Books

The Thomas International Photo Directory of Antique Cameras

Average customer rating:

Thomas Internat'l Photo Directory: OK, but problems...
Excellent information with over 2000 photographs.

The Thomas International Photo Directory of Antique Cameras
Douglas B. Thomas
Manufacturer: Thomas Intl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Similar Items:

Antique Trader Cameras and Photographica Price Guide (Antique Trader's Cameras Price Guide)

ASIN: 0961212802

Customer Reviews:

Thomas Internat'l Photo Directory: OK, but problems..........2002-07-15

This book is certainly valuable for what it contains, and is just as certainly usefully-illustrated, though not comprehensively so. Clearly, a lot of painstaking work went into its production. But the reader should not take the author's claims too seriously. There are failings in his research which could have been avoided simply by reading any of a number of previously published books (his failure to identify a number of very well-known cameras of "unknown country", for example, could have been avoided by consulting the edition of McKeown's Price Guide current at the time of publication). Perhaps the most naive claim he makes is that his book includes 80 percent of the named cameras produced between 1840 and 1940. In fact, he does a very creditable job of scratching the surface. The book also has many errors: to name just a few, he lists Daydark cameras as a product of Chicago Ferrotype instead of the Daydark Camera Co. of St Louis (of which he makes no mention); he gives Eastman Kodak credit for the Aiken-Gleason Comet camera; he lists the very well-known German-made Reflecta as "country unknown", as he does also with the famous Russian Gomz Sport (Cnopm), which even has the logo of the Gomz factory displayed clearly in his photo of the camera....and so on.

That isn't to say that the book doesn't have value. I use it as one of many identification resources, and where the quality of the photos permits, as a comparative construction resource for some earlier cameras. It has a few pictures of cameras rarely seen. But too many interesting cameras are listed without illustrations, and the descriptions are regrettably (though perhaps understandably) limited to a few technical specifications, with little of the kind of historical background which would make the book most useful. For the uninitiated collector the errors are of sufficient number to make credibility a problem. This is a book which cries for a follow-on edition, larger, with more illustrations and many corrections. In conception, it is potentially the ultimate collector's information resource. But it falls far short of the conception in its current state (and would have a long way to go to be in a league with McKeown). Perhaps Misters Thomas and McKeown could get together for a collaboration and really blow us away with the results. However, until the errors are corrected, I would recommend the book only as an optional nice-to-have backup resource rather than a primary must-have for the collector.

Excellent information with over 2000 photographs........1999-05-27

The directory provides detailed information on over 4000 camera models manufactured in the U.S. and European countries between 1840 and 1940. The many photographs are sharp and clear with considerable detail. A comprehensive index cross- references camera model names with manufactures.

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