#copy stand

[papashittycams]

Made a sun shield for the copy stand to block out stray light and prevent reflections on the negatives, here’s the first result using it.

It’s Working perfectly!

[camera-digitizer]

The $65 Copy Stand: Professional Camera Digitizing on a Budget

Photo by Jimmy Nilsson Masth on Pexels.com In this tutorial, we’ll build a “Pipe & Flange” Rig. It’s sturdier than a cheap tripod and takes up half the desk space. Stop overpaying for professional equipment. Learn how to build a rock-solid, precision-leveled copy stand using affordable hardware store items for museum-quality camera scanning. Continue with Care: Archiving is a manual process.…

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Graflex Photorecord Microfilm and ID Camera

By Thomas Evans. This article originally appeared in the Graflex Historic Quarterly, Vol. 18, Issue 2, in 2013.

   Early Folmer & Schwing Identification Unit from the 1918 Instruction Manual.

             As early as 1918, Folmer and Schwing offered an F. & S. Identification Outfit, complete with fixed focus camera, f6.3, 4 ½-inch Anastigmat lens, stand and lights, which was designed to make small format images suitable for printing, with a mask appropriate to the employer, on I. D. cards. Patent number 1,335,728 was issued for this camera on April 6, 1920. The outfit also included a means for recording the height of the employee in the image. The manual for this early I. D. outfit sets forth practical requirements: “Where a large number of employees must be photographed in the shortest possible time, in order to complete the initial photographic record, the apparatus employed must be capable of rapid operation, as well as accurate and uniform photographic results.” The entire outfit, including background and built-in measuring scales, was self contained so that it could be wheeled to the employees. A magazine for long rolls of Eastman Kodak No. 65 film was provided for the camera. No. 65 film was 1 ½ inches wide, and was available in 150, 500, 1000 and 1500 exposure rolls, and produced 7 negatives per foot of about 1 ¼ x 1 5/8 inches. The outfit was said to be capable of 300 photographs per hour. This outfit was last listed in Kodak catalogs in 1925.

            These basic ideas; an outfit containing camera, film magazine for long rolls, integral stand, lights and background, and easy mobility, were carried forward through many permutations of apparatus for decades to come.

Photorecord

            McKeown’s guide has a succinct description of the Photorecord: “Developed around 1934, introduced to the open market in 1936. Made through the 1950s in many different forms and models, including civilian and military versions. Special purpose camera for microfilming, personnel identification, and copy work. All versions were designed around the same basic heavy cast metal camera and film magazine unit, and were offered as complete outfits including lights, stands, copy or I. D. apparatus. Designed for use with 100 ft. rolls of 35mm film, they were capable of 800 ‘double frame’ or 1600 ‘single frame’ exposures. Also capable of single exposures using Graflex plate or film holders.”

             In the Fourth Quarter 2000 issue of Graflex Historic Quarterly, Tim Holden wrote about the four basic versions of the Graflex Photorecord. The first was developed in 1932 for law enforcement to make 2-on-4x5 ‘mug shots’, using a standard studio stand, built-in lights with large reflectors, and a simple box camera taking standard 4x5 cut film holders.

Early ID Unit with simple box-like camera.

             The second version, designed by Ed Hineline, Graflex Chief Engineer, was a self-contained copy stand using long rolls of 35mm film to produce microfilm negatives of printed matter up to a full page of a newspaper in size. In an unpublished autobiography, Tim Holden recounts testing this copy camera set-up, and being selected on short term notice to take it to a convention of the American Library Association in Denver to demonstrate it. The Photorecord Microfilm Outfit received a lot of favorable attention at the convention, and went into production.

  Photorecord Microfilm Outfit circa 1940.

Leica and Leitz made microfilm outfits based on their standard 35mm cameras, but the only real competitor for the Photorecord was the Kodak Recordak, which were large units that required Kodak trained operators. Material could be sent to Kodak to be microfilmed, or, in the case of a large project, Kodak would send operators who would assemble the outfit, produce the microfilms, then disassemble the outfit and take it away. The Photorecord Microfilm outfit was the only ‘industrial strength’ outfit that could be purchased and operated by a business or government agency. The Photorecord was used, for example, to copy all of the books and manuscripts in the French Biblioteque Nationale, 500 years of books and manuscripts at the Vatican, and records in churches, town clerk offices and cemeteries throughout the country by the Church of Ladder Day Saints in order to establish a source of genealogical information. More on this outfit below.

            The third version of the Photorecord was a personnel identification system using the same 100-foot 35mm film magazine as the microfilm outfit. In an unpublished history of naval photography, George Carroll recounts the events that appear to have led to the development of the Photorecord ID Outfit. In early 1940, Carroll had set up a photographic laboratory in the Navy Department Office of Navy Intelligence in Washington DC. Security was high, and all military and civil service personnel were issued a numbered badge allowing access to the facility, but it was realized that a card with a photo of the individual on it would provide greater security. George Carroll was familiar with the Photorecord Microfilm Outfit, and met with representatives of the Graflex Corporation, which in turn developed the Photorecord ID Outfit for this use “within a few weeks.” It took four outfits about one month to provide 20,000 photo IDs. During World War II, Graflex Corporation furnished several thousand Photorecord ID outfits to the U. S. Government and major industries.

  Photorecord Camera, circa 1951.

              The fourth version was the military ID Outfit, PH-385, which appears to have used a Compact Stand tripod rather than the Century-style studio stand, to facilitate the making of photo IDs in the field.

  Portable Military ID Unit PH-385

              In addition to the camera outfits, Graflex provided developing and printing equipment for the 100-foot rolls of 35mm film, as well as equipment and masks for producing laminated ID cards

 A. K Aster, in the September 1939 Issue of Photo Technique, reviewed the microfilm outfits available at that time, and provided useful information about processing long rolls of film. He stated that “the Kodak Recordak apparatus is far beyond the needs of the majority of research workers and librarians,” and continued that the apparatus provided by well known makers of miniature cameras (Leica, Leitz, Ihagee...) would be handy for field use, “where it would be impossible to carry a complete copying outfit,” but that the Graflex Photorecord Microfilm Outfit was especially suitable for libraries and large research organizations.

  Photorecord Microfilm Outfit.

  Photorecord in use to make microphotographs. From the 1940 Graflex Graphic Photography.

             The 1949 instruction manual describes the microfilm unit: “The Photorecord is a simple, portable outfit designed for the efficient quantity production of microphotographic records on 35 mm film. It incorporates its own lighting system and is operated by air, compressed by a foot pump or by a motor-compressor, or from a pressure cylinder.”

  Pneumatic Operation

 The film magazine and lens shutter could be operated by pressing down on a foot pump, leaving the hands free to manipulate the copy material. The magazine contains a pneumatically operated piston and linkages that advanced the film and film counter, and the same pulse of air pressure was carried through a small rubber tube to the shutter to make the exposure. The film magazine could be set to make either full-frame (24 x 36 mm) or half-frame exposures. The magazine and shutter could also be operated manually, and a magazine was available that did not contain the pneumatic piston.

  Photorecord camera and film magazine, with front cover removed to show the pneumatic cylinder and linkages.

Photorecord foot pump.

Film Magazine

 The magazines held 100 ft rolls of 35 mm film on common No. 10 Eyemo movie camera spools, and film was available already loaded in the spools with leader at each end to facilitate daylight loading. The magazine could be switched between single-frame and double-frame, and a small, press-fit mask was inserted in the film gate when single-frame negatives were desired. The air pressure could also be routed through an electrical switch that would turn up the copy lights for the duration of the exposure.

              A. K. Aster, in his Photo Technique article, noted that use of motion picture film processing equipment could lead to rack marks left on the film, or fog caused by exposure to air during development, and recommended using 50-foot or 100-foot reels in tanks, as supplied by the Stineman Co., and D-76 or DK-20 developer. He cautioned that using water that had been softened by copper sulfate would introduce copper that could fog the film, and that failing to rinse film between very alkaline high-contrast developer and acid fixer could cause tiny gas bubbles to form, which could then pop and form pin holes in the emulsion. He recommended the Eastman Kodak book “Motion Picture Laboratory Practice.”

  Lighting Units

             The outfit came with four ½-inch diameter steel tubes, and one tube mounted to a ring that fit around the column, which could be clamped together to assemble a rack on which to hang copy lights. The carrying case had an electrical receptacle box built into it with one input socket and two output sockets. Early images of the outfit show only two lights being used while later images show four, although there is no indication that the number of output sockets was ever increased.

  The Photorecord Microfilm Outfit with Lights.

    Case

             The case comes apart, and the top half is used as the copy stand base, with a built-in socket into which the two-inch steel column is screwed. The column is assembled from three 21-inch sections that screw securely together, resulting in a five-foot high column. The reason behind all of this assembly is that the parts are all designed to cleverly pack inside the case, with tie-downs to fasten them in place. Packed into the case the whole outfit weighs about 50 pounds, and so it is truly portable.

  Photorecord Outfit packed into the Traveling Case

  Camera

            The camera is a heavy duty, cast metal view camera with a 2 ¼ x 3 ¼ inch Graflex back, and was made to mount on an arm, and could be pointed down or to either side. The standard lens was a 75 mm Graflex Photorecord f/4.5 with high resolving power, which stopped down to f/22, in a heavy duty Betax No. 2 shutter, made by Wollensak.

  The Photorecord Camera.

  Lamp House for Focusing

             The outfit also contains a lamp-house that is mounted onto the camera by an adapter which contains a ground glass focusing panel. The purpose of this device is not to transform the outfit into an enlarger, but is to allow the image of the focusing screen to be projected onto the base board. The camera is then manipulated on the column until the correct size (of the copy material) and focus is achieved. Incidentally, the focal plane of the 35 mm magazine and the 2 ¼ x 3 ¼ Graflex back are not the same, so if one wished to make copies on sheet film or 120 roll film, a 2 ¼ x 3 ¼ Graflex focusing panel would be needed.

  Photorecord Lamp House.                 

Lamp House Adapter Showing Focus Screen.

  Copy Camera

 The Photorecord copy stand could also be fitted with other cameras, and be used as a regular copy camera. The two-inch diameter stand is stout enough to hold a 5x7-inch view camera.

    Photorecord stand in use with a 4x5 Graphic View Camera.        

Stand with a 5x7 Eastman Medical Camera.

  Amateur Version Copy Stand

             An advertisement from the 1936 Folmer Graflex Corporation Catalog shows that a version of the Photorecord, the Copygraph equipped with a National Graflex Camera, was offered to the amateur photographer.

        References:

 Aster, A. K. September 1939. “On Microfilming.” Photo Technique, Volume 1, Issue 4. McGraw – Hill Publishing Company, Inc. NY.

 Carroll, George. Date unknown. Eyes of the Navy: A History of Naval Photography. Unpublished.

 Folmer & Schwing. 1918. The F&S Identification Outfit. Folmer & Schwing Department, Eastman Kodak Company. Rochester N. Y.

 Folmer Graflex Corporation. 1936. Graflex. Rochester, New York.

 Graflex Inc. 1949. Microfilming with the Graflex Photorecord Microfilm Outfit. Graflex Inc., Rochester, New York.

 Holden, Tim. 2000. “The Graflex Photorecords.” Graflex Historic Quarterly, Volume 5, Issue 4. Mike Hanemann, Milwaukee, OR.

 Holden, Tim. 2005. Autobiography. Unpublished.

 McKeown, James M. 1996. McKeown’s Price Guide to Antique & Classic Cameras. 10th edition. Amphoto/Watson-Guptill, New York N. Y.

 Morgan, Willard D., Henry M. Lester. 1940. Graphic Graflex Photography. First edition. Morgan & Lester, New York, N. Y.

 Morgan, Willard D., Henry M. Lester. 1950. Graphic Graflex Photography. Eighth edition, fourth printing. Morgan & Lester, New York, N. Y.

 Morgan, Willard D. 1958. Graphic Graflex Photography. Eighth edition, eleventh printing. Morgan & Morgan, Inc. New York, N. Y.

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I did a copy stand of a friends polaroid gone wrong