed rear and a smaller sliding front standard that allows shift AND often also tilt movements.

makers of the fixed rear design

  • Voigtländer (Braunschweig)
  • Josef Vojta (Prague)
  • Alfred Werner (Vienna)

makers of more sophisticated field cameras sold as "travel camera", "Reisekamera" or "chambre de voyage"

  • Houghtons (London)
  • Gaumont (Paris)
  • H. Mackenstein (Paris)
  • R. A. Goldmann (Vienna)

Links

Glossary Terms
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