Darlot Rapide Camera

Alphonse Darlot, Constructeur
125 Boulevard Voltaire
Paris, France
ca. 1887
Ex-Collection Dr. Stephen Shohet

Most antique camera collectors are aware of Darlot’s excellent lenses, but the company also manufactured unique cameras.  According to McKeown’s “Price Guide to Antique Cameras” (12th edition), Darlot’s Rapide was a rigid wooden camera in the shape of a truncated pyramid.  The unusual feature is the external magazine which holds twelve plates, (8x9 cm) which attaches below the camera.  Plates slide into the inverted camera by gravity from a slit at the end of one side of the magazine.  After exposure, the magazine is inverted and reattached to the camera so the exposed plate is returned to the other side of the magazine.  The lens is a Darlot rectilinear doublet with wheel stops.