View source for Three-color camera

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|image_text= Advertisement for Lerochrome 'one-shot' three-color cameras<br/>''Popular Photography'', February 1940. <small>Scan by {{Image author|camerawiki}}</small>
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|image_rights= public domain US no copyright
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'''Three-color cameras''' ('''color separation cameras''') make separate monochrome negatives of the three primary-color components of the photographed image, to be used in color printing. This process precedes the invention of color plates or film. Even when colour plates such as [[Autochrome]] became available, printing from them was considerably more difficult than from color-separation negatives. Color-separation studio cameras continued to be made for demanding uses until the 1950s, twenty years after the introduction of [[Kodachrome]].

In early color-separation cameras, three plates are exposed sequentially, with a red, blue and green filter respectively. Clearly, this method is not appropriate for subjects that move significantly between the exposures. However, in principle, ''any'' camera can be used for this method. Cameras sold as ''three-color'' cameras  are hardly different from any other camera, except that they are provided with the correct filters. Some (for example [[Dr Miethe's Dreifarben-Kamera]] by [[Bermpohl]], who specialised in cameras for this process) have a ''repeating back'' to allow the three exposures to be made in quick succession, and special dark-slides that hold a set of three plates side by side; in the falling-plate [[magazine camera]] shown below, the plate magazine serves the same purpose.

In the late 1920s, cameras began to be made that make the three negatives simultaneously, extending the method to more subjects. These '''one-shot''' three-color cameras use internal arrangements of half-silvered mirrors to divide the light from the lens into three parts, and direct each part to a plate (or in later cameras, film or even digital image sensor, in such cameras as the [[Minolta RD-175]]). The three images are later combined to form a full-colour image. The first 3-color camera of this one-shot type was presented in 1897 by color photography pioneer [[Louis Ducos du Hauron]].

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|image= http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6209/6061253876_f2eb054706.jpg
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|image_text= <br/>Advertisement for [[Ernemann Multicolor|'Multicolore' detective camera]]s with built-in filters for color<br/>separation use. [[Ernemann]] made this camera, but here it is advertised<br/>rebranded in France. ''La Nature'', 13 July 1901.<br/>
|scan_by=Abdishev
|image_rights= public domain 1923
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|image_source= http://www.flickr.com/photos/branavojnovic/7975474374/in/pool-camerawiki
|image= http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8449/7975474374_996f433ef5_m.jpg
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|image_text= Tri-Color camera, three-lens conception
|image_by= Branislav Vojnovic
|image_rights= (C)
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|image=http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3077/3112470670_729ac936e2_m.jpg
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|image_text=JosPe Tri-Color Camera, 1924
|image_by= AWCam
|image_rights= With permission
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==Samples==
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|image= https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50582349743_638384ddff.jpg
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|image_text= Image made with a Butler Tricolor Camera c.1910</br>
|scan_by= Hans Kerensky
|image_rights=  with permission
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==Links==
* A selection of three-color equipment by several makers, sold at the [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/Cameras/Past-Auctions/Auction-1/ first Westlicht Photographica Auction] on 15 November 2002:
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/F.-E.-IVES-USA-LANTERN-KROMSKOP/AI-1-20925 Ives Lantern Kromskop], a ''projector'' for three-color slides, about 1899
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/PHOTOCHROMOSCOPE-SYNDKROEMSKOP/AI-1-20930 Ives Photochromoscope Syndkrömskop] viewer for ''stereo'' color-separation slides, requiring ''six'' component images per view; about 1900
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/LESSU-DUCOS-LE-MELANOCHROMOSCOPE/AI-1-20927 Lesueur & Ducos du Hauron Melanochromoscope], about 1901 
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/SANGAR-SHEPHERD-Farb-Kamera/AI-1-20932 Sanger Shepherd three-color camera] for three images on an 8x20 cm plate; about 1904
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/PHOTOCHROMOSCOPE-JUNIOR-KROMSKOP/AI-1-20934 Ives Photochromoscope 6x6 cm Junior Kromskop], about 1905
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/SANGER-SHEPHERD-GB-3-Farben-Kamera/AI-1-20933 Sanger Shepherd stereo three-color camera] about 1908
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/JOS-PE-Germany-DREIFARBENKAMERA/AI-1-20926 4.5x6 cm Jos-Pe Dreifarbenkamera], about 1925
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/BERMPOHL-Germany-NATURFARBENKAMERA/AI-1-20924 9x12 cm Bermpohl Naturfarbenkamera], 1935
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/MIKUT-Dresden-MIKUT-Farbkamera/AI-1-20928 Mikut Farbkamera], about 1937, making three 4x4 cm images on a single 4.5x13 cm plate
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/RECKMEIER-SCHUENEMANN-3-Farben-Kamera/AI-1-20931 Reckmeier & Schünemann 6x9 cm 3-Farben Kamera], about 1937
** [https://www.leitz-auction.com/en/OPTIKOTECHNA-SPEKTARETTA/AI-1-20929 Optikotechna Spektaretta] 35 mm three-color camera, about 1939
* [http://sites.utoronto.ca/tolstoy/colorportrait.htm Notes on a color portrait of Leo Tolstoy] at the [https://www.utoronto.ca/ University of Toronto]

[[Category:Three-color cameras|*]]
[[Category:Camera architecture]]