Ive been making tripods for years and have been very happy with them. But, an early camera really requires a tray style tripod, just to keep it 'kosher'. Nothing spoils the look of your 1850's camera more than attaching it to the top of a bogen or minolta tripod.

Heres the alternative. This design is so simple, and SO strong, but still lightweight and "old looking". I honestly thing I could sit on top of this thing and be supported. strong.

The camera works at 47" high or thereabouts, and the top tray can be built to snugly fit your camera. Legs are red oak, linseed oil finished, the top is 1/2 inch birch ply with mahogany edges.

Price on this is $179.00 plus $25 shipping. paypal is to starcameracompany(at)yahoo.com

Nice Ray

Douglas A. Harding

Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam
A country without a language, a county without a soul.
Céad míle fáilte
A hundred thousand welcomes!

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nice idea i have 1 of your tripods and love it. but had to make a "tray" for the top. the camera i use is an old scovill whole plate but to make a vertical plate the camera has to be turned sideways because the screw on the side is an odd size that i cant match.

I know what you mean about the Scovill Waterbury cameras. My first camera was the 5x7 version and I had the same issue with shooting portraits until I made a table for it to sit on in portrait orientation. Ray made me a fantastic back for it back in 2005 and I used it exclusively up until I finished my whole plate camera last year.

I also didn't like the flimsy rear tilt feature on the old camera, so I shimmed it up with some thin birch plywood and that solved the problem.