Restoring An Ansco 8x10 Commercial View Camera

T

thronobulax

Very Active Poster
Registered User
Joined
Aug 29, 2020
Messages
1,386
I'd always wanted to scratch the 8x10 itch, but I didn't want to pay the high prices for Wisner, Tachihara, Deardorff et al (let alone Chamonix or Ebony!). I just wanted a camera with ample movements to fiddle around with.

A few months ago, I came into possession of a fairly tattered Ansco 8x10 Commercial View Camera. This wasn't surprising. I did a little digging, the newest this camera could be would be from 1939 and it's quite possibly older. I believe this model camera was used by both Edward Weston and Ansel Adams at one point or another. According to the old catalogs, these were $85 when new!

The camera was fairly dusty and dirty, the brass was dull, and everything needed a good cleaning and lubrication. More significantly, the bellows were completely done and needed to be replaced.

My goal here was not to create a pristine as-new version of the camera. I wanted to retain its patina and scars, but just clean everything up and make it shine a little bit.

I also wanted a 6x6 to 4x4 lensboard adapter. All my Wisner 4x5 Technical Field boards are 4x4 and a couple of them cover 8x10. I wanted to be able to use any of these on either camera, with a view toward some day building a 4x5 reduction back to be used with other lenses in my Wisner kit.

So, I got a new-old-stock Deardorff adapter without hardware, added a commercially machined brass top slide, and made the bottom brass retaining bar from hardware store brass stock, screws, and nylon spacers. The Deardorff needed a little encouragement on the router table to fit nicely into the Ansco lensboard slot.

I also put some foam pieces on both the 6x6 and 4x4 lens board openings to that any board installed fits tightly once locked down. The handles slight board-to-board thickness variability.

I sent the bellows frames to Richard Ritter in Vermont who fixed them up and sent them off to - I believe - Custom Bellows in the UK for the actual bellows fitting. They came in today and I've just completed reinstalling them to complete the project.

I thought some of you might enjoy seeing how "the sausage got made". So, here is a small album in chronological order:

 
Last edited:
Great work. Customs bellows replaced my Deardorff bellows. Thanks for documenting the restoration process.
 
I am hoping one of you (perhaps @Ian Grant) might know how to service the front rise locking mechanism on this camera.

The front lens mount is on a rack and pinion system that is used raise- and lower the lens. Once in place one is supposed to push the knob that does this to the right (when viewed from front of camera) to lock the lens at the height. My camera is sufficiently old and/or worn that doing this does not reliably lock up the lens at that height.

I am hoping that there is an adjustment for this rather than having to replace the gears themselves.
 
thronobulax said:
I am hoping one of you (perhaps @Ian Grant) might know how to service the front rise locking mechanism on this camera.

The front lens mount is on a rack and pinion system that is used raise- and lower the lens. Once in place one is supposed to push the knob that does this to the right (when viewed from front of camera) to lock the lens at the height. My camera is sufficiently old and/or worn that doing this does not reliably lock up the lens at that height.

I am hoping that there is an adjustment for this rather than having to replace the gears themselves.
Click to expand...

That's something I need to look at myself, I have a 10x8 Agfa Ansco with a fixed front standard, and just rise & fall, and it doesn't quite always lock. At the moment it's not near the top my of restoration projects. I have a far better Universal View to refinish & shift

Your Ansco Universal View is the post Agfa Ansco model, after the US Government seized the company, the front standard is almost the same not the rear (in terms of how it tilts). Build & bellows quality were lowered slightly to reduce cut production costs after the US entry to WW2, they were not made at Bingham during the war. All production initially went to the US military, you have a rarer non grey post WW2 version.

These cameras were the best of the US tail-board cameras, the standards run barss to brass, not brass in wood. The build quality difference Agfa Anso to later plain Ansco is slight not going to affect image quality, more wear and tear, the wood wasn't as high quality, belloews cheaper materials that doesn't not last as long.

Ian
 
Ian Grant said:
That's something I need to look at myself, I have a 10x8 Agfa Ansco with a fixed front standard, and just rise & fall, and it doesn't quite always lock. At the moment it's not near the top my of restoration projects. I have a far better Universal View to refinish & shift

Your Ansco Universal View is the post Agfa Ansco model, after the US Government seized the company, the front standard is almost the same not the rear (in terms of how it tilts). Build & bellows quality were lowered slightly to reduce cut production costs after the US entry to WW2, they were not made at Bingham during the war. All production initially went to the US military, you have a rarer non grey post WW2 version.

These cameras were the best of the US tail-board cameras, the standards run barss to brass, not brass in wood. The build quality difference Agfa Anso to later plain Ansco is slight not going to affect image quality, more wear and tear, the wood wasn't as high quality, belloews cheaper materials that doesn't not last as long.

Ian
Click to expand...

I find that dating on this confusing. I though I read that the cameras just marked "Ansco" were made up through the later 1930s, at which time Agfa's name was added, and then dropped again during the war.

There is also some indication that this is actually a Universal View, not a Commercial View based on the absence for a front extension
and the max bellows draw of around 27" - nowhere near the Commercial View's 37" or so. That combined with the presence of the front standard cross brace and front tilt, put the camera somewhere between 1939 and 1941.

If you have any more definitive reference that help date my camera, I'd be much obliged if you could pass then along.

My exploration of the rise lock shows no simple adjustment and may require removing it from the front standard for servicing. A possible workaround is to set the gearing the the locked position and placing a small wedge between the right adjuster and the front standard frame so it cannot move once adjusted and in place. However, this is inelegant and ugly.
 
Last edited:
Agfa had a US manufacturing division which merged with Ansco in 1928, taking control, after that the Ansco field cameras carried Agfa Ansco brand name. Top of the range was the Commercial View camera with an extension rail, and heavy duty leather bellows, with 37½" bellows draw.

I bought my Commercial View from a Photography professor in Portland, Maine, the original owner Mr Charles Brown had studied at the Clarence White School of Photography. Around 1940/1 he bought the best available US 10x8 camera and lens, a 12" CP Goerz Am Opt Dagor.

I don't know how long the second owner had the camera, but he told me he'd only used it to copy artwork, with,a 300mm f9 Nikkor M, He'd had 4 spare lens boards made, and adapted t 7x5 reducing back to 5x4, for Polaroid exposure tests. He'd also bought a 10x8 Beattie Intenscreen, but never fitted it. The Dagor was thrown for free, as useless.

Sure the slow shutter speeds of the Dagor's B&L Compound shutter just hung or were erratically slow, the slow speed damper piston just needed a clean & lube. Still working perfectly 22 years later.

It' unlikely you camera was made during WW2, it'll be late 1940s, until production ceased.

Ian
 
What's throwing me off is that the nameplate only says "Ansco" not "Agfa Ansco".

I am also reasonably sure now that what I have is an Ansco Universal, not a Commercial

Thanks for taking the time to help clarify.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top