Lopa
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| Diagram of the Lopa/Pocket Cyko, in Patent 21510 (the parts on the left are a plate-changing bag). (Image rights) |
The Lopa models I and II are folding cameras for plates or sheet film, designed by Magnus Niéll and made by Niéll & Simons of Cologne in about 1902 (or made for them: McKeown states the cameras were made in Berlin by C.F. Kindermann (the same Kindermann known for darkroom equipment and slide projectors until recent years).[1] However, an example sold at auction in 2014 is stamped 'Made in Belgium'.[2] The Lopa I is for 6.5x9 cm plates or film. These may be mounted in double dark-slides; however, the first patent describing the camera first presents the design of a plate- or film-changing bag, and then describes the camera as one suitable to use the new changing bag.[3] The Lopa II is for quarter-plate (3¼x4¼ inch or 8.2x10.8 cm) plates in a plate-changing magazine.[1]
The cameras are made from unpainted sheet aluminium and leather, and designed to be light and to fold extremely small. The fixed-focus lens and I&B shutter are in a shallow front box-section. Film holders attach to a rear frame, which is joined to the front by a folding wedge-shaped bellows. This bellows does not fold in conventional bellows pleats, however, but in one large sideways fold, somewhat like the folding 'chimney' hood on an old plate SLR. When the leather part is folded, the rear frame lies horizontal behind the lens/shutter section, so the whole camera is folded flat to the shape and size of a notebook (it is not disguised as a book).
From each end of the lens/shutter section, a rigid strut runs backward, defining the side of the camera. There is a long slot in this strut, in which runs a pin projecting from each side of the rear frame as it is unfolded.
There is a bottom plate of aluminium, hinged to the lens/shutter section and to the bottom of the rear frame. The camera is unfolded by hinging this bottom plate downward and simultaneously rotating the rear frame from between the side-struts into the vertical position. There is a small catch to hold the pin at the end of the slot in the side strut, making the camera rigid when unfolded.
The camera is arranged for vertical ('portrait') pictures as described above. The Lopa I has a small reflex finder built into the front section for horizontal pictures. At least some of the cameras have a folding frame finder,[2] and the first patent shows the camera with a frame finder.[3] The Lopa II has an external reflex finder with a small hood, which folds away into the body when the camera is folded.[4] The patent states that the viewfinder may be made able to swivel for both horizontal and vertical pictures.
There is a swivelling table-stand mounted on the front section.
The camera was sold in the UK as the Pocket Cyko 1 and 2, by J. Griffin & Sons of London.[5][6] The general design of the camera was copied more than once, for example as the Packtick by Svensson in 1917.
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 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). p720.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lopa I sold at the auction Photographica and Film by Auction Team Breker in Cologne, 29 March 2014: several good pictures of the camera, which has a frame finder).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 British Patent 21510, Improvements in photographic cameras and changing bags, filed 27 October 1899 and granted 4 August 1900 to Magnus Niéll. Archived at Espacenet, the patent search facility of the European Patent office. The patent first describes the changing bag: this is a rather simple bag of opaque material, separated into two pockets. In the front one is a stack of plates or films, separated by opaque interleaves. Each is attached to the bag by a tab, which snaps easily when required to transfer the exposed sheet to the rear pocket. The bag is normally held on the camera folded in two (i.e. the 'manoeuvring space' is folded away) and is unfolded only to change sheet. The bag is essentially a primitive film pack. The camera illustrated is the Lopa I, shown with a folding frame finder.
- ↑ British Patent 24350, An improved camera, filed 29 November 1901 and granted 4 October 1902 to Magnus Niéll. Also at Espacenet.
- ↑ Pocket Cyko No. 1 at Early Photography
- ↑ Pocket Cyko No. 2, 8.5x10cm (or perhaps quarter-plate?) sold at the 34th Leitz Photographica Auction, in June 2019.
