Photographer Markus Hofstaetter is no stranger to shooting with and tweaking old film cameras. But for his most recent project, he went deep into photo history to repair his 100-year-old Century No. 2 8×10 large format camera.
The camera itself was functioning fine, but Hofstaetter noticed its light bellows were leaking. So, he grabbed his cameras, started filming the process, and got to work restoring the camera.
Throughout the 9-minute video above, we get a glimpse the meticulous process of Hofstaetter repairing the wooden Center No. 2 camera, which was made by Kodak Eastman between the years 1904 and 1912. ‘It took me a long time to put everything together,’ says Hofstaetter. ‘Because it was important for me to reuse as many original parts as possible to preserve the history of this camera.’
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| Hofstaetter stretches out the new bellows after receiving them in the mail. |
As Hofstaetter shares in the video, the first step was to take measurements of the bellows and send them off to a bellow maker. After ‘some weeks’ the bellows arrived and were ready to install. Piece by piece, Hofstaetter deconstructed the camera to begin the repair process while preserving every original component he could.
Hofstaetter eventually recruited the help of a friend to piece everything together, with the bellows in particular being a bit of a pain to reinstall on the camera. In the end though, Hofstaetter and his friend pieced it all together and finished off the project by repairing scratches on the wooden frame of the camera and ensuring all of the other components were clean and clear for easy operation.
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| Hofstaetter attaches a lens to his newly-restored 8×10 camera. |
Hofstaetter concludes saying, ‘This camera will hopefully still be and with that, [have many] more stories to tell.’
You can find additional details about the projects on Hofstaetter’s website and subscribe to his YouTube channel.
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This article comes from DP Review and can be read on the original site.
