World's 'oldest camera' auctioned

[ClaremontPhoto]

Made in 1839. €600,000 at auction.BBC Report

 

[doitashimash1te]

I know it is a lot of money, but I couldn't resist.

Now, can anyone here tell me how this thing works?

 

[traveller]

I know it is a lot of money, but I couldn't resist.

Now, can anyone here tell me how this thing works?

The usage of the camera should be no problem, just don't loose the lenscap. Maintenance should be easy too as there are not so many parts. About making and developing the plates you can find some information here.

But some thing's I'm wondering:
What is the best bag for this camera?
Is it comparable to the M 6?

Awaiting your answers 😀

 

[Meleica]

look, the lens isnt the sharpest, but the bokeh.....oooh la la.....

 

[rover]

The head of the Vienna auction house said he was convinced the piece was from the earliest years of popular photography.

Herb Keppler is that old?

 

[oftheherd]

Herb Keppler is that old?

So, the secret is out? Is there a photograph of Mr. Keppler holding a daguerre camera to his face? 😀

 

[sepiareverb]

Wish granted. Unfortunately, the mice have been using it as condo, and have torn out all the interior walls to make it into one large loft. They also have stripped the exterior to sup on the hide glue.

I wish I had a black Contax T3 in my pocket.

 

[foto_fool]

I wish I had a genie in my pocket to conjure up an addition to the house for a darkroom and make it possible for me to spend more time shooting.

But you know, an $810,000 collectible in the attic would go a long way toward making at least part of that happen. Heck, I could buy a mint M5 AND a 10-cyl M5!

- John

 

[350D_user]

I wish I had a black Contax T3 in my pocket.

Just black? Ok, well, I wish for world peace... but I guess the black Contax T3 is a bit more obtainable... sadly.

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

The head of the Vienna auction house said he was convinced the piece was from the earliest years of popular photography.

Herb Keppler is that old?

The ancient greeks weren't very popular, I guess, judging all the knowledge purge that the Dark Ages and its "Creationism"-only policy saw.

Or perhaps he was referring to courtyards? Not a very popular subject; no, wait, it was a premonition of Landscape Photography. Or was this from a secret batch of cameras dedicated solely to "glamour" shots? 😉 I guess that'd be the dawn of popular photography.

"Popular photography"...that's an inkblot term, methinks...

 

[dmr]

Herb Keppler is that old?

Now now, he's one of my heroes!

I can only wish that I will be healthy enough to be active and go shooting when I get to be his age. (He still works, I might not go that far!) 🙂

 

[Gabriel M.A.]

I knew we had "talked" about it before...before the auction, that is.

http://www.rangefinderforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41278

I guess the estimated $135,000.00 was just a "teaser". Belloq would have loved to be there, as he wore some more patina on his disposable Black Paint Kodak camera. No, make that a bottle of aspirin...rubbing it as he pondered where to bury it, and send it off on its way to become priceless!

 

[SDK]

While this Daguerreotype camera might be the oldest known photographic camera, there are many older cameras used by artists to aid perspective drawing, some dating back to the Renaissance. Canaletto (1697-1768) is an example of a painter who used cameras obscura to make sketches for his paintings of Venetian canal and street scenes, but he's probably not the first artist to make use of optics.

The camera obscura was first accurately described by Abu ‘Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham (965–1039) a Muslim phsicist born in Basra, Persia (now in Iraq) in the pinhole projection onto a room wall.