Newman & Guardia | Trellis | Other | Quarter Plate
HAND AND STAND CAMERA | 1910. Introduced in 1910, as a rather belated response to the success of the Sanderson range of cameras, this rare super-quality "Trellis" camera, with all the Sanderson features and more, was available only to special order, and fewer than 200 were ever built. Newman & Guardia cameras were never cheap; by 1912 the price, excluding lens or shutter, was £12.10s., or with lens and shutter, £22.00, representing £2,260 at 2015 prices. It was capable of extreme long focus and extreme short focus work and had triple extension, with extreme rise, fall and tilt capability, a flap on top of the body to cater for the bellows at full rise, interchangeable lens panels and an extra focus rack and drop baseboard for wide angle lenses. The lazy-tongs "Trellis" strut design ensured rigidity at any extension. The buyer could specify choice of lens, and either focal plane shutter, between-lens shutter, or both. The Zeiss Tessar 13.5cm f/4.5 lens fitted on this example, in Compur dial-set shutter, has Serial Number 734914, dating it to 1927, although as lenses are interchangeable, the camera itself could date as far back as 1910 when they were first produced. Edward Holmes ("An Age of Cameras"), says it is "One of the most usable cameras ever designed."
Extra photographs, where available: Click on thumbnail to open in a new page.
