The Vive MPC Magazine, Focusing Style, or Vive Portrait and View Camera

[lynxear]

Hi all

This is my first post on this site and I thought I would show you one of my antique cameras. I am not a true collector as "collection implies method"... I have been more of an accumulator in truth. I picked this camera up about 30 years ago and could not identify the camera at all back then.

I finally identified it today as I was doing a sort through my cameras .... as you can see in this photo there was not many clues available to me and prior to the internet I had no chance at all in identification. This was the ONLY writing on the camera:

It was hard to read 30 years ago but I searched for Vive Camera Company and I found really only one useful hit. This appears to show the aperture adjustment.

Here is the side view

Pulling on the release at the top left opens the back of the camera.

Apparently this camera can load 12 of these 5"x 4" plates which have curled edges to hold film. On the left you see pins in the plate and these are loaded into the camera one at a time with the pins fitting on the rails and they snap in place by a flat tension spring at the top.

This illustration shows a side cutaway view.

You make your exposure, then turn the crank at the top which move the exposed photo to the bottom of the camera where they are stacked and the unexposed plates are shuffled up into place for the next picture.

Fascinating.... I only have 8 such plates but I loaded them into the camera with no film in them, closed the back and pretended to take pictures. The mechanism works flawlessly... the shutter as well.

This is the only detailed info I have found on this camera. A manual would be magic At 115 years old it is in great shape.

I have never attempted to mess with rejuvenating a camera. The view finders are cloudy as is the lens. I wonder at what type of film would be used and if it were still available... probably not.

It would be interesting to try it out.

I hope you found this interesting....comments are welcome. I don't even have an estimate of value on this camera.

Best regards

 

[Designer]

Welcome!

Very interesting! You might be able to clean up the glass somehow (I've never tried), and maybe get some sheet film to fit those film holders. You might have to purchase oversize and cut it down to the correct size. I would not be enthusiastic about using a paper trimmer in the dark, but good luck if you do!

I say keep on searching for a manual. It will be a valuable addition to this item.

 

[Dave442]

A very interesting camera. You can certainly pick up some 5x4 film sheets. The prints from most films of this size at that time (early 1900's) were just done as contact prints and of course would have been in black and white.

The mechanism to shuffle the plates was very interesting, I think this is known as a type of Magazine Camera.

 

[jcdeboever]

Wow, super cool

 

[lynxear]

Thank you for your comments.

Initially I thought this would be a press camera because of the size of the plates and number. That lead me astray for a long time when I first started looking for its identity. I am going to try to learn more about the history of the company. It seems to be just a brief history for such an innovative product to me.

I don't have the pneumatic bulb release but it looks like a normal bulb with a suitable hose and a solid tube for the hole (always wondered what that hole was for), so that looks doable. I don't think I fancy using it hand held... it is so large I doubt I could keep it steady enough.

Anyway it fun to share this with you. I have moved to a small apartment which makes it awkward to do a lot of things that I might do if I had a darkroom. My collection has been in storage for a long time I am just getting around to revisiting it again. I think I may search for someone locally to see if they think this camera can be brought up to snuff.

 

[Dackerman]

I have one as well. Mine is missing the handle though. Do you know a good place to sell something like this?