Quadrophot
The Quadrophot is a monorail camera used for police 'mugshots', made from the 1960s until the 1980s by Linhof. It has two bellows side by side, one of which is used only for viewfinding (see also the 1930s Eder Patent Camera which is of a similar basic design).
At the rear of the 'taking' bellows is a rotating (and presumably masked) holder for a double dark-slide. This allows four exposures to be made on the same sheet of film; in the example seen 9x12cm, but 4x5-inch holders are the same size, externally. One exposure is a full-length figure photograph of the suspect, occupying half the plate. The other half is filled with three head-shots (full-face, plus left and right profile). To accomplish this, the front plate, with the viewing and taking lenses, slides sideways between the three portrait positions, in three steps. The ground-glass on the 'viewing' side is marked with guides for the four exposures.
The viewing and taking lenses are both 150mm f/5.6 Schneider Xenars, the taking lens in a Prontor 01S shutter with speeds down to 1/250 second, and the viewing lens for some reason with an iris diaphragm.
The example seen is mounted on a wheeled studio stand.
Links
- Quadrophot sold at the 43rd Leitz Photographica Auction, in November 2023.
- Forum post at Photo.net about the Quadrophot. Photos of two examples in earlier styling than the example linked above. Various opinions as to the camera's function: the second-to-last poster, frank_gosebruch, is the one worth reading.
