Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2010/01/29/daguerreotype_auction/
First mass-produced camera heads to auction
Gadgets geeks shocked by lack of Flickr support
Posted in Personal Tech, 29th January 2010 10:05 GMT
An extremely rare model of the world’s first commercially produced camera will be auctioned later this year.
The Daguerreotype originally cost 400 French Francs - an average yearly salary in 1839
The Giroux Daguerreotype camera was designed by Louis-Jacques-Mande Daguerre and produced in 1839. It will be auctioned on 29 May in Vienna for a starting price of €200,000 (£173,027), though auction house WestLicht Photographica Auction warned that the camera could fetch as much as €700,000 (£605,594).
Unofficially referred to as the Daguerreotype camera, the shooter has a sliding or “double box” body.
The photographer achieves a fixed focus by pulling the smaller inner box away from the front-mounted 15in “achromatic landscape lens”.
Image exposure time takes anywhere between three and 30 minutes – depending on light intensity – and greyish stills are the standard.
The camera is described as being in “excellent original condition” and comes with the original 24-page instruction manual, written in German.
If you can’t stretch to 600 grand for a camera that doesn’t even feature facial recognition, geo-tagging or interchangeable lenses, fear not. The Daguerreotype’s manual will soon be translated into numerous languages and published alongside the original blueprint. ®