Bardin Le Météor |
Version française |
Manufactured or assembled in France from (Circa) 1896 to (After) 1896.
Index of rarity in France: Rare (among non-specialized garage sales)
Inventory number: 10419
See the complete technical specifications
Chronology of cameras Bardin
A variant is presented in the bulletin of the Société de Photographie Française (1896 p. 497), reporting its introduction on August 7th.
Its originality lies in having a special shutter, the "progressive shutter of Lansiaux and Liévrard." This shutter is actually double. One part is a classic guillotine lens providing for long exposures and slow speeds. The other part is very original and constitutes a kind of focal-plane shutter made of a rotating aluminum prism.
What is even stranger is that this shutter seems identical to the one that equipped G. Eastman and F. M. Cossitt's camera, the first "Kodak" camera that Eastman stopped producing after 40 units due to excessive production costs. (The only known specimen is at the Smithsonian Institution.)
Bardin seems to have outperformed Kodak in that regard, as one specimen of the Meteor bears the number 53.
It is a rigid camera in wood, covered in leather, using 9 x 12 plates in double wooden curtain slide holders, replacing the ground glass holder.
The lens is a "Doppel-Anastigmat D.R.P. Series III / 1 F = 150 m/m - C. P. Goerz Berlin - No. 21521," dating it a little before 1895. Focusing is done through a helical mechanism with distance markings on the front. The viewfinders are made of small convex mirrors providing a reduced image of the landscape and functioning as a clear viewfinder.
The shutter is armed with a pull; triggering can be done by finger or bulb. A selector deactivates the focal-plane shutter to allow for slow exposures (B setting). Fast speeds are variable by tensioning a spring that modifies the rotation speed of the shutter cone.
Two spirit levels. The tripod socket follows the standard congress thread.
Item No. 15: The top selector 'On-Off'; central button adjusting the focal shutter speed; at the bottom, 'Bulb - Instant' selector.
Slot of the rotary focal plane shutter.
Internal view showing the shutter cone in the open position to allow for long exposures and slow shutter speeds.
In this specimen (No. 53), the adjustment button is graduated from 20 to 1000. The one on No. 15 bears no graduation.
Bulletin of the Société Française de Photographie, 2nd Series, Volume XII, No. 21, page 499. (November 1896)
Dido Page 500.
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