Watch the meeting replay at the bottom of this article.

Ken Hough is an expert on all things Deardorff. He writes: “I have been around Deardorff Cameras nearly 37 of my 53 years. I bought my first Deardorff at a studio sale in 1971 for $15.00! I had a Speed Graphic, and I knew I liked large format. The 1937 5×7 Deardorff I bought had gold hardware and red stained wood.

Also for sale was a row of #10 circuit cameras, but I didn’t know what they were at the time and at $50 each, they were too expensive for a teenager’s budget. I thought my Deardorff was far older than ’37 and was unaware the company was still in business in 1971. That year I started to go to the great old Chicago camera shops. While in Altman’s, towards the rear of the store, I saw an 8×10 Deardorff folded up in the display case. At $1,200.00 it cost more than a Hasselblad!

Fast forward through the Navy as an optical man and marriage and working retail. In 1980 a high school classmate brought me an 8×10 Deardorff in disassembled condition; like mine, a 1937 model. He asked if I could repair it. I stripped and refinished it. It looked good but I needed parts which I ordered from Deardorff and received six months later.

I took the camera to the Deardorff office and showed it to Merle and Jack Deardorff. Jack handed me 4 cameras on the spot to refinish for him. I started to go to Deardorff three days a week for 14 months learning the skills I needed to be hired.

I did all the refinishing for Deardorff from 1980-88. During this time I also did repairs and new construction of cameras at the factory and also learned the history of the company and who used Deardorffs. Jack made me historian of Deardorff.

1988 saw the bankruptcy of Deardorff and the end of an era. It also saw the end of parts for me. By 1990 I had made contact with the metal suppliers Deardorff used and had a supply of metal, but at a very high price. Deardorff bought enough for a few years of production while I only needed parts for repair, a few at best. That problem still exists.

Despite the 1988 bankruptcy I was associated with Jack Deardorff from 1980 to 1993. Differences of opinions caused that relationship to dissolve. Many people think Deardorffs are rare. They are not but parts for them can be. Even more recent models (1950-1988) can have slightly different parts from one made a couple of years before. When I had to reproduce a metal part I generally had a camera to copy it from—but sometimes not. That required time and patience on my part as well as the full understanding of my customer. I got backlogged at times. I had up to 35 cameras lined up to refinish, each requiring a week if I had the proper parts.

I used only original Deardorff metal and wood parts. I sometimes ran out of parts and had to spend a lot to get them and had to wait, often months, till my suppliers could make them, and then clean and plate them.bIt can be a hassle, but it was all worth-while. The cameras had a new lease of life, another 50-75 years, and that’s all that matters.”

Hough no longer restores or repairs Deardorffs, and his service as historian has ended. Hough provides a brief history of the Deardorff company and cameras on his archived website.

A Deardorff V-8 camera donated to PHSNE was sold on our Ebay auction site phsneusa on January 8, 2024. It is living a comfortable and pampered life in southern New Hampshire.