There are two cameras I always regretted selling. The Vageeswari Banquet camera and the Whole Plate field camera.
I’d been looking for a replacement whole plate for a while, plenty of hlaf and quarter plate ones around but never that many whole plate ones, and when they did crop up they were usually with just the one plate holder.
This one was on Feepay and was £51 till around 20 seconds to go when it shot right up to the top of my budget, which for me was pretty high 😉 Those that know me know how I like a bargain.
This one came with four plate holders, half plate inserts and a stack of film inserts, over 20 of them for whole plate. I’ll keep some for paper negs but will be selling the others on.
Its very well constructed and at first glance you’d think it was by Gandolfi but there no manufacturers name to be found on it. The one thing that stands out is that massive black plastic focus knob! I know some of the FKD Russian cameras have these but this looks to well made to be one of those.
The bellows are pretty patchy, they could be taped up easily enough but I think I’ll make a new set of bellows this time.
Some movements are available at the rear standard but not much.
Really pleased with this camera even if it does need a little bit of work. I’ll be selling on the previously blogged half plate Gandolfi if anyone is interested.