The Obsolete Camera
Black & White film photo
Houghton Victo
c. 1910
I purchased this beauty during my stay in Cambridge in 2011. Its previous owner had inherited it from his grandfather, who worked in a pottery factory making photos for the sales catalogues of the company. When I received it in my home it was in poor condition, but after a deep restoration process it came back to life.
The brass overlays lacquer was damaged and impede to set up the camera easily. I took apart everything to remove the old lacquer, polish the brass and finish it with new lacquer.
The camera came with a Baush & Lomb anastigmatic lens with an in-built 'Unicum' shutter patented on 6th January 1891. All the metal parts were pretty dirty, the incredibly simple shutter with only two blades was stuck and one blade of the diaphragm had a broken pin. To get back to working condition I needed to take apart everything for cleaning, polishing and finishing. I lacquered some brass parts and nickel-plated others as they were before.
The lens metal parts had similar issues and the shutter was stuck, so I needed to take apart everything for cleaning, polishing and finishing. I lacquered some parts and nickel-plated others as they were before. The incredibly simple two blades shutter was dirty and the diaphragm didn't work properly because one blade had a broken pin.
Now the lens looks like new. I wasn't able to restore the original shutter speeds, but it isn't a major issue because they are consistent and I often use the T mode for long exposures.
And that's me enjoying my toy!