Bell & Howell One Nine

The ad photo here is for a Two Twenty. I have a One Nine, which is in storage. I'll freshen the photo when I get an opportunity.

Growing up, we had a black B & H 8mm projector that was built like a tank and worked wonderfully. But for some reason I never felt anything for their movie cameras. The seemed very simple and utilitarian, but they lacked a soul. The Ford of movie cameras.

I've seen this thing all over the place. I don't think I could have avoided getting one; like Polaroids and moths, you end up with one in a box of stuff whether you like it or not. So I have no idea where I got it or why I got it, all I know is that it appeared one day, with its own case. Maybe it's haunted. Maybe if I ran film through it, I'd take movies of the future or something.

Maybe it's the gray krinkle finish, which to me looks like the Reveres and Wollensaks of the same era but more spartan.

One Nine refers to the max aperture of the lens, which is f1.9. Pretty good on a camera like this. Like this one, mine has the "sun dial" on the bottom: the idea being you could quickly and easily adjust the aperture for the prevailing lighting condition. Movie cameras with electric eyes are still a few years down the road.

Bell & Howell Electric Eye

I'm not sure which model it is. B&H didn't bother to put a designation on it anywhere, other than Electric-Eye, which was their trade name for their automatic metering system. It also didn't come with a manual, so I'll be digging through magazine ads to see if I can locate it.

Nice camera, though. Besides the automatic eye, it's got the three-lens turret, a behind-the-lens filter slot, and mutliple film speeds (10-40 fps).

GAF Colt 84

My uncle gave this to me when I was a kid after it had been dropped on the floor and the front lens got banged up. My father managed to straighten out the lens barrel and freed up the movement, and cleaned up the bit of peanut butter that had also come with it. My dad didn't like Super 8 and he already had the nice Keystone (below), so I got it.

This is, by far, the best of my movie cameras (not counting the Keystone). It was cartridge loading, it didn't leak light, it had a built-in zoom and a handle. It was a helluva lot better than the junk I had (and I have plenty). But I don't think I ever ran more than a couple of carts of film through it.

Keystone Electric Eye Model K-12

Keystone fascinates me because it's another camera company that disappeared almost without a trace. You can still find plenty of examples of them in the fossil record, but almost no recorded history.

Here's what I know about them. They began in 1919 and were based in Boston. They were primarily known for movie equipment and sold a long line of cameras and projectors and accessories. They were purchased by Berkey Marketing in the mid-60s (the same outfit that aquired Simmon-Omega), which went belly-up in the late 80s. As far as I know, the brand name is dormant.

This particular model is my father's, and when I was growing up, it was the "serious" camera. Metal housing, pistol grip, zoom lens, and a live diaphram connected to the onboard light meter. Great machine. My father ran thousands of feet of film through it.

You think I can find any info about it at all on the internet? Not on your life.

Kodak Ciné 8

From the late 30s. I'm writing this from memory so I'm not exactly sure which model it is—I'll freshen the picture when I see it again.

Took cartridges instead of spools, which was nice because spool film was always a pain to load and prone to light leaks, but cartridges just slipped in and out. Something must have been wrong with this system, though, because they gave up on it. Cartridges wouldn't come back until Super 8 twenty years later.

An interesting camera: it's very slender (I think the cartridge was actually 8mm wide, as opposed t the 16mm spools that most 8mm cameras used (i.e. you'd run the spool through once, then turn it over and shoot the other side). Wind-up. The really cool thing was that it had four shutter speeds, from 8 frames-per sec (super fast motion), 16 fps (standard "silent" speed), 24 fps (standard "sound" speed) and 64 fps (super-slow motion). That's rare on a consumer-level camera. I always wanted to get film for it and try out the slow-mo, but it was long obsolete by the time it came into my hands.

Kodak Brownie Automatic Movie Camera f/2.3

A standard 8mm spool-film camera. Wind-up type. One lens (f/2.3) but there's a photocell so there's some bit of exposure control. What surprises me is that the flip-up bombsite viewfinder on top has three colored rings (it's hard to see in the photo here) that obviously correspond with three different focal lengths (see comments on the Wollensak Model 43 below). The Brownie Turret model shared the same body but had 3-lenses (but no photocell). Kodak was too cheap to use a different piece of plastic for the front viewfinder.

This was produced between 1959 and 1962 and retailed for $74.50! Yeesh.

Never used it—another camera that came as part of a lot of junk that I bought. Still has a spool of film in it (which is now ruined) and the original box. Considering it's condition I don't think it got much use.

Kodak Brownie 8

I actually used this a bit: it was my first usable movie camera (as opposed to a filmless classic like the Ciné Kodak above). A very simple, plastic camera. Big old crank on the side, one button to run it up front. Had a rotating aperture dial. Mine had a crack in the door and leaked light like a sieve and I remember putting duct-tape over it; I don't think I shot a foot of usable film on it.

Another camera that's in storage. I have another that's identical but called a Hawkeye 8—same thing but black). This machine was sold at the same time as the Brownie Automatic above, but cost $24.50.

Kodak M22 Instamatic

Usually I buy a box of cameras and get some light meters thrown in. This time I bought a light meter and got a bunch of cameras thrown in, and this is one of them. It's an early 70s-era that takes 8mm drop-in cartridges, which was a nice feature. It's very small, light, and meant for the same point-n-shoot crowd who'd use the Brownie cameras above.

Mine arrived in its original box with paperwork and a cartridge of film.

Revere Eye-Matic 8 (CA-1)

Revere made a long line 8mm cameras they called the Revere 8. The ones with selenium photocells built in were Eye-matics. I can't remember which model this is; I'll stumble on it sooner or later (it's in storage). An advertisement I have puts it at 1958.

A sad fate for a lot of movie cameras: it's in a very nice tan leather case, with a little color correction filter for Type A film, and even the product literature. Three lens turret and an electric eye. The next version of it would feature a zoom lens, but it was too late. This was the camera that Revere hoped would take it to the next level. Instead, problems with the automatic aperture plagued it, and Bell & Howell's electric eye system ate its lunch.

The camera's in great shape. Still has film in it.

Wollensak Model 43

When Wollensak was an independent, they were an optical company which made and sold lenses to various American camera manufacturers. In the early 50s they were purchased by Revere, which made cameras. The company went with two-tier branding, where Revere was the basic unit and Wollensak the deluxe version. So most Revere/Wollensak cameras have nearly identical counterparts, but the Wollensak models have better lenses, a couple extra features, and better finish. I'm not sure which Revere this is analoguous to, but I'm looking.

This is a very nice camera from the 1950s, with the three-lens turret and an adjustable aperture. You can't see it from this photo, but the film door on the other side swings open and the chamber is spot-frosted (the metal panel is machined to look like silvery fish-scales). A very nice touch.

Also note the colored lines on the viewfinder—each colored line corresponded with a lens (which had the same color line band on the lens cone). You can't see it well in the photo of the Brownie Automatic above, but it has the same color banding—but no turret. Go figure.