lot 488 in the Feb 15, 2026 PHSC auction features a field camera with lens
Toronto. In the 1800s professional outdoor photographers were easy to spot: A dark viewing cloth, a wooden tripod and a field camera shouted it out loud!
The wooden view camera spanned the wet plate and dry plate eras. Smaller, metal or leather covered view cameras with far more elaborate adjustments joined the market when cut film arrived. Even roll film backs came along as film was introduced.
The 1800s field camera, like later ‘folders’, could be collapsed to make the beast easier to store and move. Basically, a thin wooden box at the back of the camera held a ground glass for focussing plus a means to replace the ground glass with an emulsion-coated glass plate. At the front was the lens board and lens combination, separated by a bellows, sometime ‘square’ but usually like a pyramid on its side. Various brass bits allow focussing and some lens adjustment, folding, and trim.
Shown here is lot 488, a typical dry plate field camera with Waterhouse stops to adjust the lens aperture (wet plate field cameras are rare as the very act of using the camera slowly destroys its wooden parts).
IMPORTANT: OUR AUCTION WAS RESCHEDULED DUE TO BAD WEATHER. Join us at our February 15, 2026 auction and see the amazing lots ready for the hammer. You are sure to find items for your collection or your user gear!
Note: The post title is a riff on the 1989 movie title “Field of Dreams“.
