Bird-Lore
A BI-MONTHLY MAGAZINE
DEVOTED TO THE STUDY AND PROTECTION OF BIRDS
Official Organ of the Audubon Societies
| Vol. II | March—April, 1900 | No. 2 |
A New Camera for Bird Photographers
BY JOHN ROWLEY
Chief Taxidermist of the American Museum of Natural History
EELING keenly in my work the need of a camera
which would enable me to make studies of birds and
animals, I have for several years been experimenting
with devices which would be more suitable for my
purposes than any of the ordinary tripod or snap-shot
cameras of the trade.
In 1895 I ordered from Messrs. Scovill l^: Adams a 5x7 'double
decker,' built after plans of my own. This camera had twin lenses,
one above the other and both of the same focal length. The upper
lens threw the image upon the mirror, whence it was reflected to a
horizontal ground glass protected by a hood and situated upon the
top of the box : and the other lens communicated directly with the
plate below, upon which the exposure was to be made.
This camera worked very well, but was entirely too bulky, and
its large size led me to thinking of means by which one lens could
be made to do the work that in the twin-lens two were doing, thus
reducing the size of the box one-half. My first idea was to build a
box on the plan of the ordinar}' hand camera and place a ground
glass on the top. A mirror was then hung in the box at an angle
of 45 degrees to the plate and adjusted as in the 'double decker,' but
hinged at the back, so that it could be swung up out of the way
and the exposure made on the plate at the rear. The lens shutter
(a Prosch) was changed so that when open, one pressure of the bulb
closed the shutter and released the mirror, which, by means of a
spring, flew up and remained clamped to the inside of the top of the
box, and shutting out any light that might come in through the ground
glass there. A second pressure of the bulb made the exposure on
the plate by opening and closing the shutter instantaneously.
