Our mechanism NEVER fails to work accurately. (1900 reference)

The Chase Folding Magazine Camera is somewhat obscure in the pantheon of American red-bellows self-casing cameras, having appeared briefly from 1899 to 1901. It is fascinating because the design was an attempt to make shooting glass plates almost as easy as roll film.

Roll film had the benefit of being easy to use; just take a picture and turn a knob. Plate cameras were cumbersome. So for a very short time, some makers built and sold models with mechanically integrated 'magazines'. Before shooting, magazines were preloaded with glass plates set into tin sheaths. Changing plates after an exposure was a little easier. However, the changing mechanisms tended to wear and break rather quickly.

Magazine cameras were sold in solid body box and folding bellows forms. There were a number of folding variations in which magazines moved in all possible directions: upwards, sideways (Snappa), and backwards (Bullard Folding Magazine Camera), and downwards. Jacob J. Chase's camera was a drop magazine design with rack and pinion gearing. And as the other cameras, it was clumsy to use.

The few Chase cameras in collections all have working magazine changing mechanisms that are intact, so the advertising was truthful. This might be in part to using a geared rack and pinion design instead of push-pull.

This is a 4 x 5" pre-patent model with 'patent pending' markings which matches the January 1900 patent (#641,268) illustrations. The patented models moved the rack & pinion magazine gear to inside the body, which slightly reduced the camera's height.

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Chase Folding Magazine cameras were offered in only two sizes; 4 x 5" and 5 x 7" formats. The 1900 price of $20 for the 4 x 5" model is equal to $795 adjusted for 2026.