Preis-Kamera

9x12 plate Preis-Kamera with Emil Busch Aplanat series D. F:8 No. 1 F=150 m/m lens, and a leaf shutter made by Gauthier, ca. 1910 image by Uwe Kulick (Image rights)

The Preis-Kamera (engl. "price camera") was one of the standard camera models of the German optical company Emil Busch. Its name was suggesting that it delivered a lot for its price. It was a versatile folding bed plate camera for the advanced amateur. It allowed lens-board movements up, right and left, and elongating the bellows for macro exposures or for use of other lenses. Focusing was only possible by moving the lens board for- and backward. Snapshot photography was possible by setting estimated distance with help of the scale on the folding bed and using Emil Busch's special type of reflecting type viewfinder, the "Sellar" finder. This was a concave mirror with a targeting aid. It was combined with a sprit level. Using faster lenses at wide aperture or making macro or architecture shots needed ground glass focusing.

A camera variant optimized for tele lenses was the Drei-Preis-Kamera (three price camera). Its bellows was elongateable three times.