$800,000 camera

[markyap]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070526/..._oldest_camera

VIENNA, Austria - The world's oldest commercially produced camera — built in 1839 in the early days of photography — was auctioned off Saturday for nearly $800,000, an auction house said.

The camera, a Daguerreotype by Susse Freres of France, went to an anonymous online bidder for $792,333, which also makes it the world's most expensive camera, the Vienna gallery and auction house WestLicht said in a statement.

The camera, which was found in an attic in Germany by a professor, is made of soft wood and weighs between 11 and 13 pounds, WestLicht director Peter Coeln told Austrian radio. He said it was likely to have been built before August 1839.

"It was clear to me straight away that this was a camera from the first year of photography," he said.

Bids were placed from around the world, including
South Korea, Japan, the U.S. and France. The starting price was $134,610.

[TwinJet]

It's a fortune.

[Jeffrey Arrogante]

100 Mpx?

@ $800,000 x 50 = Php 40,000,000.00

[pnoize]

to quote another forum:


Daguerrotypes (after Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre) involves photography on silvered metal plates sensitised by bromine and iodine and 'developed' by mercury vapours. The images are unique since there are no negatives or positives involved. Each photograph is unique. A daguerrotype is both negative and positive- it needs to be viewed at a certain angle to be seen as a positive. The image is really a deposition of whitish mercury on a mirror-like silver surface.

Making daguerrotypes is a very complicated and TOXIC process. The current view cameras can be used once their slides are adapted to take in copper plates. The rest is really hard to do. The copper plate is plated with silver, then buffed to a mirror-like finish.
Then it is sensitised by exposing it to bromine and iodine vapours in a fuming box. The box contains a small dish of bromine or iodine. After sensitisation, the plate is loaded into the slide and exposed. Exposures will be in the order of about 30 seconds even in bright sunlight.

After exposure, the plate is then 'developed' by placing it in a box containing a dish of mercury. The mercury is heated so that it vapourises. Its vapours will settle only on the exposed parts, and doing so produces a visible image. Ones the deposition is complete, the plate is fixed by pouring thiosulphate solution on it. Then finally, the plate is washed carefully. The mercury amalgam image is very delicate and can rub off.

The most toxic step in the process is obviously the developing part. Mercury in open containers at room temperature is already toxic... when heated it becomes even more. Remember that recent incident in a high school here which had to be closed for weeks because some mercury spilled in their science lab? Many students got sick because of this.

[koto]

OMG..

old school photography is really extreme!!!

[ilovemynikon]

mo bid nya ko

[DuBciTY]

nice sh*t whoo magamit pa ba kaha ni?

[tolstoi]

to quote another forum:


Daguerrotypes (after Louis Jacques Mande Daguerre) involves photography on silvered metal plates sensitised by bromine and iodine and 'developed' by mercury vapours. The images are unique since there are no negatives or positives involved. Each photograph is unique. A daguerrotype is both negative and positive- it needs to be viewed at a certain angle to be seen as a positive. The image is really a deposition of whitish mercury on a mirror-like silver surface.

Making daguerrotypes is a very complicated and TOXIC process. The current view cameras can be used once their slides are adapted to take in copper plates. The rest is really hard to do. The copper plate is plated with silver, then buffed to a mirror-like finish.
Then it is sensitised by exposing it to bromine and iodine vapours in a fuming box. The box contains a small dish of bromine or iodine. After sensitisation, the plate is loaded into the slide and exposed. Exposures will be in the order of about 30 seconds even in bright sunlight.

After exposure, the plate is then 'developed' by placing it in a box containing a dish of mercury. The mercury is heated so that it vapourises. Its vapours will settle only on the exposed parts, and doing so produces a visible image. Ones the deposition is complete, the plate is fixed by pouring thiosulphate solution on it. Then finally, the plate is washed carefully. The mercury amalgam image is very delicate and can rub off.

The most toxic step in the process is obviously the developing part. Mercury in open containers at room temperature is already toxic... when heated it becomes even more. Remember that recent incident in a high school here which had to be closed for weeks because some mercury spilled in their science lab? Many students got sick because of this.

talking about hardcore post/pre processing

[TwinJet]

it's amazing just knowing how they took pictures back in the 18th century...

[paulpogi]

amazing find mark =) mag bid nya ta na..