Ol’ Uncle Twee Cat’s Photo Esoterica, Pt. 5:
I’ve got no idea what this whackamatack claptrack jigjag is. Probably made out of moon rocks and tin cans. Never seen the like of it…
{ .pdf at the end of the post! }
(Is the cover photo a reference to Vorticist photographs?)
This is a useful document I have found which represents the best system chart for the Silvestri Shift Camera I have encountered. This camera was later known as the Silvestri T30.
If you want to purchase this camera in order to make photographs, I have a simple recommendation for you. You are likely reading this inside of a room with four walls. If you wish to have a wall to beat your head against, choose one of these instead of undertaking the project of getting a SIlvestri camera into working order. This is not because of the cameras themselves. They are wonderful, well crafted, durable, high quality cameras. But you can’t find them. If you can, they’re likely incomplete, or missing some small, essential component required to successfully use them. The used market for these cameras is very limited, so much so that you may wait years to see a proper listing for these missing components, or they may never be listed at all.
I have put forward this camera catalog in part for the reason that the proper part numbers and their interrelations are well described here. Silvestri does not seem to have published any usable manual for these cameras in any language. The promotional literature seems to be the absolute extent of documentation that they produced. Given that the system is not entirely self-explanatory, involves a high degree of modularity, and went through numerous changes over the years, this makes for a lot of confusion. This document is dated November 1, 1990. You should read it as a statement of the system as it existed at that time. The cameras were always to some extent bespoke, and as such there was some variation. All the more reason it is difficult to assemble all the needed parts.
If you want a similar camera which has much, although not all, of the functionality of this camera, try the Cambo wide – the first version, intended for 4×5. It’s lovely to use.
