This camera is very special. It was a gift I received when I left a company I worked for. It belonged to a traditional family of photographers living in the small city of Campinas, near to São Paulo. Five generations have worked in photography. A long story that started at the beginning of the 20th century and continues to this day. Nicolau Parodi, an Italian who had already immigrated to Brazil and worked in the coffee processing machinery trade, after a stint in the merchant navy, returned to Rome to visit his family. There he met a photographer named Giuseppe Droghini who worked in the Vatican.
Certainly excited by Droghini’s work, Nicolau decided to start a business as a photographer in Brazil and even convinced Giuseppe to come with him. This was in 1906. A few years later, Giuseppe gave up, perhaps because he missed Italy, but Nicolau persisted and built a successful company that continued without interruption, with his descendants, even after his death in 1937. They moved to neighboring cities, Itatiba and Valinhos, and it was in the latter that I met Francisco Parodi, or Chico Parodi, who told me the story of the camera I was given. Its first owner was João Parodi, son of the founder Nicolau. He used it for approximately 30 years and then sold it, in 1955, to another photographer from Campinas.
Nicolau Parodi’s family, in Rome, in 1906. The boy on the right is João, who would become the owner of Thornton Pickard, which is now in the apenasimagens.com collection – Photo: Foto Parodi Collection
The studios in small towns used to do most of their business with so-called “social” photos, of events such as weddings, baptisms, graduations and family portraits in general. Located right in the city center, close to the main church, they also had a considerable business base in document photos. In none of these cases would a camera like this Thornton Pickard, a field camera, be the most suitable. For events, something truly portable is needed and for studios, when you want a large format such as 18×24 cm, the cameras literally called “studio cameras”, which are permanently mounted, make more sense. They have reducing backs to also take photos for documents, with 2×2 or 3×4 cm being the most common formats. But the 18x24cm were used for photos of babies, brides and grooms and families.
This is a typical studio camera for wedding and social photographers in general. The main difference from field cameras is that they are heavier and are not foldable.
An 18×24 cm field camera, like this Thornton Pickard Royal Ruby Triple Extension, would be more for outdoors work, when superior quality was desired with a really large negative. Photos of factories, architecture, landscapes, large groups, such as at parties or public events occasions, inaugurations and things like that. It could also be for the photographer’s enjoyment doing more personal work with a camera full of features like the Royal Ruby. This perhaps explains the excellent condition in which it is preserved to this day. It was probably a camera only for special situations when large format and a certain flexibility needed to converge in a single camera.
Up to these days, Valinhos is still a satellite city to the large São Paulo and the Parodi’s studio keeps part of its original framework. In an interview with the G1 channel on 05/15/2024, Chico Parodi commented on the versatility that a studio like Foto Parodi needs to offer. Outside of the big cities, there is no demand for much specialization, so diversify is the best strategy. The equipment has changed, but the need to adapt to different situations and photographic genres continues.
“To better understand what we do in the photography area, I usually make a comparison as if we were a general practitioner. We do practically everything that involves photography. For example: social events, corporate events, studio photos, advertising photos, aerial images, etc. We have good command of all the areas that photography allows us to work in. So when someone comes here, who is in need of something related to photography, it is difficult for us to say no.”
This is the story of this camera that has been with me since 2006 and continues to work as if it were new. It is obviously nice just having such a superb camera, but it is even nicer when you know the history that is behind it.
About the camera
The Thornton Pickard Royal Ruby Triple Extension 18×24 cm is without a doubt a goddess in the Olympus of field cameras of its time. It was manufactured from 1904 to 1930 (McKeown’s 1997/1998) The company was founded by John Edward Thornton and Edgar Pickard in Manchester, in 1888. The brand is probably far more known for having produced rollerblind shutters like the one below. They could be installed in front or behind the lens and had only one curtain with a window. The exposure was made with this curtain quickly rolling from one spool to another.
I found information about the Royal Ruby Triple Extension in a catalogue from 1911.
In the presented catalogue pages we can see that 18×24 cm was the largest size available in metric system. It was the successor size to the “full plate” that was used in Europe practically since the invention of photography. In England and the United States, in the Imperial System, its equivalent is 8×10″, which is slightly larger. The catalog emphasizes the robustness and resistance of the camera. It says that in addition to the metal reinforcements, the wooden parts are glued with waterproof glue. The wood used is mahogany, which is the case with this model, but they also offered an overseas model, made of teak, which is a very resistant wood used in the shipbuilding industry, as it has a high oil content and silica, making it especially suitable for applications in hot and humid climates.
The finish is impeccable. It goes so far that the screw heads are aligned when they are on the same piece, as seen in the image below.
Triple Extension means that from the base, lens board can be advanced and the rear of the camera can be moved backwards so that when fully extended the camera is roughly triple the size of its base.
In the photo above, we can see the two knobs that, when activated, move the front or rear of the camera back or forward using a rack system.
Note: since the base is not flat, I used some steel blocks to raise it a little and prevent it from resting on the knobs. These blocks are not part of the camera.
Above it is fully extended. I installed a telescopic rod, which can be removed, but in this situation prevents the bellows from forming a very pronounced belly. The bellows itself extends by 70 cm in this situation.
At the base there is a very thick and heavy brass disc. More than structural, I think it is to give more inertia and stability to the camera, preventing a harsher wind from knocking it over when it is mounted on a tripod. Its volume is large and this risk is reduced with this ballast.
Regarding rigidity, being a field camera, it is very good when using shorter lenses. Up to 400mm, more or less, it is very solid. However, when using the triple extension and 500 or 600mm lenses, which tend to have a larger aperture for this format, and are therefore heavier, it is a good idea to provide a stand or a second tripod to create another support point for the lens board and reduce vibration.
The ground glass system and the way the film/plate holder is loaded into the camera is different from most others in the category. The ground glass system opens like a spring-loaded door and when the frame is inserted it locks in place with a click. The slat shown on the left in the photo above slides sideways, open the holders entrance and closes with a spring. It is very safe and practical.
The film/plate holders are the type that open in the center and have corners reinforced with metal. This greatly helps with durability. You can use glass plates up to 2 mm thick (dry plates) or films with the help of sheaths.
Here it is equipped with a Goerz Dagor 240 mm and from that stance I made the photo below.
As for movements, the lens can be lowered or raised. It also moves sideways. This is done using a rack, which is very convenient, but the tilts of the lens or film, forward or backward, are done by releasing the locks on the side rods, and this is complicated to do while observing the image in the ground glass.
The camera came with a curtain shutter, one of those traditional Thornton Pickard’s. It also came (best of all) with a Protar VIIa manufactured by Ross, England, under license from Zeiss. I made an adaptation, so I could use this precious lens on other cameras, placing it on a lens board compatible with Linhof 13×18 cm. Now I have the option of using the original shutter or not.
Here it is with a Guerry double vollet shutter in which I incorporated a radio flash transmiter. Without a doubt a strange combination, an anachronism, but… the idea is still about taking pictures.
Being a field camera, supposedly for use in the field, it came with leather cases for the camera itself and 3 more film/plate hoders, another case with 3 more extra holders and even a tripod also with its own leather case. But the tripod does not have a head with adjustments in three dimensions. It simply offers a disc platform, on which the disc of the camera base rests and so, after leveling the tripod base, all that is left is the rotation movement on a vertical axis and the movements of the lens to create a composition. Normally I use a conventional tripod which is much more convenient.
In this other situation, the lens was a very old Lerebours et Secretan landscape lens, with the washer diaphragm in the front. The shutter was the lens cap itself because the exposure was very long because I was using a home made dry plate and an aperture f/45. The rear of the camera was tilted to focus on the aquatic plants in the foreground and also the landscape on the other side of the lake. Below is the result.
To conclude, I would say that it is a very versatile camera and its only “problem” is its weight. However, it easily accepts lenses from 150 to 500 mm, has a wide lens opening, about 14 cm, and that is very convenient for old lenses. It has a format that when contact printed, the simplest printing method, produces very beautiful copies to have in your hands. Another great advantage of a camera like this, still about the format, it that it is very easy to do printing processes with Ultra Violet, such as Van Dyke Brown, Cyanotype, Gum, etc. without leaving the analog, because the negatives are large. Below, for example, a Van Dyke Brown made with this camera equipped with a Wollensak Raptar 241 mm.
