Antique & Classic Cameras

Dante Stella writes, “The Graflex Norita 66 is a 6x6 SLR that looks like a 35mm SLR on steroids. It is the spiritual ancestor of the Pentax 6x7 and a contemporary of the Pentacon 6. It takes 12 exposures on 120 or 24 on 220, with the film type selected by the pressure plate and a switch on the counter. The camera has a large cloth focal plane shutter that travels from right to left (from the back) with speeds of B, 1-1/500 sec. Diaphragm is automatic, and the lens has a stop-down lever. The camera body is brass, with glossy black enamel. It is lovely, even if it is worn a little bit.”

Read Dante’s review of the camera here: http://www.dantestella.com/technical/norita66.html

The history of the camera and its maker from wikipedia:

"Norita was a Japanese optical manufacturer. Founded in 1951 by Toshio Norita, it originally made lenses for binoculars but moved on to prisms and thence pentaprisms for SLR cameras.

Musashino Kōki had been making a 6×6 SLR called the Rittreck 6×6 from 1968; for which Norita had been making the pentaprism finder and the three lenses (wide, standard, and tele). When Musashino decided to terminate production of this camera, Norita decided to expand from being merely an optical designer/manufacturer to manufacturing cameras, and took over machine tools, assembly, and some staff from Musashino.

For its new "Norita 66", Norita expanded the range of lenses: the 55/80/160mm selection for the Rittreck became 40/55/80/160/240/400. Additionally it produced a 75mm f/3.5 lens with built-in shutter (bypassing the focal-plane shutter for high-speed synchronization with electronic flash); but most remarkably the speed of the 80mm standard lens was increased to f/2, fast for a medium-format lens.

Norita tied up with Singer, owner of Graflex, and exported cameras to the US, where they were sold as, and inscribed, "Graflex Norita". Norita also exported cameras to France, West Germany, the Netherlands, and Czechoslovakia.

Norita no longer exists."

Active as a daguerreian in the Post Office Building, Waltham, Mass., 1856 to 1861, and later. He was listed in Waltham until 1875. Prior to 1856, he was employed by H.F. Warren, and purchased the gallery of J.B. Heywood at the Post Office. Information corrected to November, 1997; © 1996, 1997 John S. Craig"

TOWLER, John, educator, born in Rathmell, Yorkshire, England, 20 June, 1811. He was educated at the Giggleswick grammar-school and was admitted a member of St. John's college, Cambridge, in 1833. After coming to this country he was elected in 1850 professor of modern languages and literature in Geneva (now Hobart) college, at whose medical department he was graduated in 1855. From 1853 till 1872 he was its professor of chemistry, toxicology, and medical jurisprudence, and dean of the medical faculty. Subsequently, when this institution was merged into the Syracuse school of medicine, he was given the chair of anatomy, and in 1868 was transferred to the chair of civil engineering and chemistry in Hobart. These places he resigned in 1882 to become United States consul at Trinidad, British West Indies, where he remained until 1886. Since that time he has devoted his attention to literary work at Orange, New Jersey Professor Towler was co-editor of Hilpert's "German and English Dictionary" (4 vols., Carlsruhe, 1846), and he also edited after Hilpert's death an abridged edition of the "Dictionary" (2 vols., Pforzheim, 1846-'7). He was editor of "Humphrey's Journal of Photography and the Allied Arts and Sciences " and "The American Photographic Almanac" in 1864-'7, and for five years subsequent to 1867 he wrote an article each month for the "Philadelphia Photographer." He published translations of Schiller's "Don Carlos," "Die Braut von Messina," and "Die Rauber" in the same metre as the original (Carlsruhe, 1845-'8), and made translations of German war songs. His other works include "Der kleine Englander" (Carlsruhe, 1845); "The Silver Sunbeam" (New York, 1863) ; "Dry Plate Photography" (1865) ; "The Porcelain Picture" (1865) ; "The Magic Photography" (1866) ; "The Negative and the Print" (1866) ; "The Tannin Process" (1867) ; and "The Photographer's Guide" (1867) ; and he has translated Karl Friedrich Rammelsberg's " Guide to a Course of Quantitative Chemical Analysis" (Geneva, 1871).

With a Demonstration of Early Photographic Technology

Friday, September 19, 2014, 6:00 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.

Learn about collecting early photography and hear from collectors and curators as they discuss collectors' motivations, the issues of attribution and dating and other challenges of collecting. Discover how institutions benefit from collectors' instincts, expertise, and knowledge of the photography market. Bring your own 19th century photographs from your collection or family archive for a chance to have them analyzed by experts.

Ron Cowie, a fine art photographer and instructor at the New England School of Photography will demonstrate how 19th century photographs were made using the wet plate collodion process.

Roundtable speakers: photography collectors William B. Becker, Dan Colucci and Greg French; moderated by Francois Brunet, Professor of American Studies and the History of Photography at the University of Paris; and Gary Van Zante, Curator of Architecture, Design and Photography at the MIT Museum.

This event is presented in conjunction with the exhibition Daguerre's American Legacy: Photographic Portraits (1840-1900) from the Wm. B. Becker Collection in the Kurtz Gallery for Photography. 

The exhibition will be open to the public during the program.

J.P. Soule maintained photographic studios on Washington Street in Boston, ca.1861-1882.  As a photographer, his subjects in Boston included buildings, the 1869 National Peace Jubilee, the great fire of 1872, and carte-de-visite portraits. He also photographed mountains in New Hampshire, and the 1866 fire in Portland, Maine. He exhibited works in the Charitable Mechanic's exhibitions of 1850, and 1874 (bronze medal).

In addition to taking photographs, Soule published works by Martin M. Hazeltine and others. Crediting of photographer's original works followed rather murky standards. For instance, photographs "by John P. Soule" of natural scenery in California appeared in Samuel Kneeland's Wonders of Yosemite Valley, and of California (1871).  However, "the photographs ... credited to John P. Soule on the title page ... have recently been re-attributed to the photographer Martin Mason Hazeltine. Soule, a publisher of stereoviews, purchased many of Hazeltine's California negatives, copyrighted them in 1870, and began selling them in Boston."

Soule joined the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts in 1865, and belonged to the Freemasons.

After leaving Boston around 1882, he travelled west again. "In 1888, John Soule moved to Seattle, where he continued to work as a photographer. Soule photographed the aftermath of Seattle Fire of 1889 and the rebuilding thereafter. He continued to live in Seattle and occasionally take photographs of the growing city until his death in 1904."