many years ago i bought a cyclone #3 camera on ebay. at the time, i was buying old falling plate cameras, removing the shutters, cleaning them, and reselling them. i worked on and sold many of them, mostly long format box cameras, some with variable speed shutters, some with just and instantaneous speed ( 1/30thS sometimes faster ). the design was simple and worked very well. in the days before roll film, glass plates were loaded up inside the camera in metal septums after the exposure, a button was depressed and the glass plate would fall to the front of the camera on a rail, and the next plate was ready to expose. after i stopped fixing and selling them, i bought one last one, one that took 4×5 plates, the cyclone #3.
a few years ago, i stripped the dried, mottled broken leather off the wood box. i took a paper towel and made it wet, and scrapped it right off. i cleaned the cobwebs out of the inside of the camera, removed front plate where the shutter was, and put a drop of oil on the shutter. the camera was ready to use.
i put sheets of 4×5 paper in each of the 8 septums and went out and made some exposures. i processed the paper negatives in old print developer to control the contrast, i’d scan or contact print the results, it was a lot of fun … i hadn’t used the camera in over a year and picked it up again the other day. i loaded it up with 4×5 film and made some exposures. soon after i cut 5×7 paper in half and used a enlarger filter ( #2 ) to cut the contrast a little bit. i went to the cove near my house and photographed the marsh and the beach weeds.
