Hit Camera (1950s) paired with a rare Petzval Cone Centralitaseur Lens (1850s)

This is what happens while sitting around the house in the midst of staying at home during the pandemic.

I don’t have a new camera in the collection to post … but … I was staring at a large really early American field camera and, for some reason, thought about small cameras. Not smaller 19th century wood and brass field apparatus, but really small cameras of any vintage. Strangely, the smallest cameras in my collection are a couple of subminiatures. (Long ago I purchased the tiny cameras for my kids - they were really young at the time.)

How would “old” and “less-old” photographic objects look together, I pondered. Items that never crossed paths while being used in the real world would do so in a collection. Ah ha. An opportunity for a small project and some photography.

The 1950s Japanese “Hit” subminiature film camera was made by Tougodo. Most Hit-style cameras are incredibly common, inexpensive and cute. It is shown with a rarely seen (probably French) 1850s cone centralitaseur petzval formula lens used during the collodion wet plate years. These are incredibly interesting portrait lenses because the components can be taken apart and reassembled for landscape photography.

Anyhow, the “cone” lens and Hit camera are an odd pairing. Separated by roughly 100 years and distant countries, they have nothing in common. Together, I find them mildly amusing.