This camera, made sometime shortly after 1945, was recently acquired from online auction.
It was one of the SADDEST examples of a used camera I have ever seen!
It was filthy inside and out, the light trap had fallen out of the barrel, and the BACK was completely missing.
I cleaned it all up and adjusted it. The only spare back I had was from another camera, the back had a broken off latch and a missing film pressure plate.
So I made a new pressure plate from a carefully cut rectangle of plexiglass backed with strips of foam, and improvised on the back lock.
Day after Christmas I took the little beast to the St. Louis Zoo, loaded with a roll of ASA 200 print film from Walgreens.
I think the camera did its job pretty well.
Fun pix, Ed! While I was between 'good' cameras (all of which had been stolen and not yet replaced) I took an A2B of the same vintage on a backpack trip. Acquitted itself quite nicely and took up so little space!
Elaine Zajdel
29-Dec-2008 16:33
Ed, you amaze me with what you do and with the camera you fixed! Congrats!
Elaine
dave hamer
29-Dec-2008 06:38
You've done it again Ed...restoring what otherwise was a total loss of a camera.
Nice work at the zoo. Glad to see the train is still running. Ours at the Omaha
zoo has shut down for the winter. The waterfall looks VERY chilling.