Focal Plane Automan - Antique and Vintage Cameras

Focal Plane Automan

1901

Thornton-Pickard Manufacturing Co.

Altrincham

England

Image of Focal Plane Automan

Lens:
f6.3, 128 mm Goerz Doppel Anastigmat Series III, iris diaphragm to f45. Goerz scale 4.6 - 192. Serial no. 116591 .

Shutter:
Thornton-Pickard focal-plane, speeds 1/30 - 1/1000. Tension range 1 - 5. Slit width range A - G.

Thornton-Pickard Iris, two-blade between-the-lens, speeds 1 - 1/50.

Construction:
Leather covered wood body, leather bellows.

Format:
3 ¼" x 4 ¼" plates held in dark-slides.

Focusing:
Bellows to 5 feet. Double extension.

Attributes:
Brilliant view-finder attached to front standard. Front standard automatically erects when camera is opened. Lever focusing. Spring back.

Movements:
Rising front.

Serial Number:
842N .

With:
Focusing screen back. 5 double dark-slides with Thornton-Pickard plate holders.

This is the focal-plane version of the Oxford Automan series of self-erecting folding hand cameras. Around 1900 Thornton-Pickard produced a Focal Plane Hand Camera which was the forerunner of the Focal Plane Automan introduced in 1901. In 1908 the similar Nimrod Automan model was produced replacing the Focal Plane Automan. Two sizes - quarter-plate and later 5" x 4" - were produced. The usual lens was an f6 Rapid Aplanat, this example has a more expensive Goerz.

References & Notes:
BP 20226/1900. BP 18631/1901 (Speed calculator). BJA 1901, p. 1257. BJA 1902, p. 1268. BJA 1903, p. 927. BJA 1904, p. 1303. BJA 1909, p. 218.

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