8x10 Century Universal Camera, 1929

This is one of my favorite cameras. The Century Universal 8x10, patented by C.H. Roth, was one of the most versatile large format cameras of it's day. I like to call it the "poor man"s Deardorf. While the Deardorf is a beautiful camera the CU had a longer bellows draw, more rear movements, was lighter, and came with a fails safe rear level (an arrow on a nail that always pointed down). When I did my research on Berenice Abbott's work on Changing New York where she almost exclusively worked with this camera I decided I would have to work with the same vintage camera on my project, New York Changing.