Collection Area #4: Equipment

This area traces the development of photographic equipment from its early days up to the 1970s. Its 6,000 or so items mainly include cameras, lenses, and optical devices such as magic lanterns, Ombro-Cinemas, electrotachyscopes, and zoetropes. Items of known provenance include Alphonse Poitevin’s daguerreotype equipment, Ottomar Anschütz’s "instantaneous" chronophotographic camera and Julius Neubronner’s carrier pigeon aerial photography camera. It contains many fascinating examples of historical photographic equipment such as the carte de visite and postage stamp cameras, spy and detective cameras, revolver cameras, a "Wonder Photo Cannon", and a bicycle camera. It also contains a perfectly preserved Kaiserpanorama, a popular mass medium from around the turn of the 20^th century which created a 3D effect by showing rotating slides. Other notable items include optical lens maker Joseph von Fraunhofer’s workshop, and a fully equipped portrait studio used by court photographer Joseph Albert.