I've had this camera for a while, but don't know anything about it's origin. If any of you camera enthusiasts out there could read the description below the photo and pass on any info you may have, I would greatly appreciate it
This is a view camera, if I'm not mistaken. It's a very old type of camera that dates from the 19th century. The pictures were originally taken by putting a light senesitive emulsion on a plate of glass, exposing the plate to light by removing the lens cover, then immediately developing a print. Eventually, they were used with film sheets. Some fine art photographers still use them because they make a huge negative with lots of detail. The field of view was adjusted by lengthening or shortening the bellows and you can adjust for perspective and parallax by moving the front board up or down or tilting it in relation to the camera back.
I got a chance to play with one once. It takes a lot of attention to detail and a lot of patience. I wouldn't mind using one again (with sheets of B/W film, not glass plates) and developing the pictures myself.
@emsabh The writing is only the info about the lens which I listed in the description @binny Thanks for the link. I don't see this exact model on there, but definitely some in the same family. @dancingkatz Thanks for all of the info. The lens board is removable/changeable and the back is a large piece of frosted glass (almost the whole size of the camera) that is set into a thin wood frame. Can't tell how you would insert a sheet of film, so I'm still working on that mystery as well.
take it out somewhere, find a scene, get the old black cloth over the back and look through that frosted glass, which will mirror the scene as it will be shot. Adjust the focus and belows till the image fits the frame size. then you've got to work out how to get a regular sheet of light sensitive paper from your darkroom to the camera. put the lens cap on. put the sensitive paper in front of the frosted glass and expose by taking the lens cap off. You'll have to take a bag of paper and try different exposure times. You could have super fun with this! Find an artist who is using large format cameras and email them for advice, even better if they're near you, they'll probably let you go along and see them.
You can find a little about the Gorlitz made Weitweinkel Aristostigmat lens in http://www.arnecroell.com/eastern-bloc-new.pdf . The filter dimensions and mount type of the lens will narrow down the model, and time frame as well as the type of mechanism holding the glass plate mount at the rear -
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I got a chance to play with one once. It takes a lot of attention to detail and a lot of patience. I wouldn't mind using one again (with sheets of B/W film, not glass plates) and developing the pictures myself.
@tsquaret2, got anything on this?
My guess is a Reisekamera type (travelling camera) - see http://camerapedia.wikia.com/wiki/Reisekamera.