Just finished to restore my new camera, this Narita 18×24 cm camera from Maison Naert Bruxelles, made probably at the beginning of the XX century.
I purchased the Narita camera in England. It arrived in a very good shape and it just needed some cleaning and a polish to the wood. I had to remake the brass hooks necessary to keep the camera locked when folded. I also fixed the broken base with a tripod socket detached from the wood.
Well, I also made brand new optic plates, because the original ones were made for different lenses, Now this Narita camera can accept a Joseph Schneider Kreuznach Xenar 24cm 1:4.5 lens, mounted on a black Plexiglas board (don’t ask why please! it just happened…); a huge Carl Zeiss Jena Tessar 360mm 1:4.5 lens; a Hermagis 460mm 1:8 Cooke-type, process lens.
Plate holders also needed some minor fixing, such as some screws missing and some rust to clean from the metal division boards inside the cassettes. I also polished them with plenty of bee wax to prevent the old wood to soak with the silver bath carried over by the wet plates during exposure, and made also new 5×7″ and 9x12cm reduction frames for the plate holders.
That’s it. The Narita by Maison Naert is back to work after probably a century since it came to life. Follow it during my next projects with wet plate collodion photography and beyond. Check the link above and take a look at the camera.
