Manufactured around 1960 by Keystone Mfg. Co. of Boston, Massachusetts. This is an 8mm (i.e. “regular 8”) moving camera with a three lens turret. The only lens attached is a Keystone-Elgeet 1/2inch f/1.9. The camera used a Bel-Air Magazine to hold the 8mm film which had to be flipped a minute and a half (at 16 frames per sec) through shooting. Yes, that’s right—consumer 8mm films were only 3 minutes long. And people use to complain about sitting through someone’s movies. Must mean that watching a 60 minute MiniDV of the trip to Europe is a living hell… [grin]. The camera was a wind up and had an adjustable frame rate from 12 to 48 fps. A mechanical gage on the top of the camera showed the amount of film left on that side. And “stop action” (specifically one frame at a time) was a feature provided by lifting up on the shutter release lever instead of pressing down.
Stereotron, Yuliana_Vislova, 秝坣, and 3 other people added this photo to their favorites.
andrewwarrenpayne 60 months ago | reply
Nice photo! I've used on my blog and linked back to you. Thanks!
rigel_ringtail 39 months ago | reply
I have an identical camera. Built like a tank!
Any chance you know of someone who has one of these old film magazines? They were steel and I hear they could be re-loaded by someone who knows what they're doing, but the steel mags themselves are SO hard to come by!
Capt Kodak 39 months ago | reply
@rigel ringtail: All I can suggest is searching the web for a supplier (possibly someone who re-spools the film already?) or shopping Ebay for more used regular 8 cameras with the hops of finding the take-up spool inside. Good luck!