I paid £100 (about $150) for a Dallmeyer 3B eleven years ago, and about £250 for a 3A at the same time, both with flanges, - happy days!
Forum: General Discussion

This is a heart breaking image in its way. I have just bought this most expressive ambrotype, I presume of a widow, in full black high Victorian mourning. Just a little 1/9th plate ambro in a cheap case but full of emotion. I am absolutely fascinated by these images of a century and a half ago, they really inspire and encourage my efforts
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I always make ambrotypes when I'm testing, if they are wrong you can wash the glass and reuse, much cheaper than using tins that won't take a lot of washing off, and there should be no difference in quality between tins and ambros.
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I spent some time this morning shooting some stereo shots of a pitcher plant using a pair of Dallmeyer Landscape lenses, max aperture f10, I used f14. I was pleased with the result, Pitcher plant is a 3.2" x 3.75 section of the left lens shot. Seán
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Reading a Google copy of Jabez Hogg's 1861 manual "The Principles and Practice of Photography" I found the following timely advice on Defects, Failures and Remedies. I'm printing copies of this for my students. Seán
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Thanks Ray, i have always tried to make sure that my gear was correct for period otherwise some smarta*** would be bound to try and make something of it. It's been a great experience, I was 69 when I took up the black fingered business and I intend to keep going as long as possible. I've met a lot of great people in the last eleven years both in the real and over the net, I think of you Ray
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It has gone to a good home!
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The work surface is about 32 inches wide so you can see there is a good spread on the tripod legs, also there are fabric loops at the feet of the tripod so that the legs can be securely pegged. Even without pegging I find the whole thing quite stable. There are grommets set in the hem of the cover so they can also be pegged. Seán
Forum: General Discussion

Here's a photo of my refurbished Dark Tent Sorry about the modern bottles and dishes! It works well and the yellow lining makes the most of the red light from the red window at the back and a larger one in the roof. A test tin of the setup. However, after using it on Monday I realized that at almost 80 I am not really fit enough now to be able to make much use it. So if the
Forum: General Discussion

I sold the the camera several years ago with a set modern reducers with silver wire corners for every day use. I didn't want to part the originals from the camera but I felt that the original set were far too important to use, the set must be unique outside of major museum collections. See the original posting, October 12th.2010, "Marvelous find" where the whole thing is posted in great det
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I wondered what the significance of the held photo was, on looking up Victorian mourning dress I found that light shades of violet were considered suitable for half mourning, that is the period towards the end of mourning. So I guess that's what this photo is about. Seán
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These are a set of original reducers from a camea dating probably to the 1870s, definitely a wet collodion camera, but, as the frames show, it had hardly been used. !0x8 to 1/4 plate. Seán
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I have become a fairly avid collector of ambrotypes and tintypes of the 1860s, I'm fascinated by early images and I find them inspiring. I have just bought this quarter plate ambro, delicately tinted of a young woman holding a cased photo. I copied it as large as I could and cleaned up the highly magnified cased photo in the young woman's hand, and although very blurred it proves to be of a
Forum: General Discussion

Made June 1864, a nice 2B. Seán
Forum: Collodion Classifieds

As a rider to the first posting, I'm sitting here in London on Friday evening, watching the finest T.V historical documentary ever made, the Ken Burns Civil War epic. What a feast of 1860s photography! Seán
Forum: General Discussion

I have a small collection of mostly English ambrotypes of the 1860s. They form a constant and necessary reminder of the quality of work that was achieved, a quality we should be trying to equal. However I must say that over the years I've seen some really beautiful work on this forum, Bob Szabos for instance. Seán
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Bob, This price list might help, it may well be a Fourth Series "Extra Rapid Euroscope". I hope this is useful. Seán
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Bob, Please, please continue with the forum if at all possible! When I started out on the wet collodion trail in the year 2000, it was this forum, with it's advice and know how that gave me my first successful exposures. It has been a valued resource over the years, and I will be very unhappy to see it go, (and besides the other forum has banned me). Seán
Forum: General Discussion

My fascination with 1850s photo technology is such that I try very hard to copy the methods and techniques of early photographers. In my opinion the success of this portrait is largely due to Serena's quality as a model, my contribution was merely to record the view, it was the lens, the chemistry and Serena herself that made this work. Seán
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I agree absolutely with Ray but let's not omit France Scully as well. Seán
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I like it very much, it's beautiful. Also like the notion that the women are doing all the work while the men are standing about watching! Seán
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Taken using my 1862 Dallmeyer 2B, about six seconds at f8. Using my sodium iodide and bromide version of Lt.Col.Suart Wortley's lithium collodion from the Silver Sunbeam.
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Recently I leant my 10x8 camera to a friend who was shooting a short promo film for a novel written by his wife, Wendy Wallace. The story involves a 19th. century husband locking up his wife in an asylum. Her being photograph featured in the story, At the end of the session I offered to make a quick 5"x4"ambro. Here is a scan of the result: Seán
Forum: General Discussion

Both sliding box and bellows cameras have their place for the reenacting photographer, itinerant photographers of the 1860 weren't lugging round 10"x 8" bellows cameras. Small sliding boxes were cheap, rugged and all that was need for a market demanding sixth and ninth plate tins or ambros. I have both a half plate (US size) sliding box and a 10"x 8" Anthony style bellows camera and both have
Forum: General Discussion

Yes I have Ray but it's not on his list. I may well be wrong thinking that it's a US product but the Burg Street address doesn't look like a UK one to me.
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I have just bought two Daguerreotypes in union cases labelled "Walter, Artist, Burg Street" and this sounds to me much more like a US address. Does anyone know of this long gone daguerreotypist? They were listed as ambrotypes which makes a change, in the UK most sellers seem to think that tintypes and ambrotypes are daguerreotypes and list them as such.
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There are three sets of Dallmeyer Waterhouse stops on ebay at present. 3B Patent Portrait. 8 1/2" x 6 1/2" Rapid Rectilinear 6" x 5" Rapid Rectilinear Seán
Forum: General Discussion

Well, there goes another year! Not my best one, as I was knocked down crossing a one way street by a driver reversing their car for a parking space. It fractured my hip and my pelvis, so it's been a difficult year, but it has, at least, given me the opportunity to improve my albumen paper skills. Now I'm looking forward to 2012, my 81st. year, and a lot more wet Collodion..
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Does anyone have an email address for Ken Watson?
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I have just discovered and bought a copy of J.J.Griffins 1854 catalogue. !854 Catalogue Lots of useful illustrations. Seán
Forum: General Discussion