Linhoff find

Dswankey

Lunatic Member
I thought I would share a cool little story. There was an estate sale this past weekend and while perusing the the listing it mentioned that the previous owner was a photographer and that there would be lots of vintage cameras, gear etc; along with various audio equipment.

I forwarded the link to a friend, who is a professional photographer, and she said she thinks in one of the pictures that one of the cameras might be a Linhoff.

Early last week I asked if she wanted to attend and explained the early bird gets the worm theory. She says yes and we agree to discuss later in the week. Well the weather took a turn for the worst with 4 inches of snow predicted overnight before the sale so I asked if she was still game to which she said absolutely. I pick her up and we head over slowly in the early morning snow to the sale arriving about 30 minutes before start time.

The sale starts, they let us in and within a few minutes she winds up tracking down what was in fact a Linhoff with the associated lenses some other stuff. She also found a huge stash of some really old negatives, I wanna say daguerreotypes? but I could be wrong. She got all of that for a Benjamin & half and was stoked.

I wound up with not 1 but 2 pair of Spica TC-50's.

She explained to me going forward that whenever I'm at sale to contact her if I ever see the following Lica's, the above mentioned Linhoff and hasselbads and to contact her ASAP or just buy them and we can figure it later.

I'll try and get a picture of the Linhoff and post later.
 
If they are negatives they wont be daguerreotypes. Are they flexibile?

Dag's are on polished silver coated metal plates. Are they on glass? If so they "might" be Ambrotypes. If very thin peices of tin, then Tintypes. What the subjects are wearing gives clues. By the early 20thC film had all but taken over, with the occasional glass plate still used, I have a few from a portrait studio from the 1950's. Ambrotypes and Tintypes are often refered to as "Wet Plate" as the plate has to be prepared shortly before exposure and processed imediately. Let it dry and it's useless. Out door photography required a portabile darkroom. Mr Eastmond (Kodak) did us all a favour with film.

Dag's are amazing if you get to see them. Even more fun (and dangerous, vapourised mecury is the usual developing process ...) to make. I spent a few days making some last year. It is a time consuming process, polishing the plate, "sensitising" the plate, and then a long exposure before developing it. If you get two good ones in a day, it's an outstanding day.

Leica's have a big following, but be careful, there are a lot of Russian cameras that look like a leica, but aren't.
 
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