The WP Equipment

A pretty vital part of your equipment in photography: the camera. I’ll post some photos later on from the back and the inside. First of all some background…

It’s an original 8×10″ Wet Plate camera from around 1860, accompanied by a lens from the same era. Eddie found it for me when we attended the Photo Fair in Bièvres, France, last June. I am really happy with it, it’s in a gorgeous state and it needs no modifications to make it work. The only thing “missing” is a tripod hole but I’ll figure out a way of working with that without having to screw holes in the camera.The bellow seems pretty fine so far, apart from some minor blemishes but that will be solved using a black velor cloth, which is needed anyway.

When I truly start working with this process and I figure out if it’s what I want from it, I’ll start saving up for a contemporary WP camera so this old version can be preserved. It’s almost a shame to use it, but I think, if I were to have a chance to ask the original builder, he would like it more than anything to be used and loved. At least I sure would if I’d built something. There are already enough dusty cabinets with old preciousness never seeing daylight.

As promised, although somewhat later than anticipated, the photos of the 2 backs and in addition (woehowww) the silver nitrate darkbox. One back came originally with the camera as you can probably tell by the looks of it, one was a bargain I couldn’t leave sitting around without an owner. Have to convert it a little to make it fit but, as I can tell now, is also a genuine wet plate back.

So far I think most of the WP gear or necessities I have gathered. I have not yet unpacked all chemicals that came in. Coming week I’ll probably get to that, pre-mixing certain parts of them. I have about 23 films waiting for me to develop so I’ll kind of be busy somewhat next week 😉

At least I finally have all I need now to get started. I believe a few glass funnels and a velor cloth are all that are missing now. Can’t wait to get started. Probably will pour my first plates at the workshop I am attending at the beginning of October.

Anyway, that’s it for now, the next post I’ll outline which formula I’ll be using to start with.

Good night 🙂