Aires Viscount Test

[Randy]

Sunday I decided to test my recently aquired Aires Viscount. My wife and I just jumped in the van and headed off 'THAT WAY' towards Meadville PA. We happened upon this old True Temper Plant. Several old Punch Press Machines were on display outside in a Park. The skies were overcast and the sun was in a haze. For an old camera and first time using it, I'm pleased with the results.


















Once men stood in front of these hammering giants and earned a living...they did a days work and supplied Americans with the hand tools required to keep other machines working. Now the machines lay in a park away from the foundations they called home. The tools they once produced are now made in China and Taiwan, and the men and women that toiled with these machines are either retired or unemployed, as dormant as these machines...or working at the Walmart down the road.

Film is VR200 125 at f/8, I didn't use my light meter, I just guessed at the settings.

[PeterW]

Those are some heavy old machines, Randy, the sort of thing you'd expect to find in locomotive and shipbuilding industry. It's nice that the company has them on display instead of cutting them up for scrap.

I've never seen an Aires Viscount in the metal, but it looks a very chunky and competent rangefinder. It certainly produced the goods. Your guesstimated exposures seem about right, too.

You know, I sometimes think we pay a lot of money these days for the last of the sophisticated hi-tech film cameras and wonder if we don't get rather dazzled by the marvellous things they can do almost by themselves, and the high ratings the lenses got in things like lines per millimetre and MTF functions. They're very nice to own and to use, and I'd love to have some of them, but do they produce results, say, 20 times better than classic cameras we can pick up in perfect condition for a twentieth of the price?

The most important parts of a camera aren't the lens or the metering system, they're still the shutter release button and the person who presses it.

Peter

[John Parry]

Hi Randy,

Ashamed to say I'd never even heard of Ayres' cameras, but it certainly produced good results. As Peter says, it's nice that the old machines have been coated and placed on display, instead of going for scrap.

The second, third and fourth would seem to be some sort of band saw rather than a press, but you certainly wouldn't want to get your hand of the piston on the fifth!

Impressive colouration on the first - thought at first it was from the set of 'High Plains Drifter'! Otherwise, massive DOF on all but the last, which of course was how it should be. Nice display all round.

Regards - John

[PeterW]

Hi John,

At first I too thought that shots two, three and four were of some sort of bandsaw, but then I can't see anywhere for the band to run, and surely a bandsaw wouldn't need such a huge G-frame. I'm wondering if it's some sort of hole punch for really heavy plate, say half and inch or so thick?

The next shot is obviously a press tool but I can't fathom out the two big grey ones. The one in the background looks as if it might be another press tool of some sort, but the nearer one's got me beat. With that massively heavy throat and the big semi-covered flywheel, or maybe it's a brake wheel, it certainly did something pretty drastic to heavy sheet plate. Imagine the noise when that lot were working!

Anyone been in really heavy engineering and can give a more positive ID?

Peter

[Randy]

These presses were made before the introduction of hydraulic presses. They performed their duty by repettedly anviling and the hits could be deafening! If you look at the one machine, you can see the foot pedal that the operator would hold down until the steady ramming of the hammer performed it's duty. I've been in close proximity of these sorts of Punch Presses and my ears rang for days. Thanks for the KUDOS on my pictures guys!

[John Parry]

Hi Peter,

Showed these to the resident mechanical member of my engineering team. Took one look at the first one and said, "Band saw". The next one apparently is a 'fly press' The left hand one in the next pic, he'd 'never seen anything like', but the right hand one he'd seen those shafts on something, but couldn't remember what!

Randy, really enjoyed these - not just snaps but conversation pieces!

Regards - John

[Randy]

I assure you John, there is no band saw in these pictures. I enjoyed sharing these shots. I feel sad when I think of these machines sitting dormant though, because it harks of bad things for our country.

[Rachel]

admin said:

I assure you John, there is no band saw in these pictures. I enjoyed sharing these shots. I feel sad when I think of these machines sitting dormant though, because it harks of bad things for our country.

Iknow what you mean Randy. I get the feeling that with the increasingly rapid changes in technology/society that sooner or later it will all come tumbling down as it spins out of control

On that happy note .......... it's a good looking camera. Having bid unsuccessfuly on eBay for similar cameras the prices seem quite high.

[Randy]

Rachel, the Aires Viscount was one of those happy mistakes on Ebay. The name was miss-spelled and I was the only one to view or bid on it. I got it for less than $10.00 plus shipping.

[Rachel]

I am really envious Randy I'm really surprised the kind of prices that these kind of cameras are making on eBay. BTW I have just won an Agimatic camera www.chromeagecamera.com/Agimatic.htm which dates from 1957.

[PeterW]

That looks interesting, Rachel.

The combined wind on and shutter release sounds as if it could be a fast camera for sequential shots. Shades of the old Zeiss Ikon Tenax, only that had two levers. AGI produced some nice cameras, as well as a couple of cheap ones.

With a four-element lens, presumably of Tessar layout, it ought to give good pictures.

Peter

[Rachel]

peterw said:

That looks interesting, Rachel.
The combined wind on and shutter release sounds as if it could be a fast camera for sequential shots. Shades of the old Zeiss Ikon Tenax, only that had two levers. AGI produced some nice cameras, as well as a couple of cheap ones.
With a four-element lens, presumably of Tessar layout, it ought to give good pictures.
Peter

The Agimatic arrived today. It is a little grubby but will clean up OK I think. All parts seem to be working except I can't see a rangefinder image but I can live with that. Now to put a film through it.

[Randy]

Just wondering if Rachel did anything with her Agimatic yet. I'd have to say that my Aires Viscount is the best Rangefinder Camera in my collection.

[Randy]

Well, it's been 3 years since I made this post about my camera. I've been back to this location several times since, and now the rust has begun to take it's toll. I still think these are some of the best photos I've ever taken with my limited experience, and I come back to these photos now and then for a reunion. By the way, I still have the camera.

[Deleted]

I remember the Aries camera was one I wished I could afford when I was a youngster--mainly because they looked neat. Never had one, however.