I was given this camera in 1952 by one of my grandfathers. He bought it new in the 1890s and used it to take the 1901 picture of Strand on the Green shown here. I used it for a bit, while I could still find plates, and one of my pictures of that time is included here. Recently I unpacked it and decided to restore it. Camera Bellows of Birmingham (England) made me some bellows. Glass plates are presumably long gone and locating a source of half plate cut film is for the future. I made two sets of card inserts for the beautiful wooden darkslides. One set holds strips cut from 120 roll film which I can load into a daylight tank for processing. The other set packs up cut to size bromide paper which I can develop under a safelight in my bathroom. I'm still experimenting with different exposure indices and developer dilutions for paper. Its frequency response must be fairly similar to that of the emulsions used by late Victorian amateur photographers, hence the rather 'old time' tonality of pictures taken with it rather than with FP4. Since I live near the Thames in West London a visit to Strand on the Green was unavoidable. The skyline next to the Kew Bridge Steam Museum is not improved by modern buildings!

Old cameras ought to be used as well as treasured!