reproduction of a famous camera and lens
Toronto. The evening of February 17th, 2016, I visited the Ryerson University Library along with a number of other PHSC members. A milestone was the display by the late Willi Nassau of a reproduction of the famous Voigtlander brass daguerreotype camera with a copy of the Petzval lens.
The original camera and lens were made around 1842 by Voigtlander, then in Vienna. The Petzval lens was the first ever photographic portrait lens and was much faster than the lens used by Daguerre in 1839. It is thought that less than 1,000 of the original camera/lens combinations were ever made. Only three complete sets were known by 1989.
This reproduction camera and lens combination were made locally in Southern Ontario as commissioned by Willi – and a happy St Patrick’s day to you too.
