The original Vesta is a wooden bodied camera with two pairs of struts. A very different camera to the more familiar Vesta of 'Hand and Stand' form with lazy tong struts. It was shown at the RPS exhibition of 1894 but was made earlier as it is advertised, in slightly different form, in the British Journal of Photography Almanac (BJA) of 1893. The Photogram of 1894 also talks of improvements that have been made.

Prior to 1894

The Vesta was introduced in 1892, that camera is best referred to as the Adams/Newman version. It is described in an advertisement in the Photography Annual for that year,¹ the advertisement would have been put together in the autumn of 1891 and late 1891 was the time of the split between Arthur Newman and A.L. Adams. It is also the period when Adams was forming his own manufacturing facilities, having previously used Newman & Simpson. This version was fitted with a Newman & Adams pneumatic shutter and 5" Wray lens with Waterhouse stops. It also had pleated bellows that detached from the lens/shutter housing (similar to the Nydia).

Following the split between Adams and Newman the camera had to be re-worked with a different shutter, Henry Hill was by this time working with Adams and produced a new pneumatic shutter and possibly changed other aspects of the camera. This must have been as early as 1892 as it is described in the BJA of 1893 as being fitted with an Adams & Hill shutter (an illustration is included).² The camera was still fitted with a Wray 5" lens and the cost remained the same at £7.7.0.

The camera was exhibited by J.A. Sinclair at the Photographic Society of Great Britain (PSGB) meeting in September 1892,³ this must have been the Adams/Hill version rather than the Adams/Newman version. It is doubtful if Adams/Newman cameras were made except for prototypes and sample products and very few of the Adams/Hill version could have been produced either, though at least one was advertised second-hand in 1892.⁴

Arthur Newman went on to develop a strut camera with a similar specification advertised as the Nydia by Newman & Guardia in the 1893 British Journal of Photography Almanac. There is a drawing for this camera in the British Journal of Photography (December 1893) which shows a different strut arrangement to the Adams/Hill camera and to the later Nydia of 1900.⁵

1894 Vesta

Henry Hill and Adams re-designed the earlier Adams/Hill camera producing the 1894 Vesta as shown in the 1893 patent and illustrated here. The biggest change was the adoption of unpleated bellows fixed to the front standard, this allowed the camera to be collapsed in one movement without having to detach the bellows. The strut arrangement was also changed and a 5 ½" lens fitted. The camera was shown at a Photographic Club meeting in May 1894. The August 3rd British Journal of Photography (BJP) has a review of the camera together with an illustration.⁶

In advertisements emphasis was made of an iris diaphragm being fitted and fixed bellows allowing one movement to set up the camera. The Vesta was compared to rival cameras - meaning the N&G Nydia.

The camera back could take either dark-slides or a changing box. A slot in the bottom of the back allows the changing box slide to be removed. The camera in 1895 cost £8.10.0 with the Wray lens. A Goerz lens was also available. Drawings show the camera with a hooded finder, this would be unusual for an Adams brilliant finder. Production ceased in the late 1890s.