Best vintage 16mm camera?

[Webster Colcord]

One more that might give a clue...

[Dom Jaeger]

That's a curious thing!. I wonder if it's not some kind of superimposition/titling rig? The two chrome lanterns look more like projection devices than simply lights.

[Mark Dunn]

 

Say, that idea of a bore examination camera is a good one! Makes sense! If you are using it for a naval gun, you wouldn't need close focus capabilities

I've used a borescope lens adapted to a Nikon. It's just a periscope arrangement- looks like a long gas pipe with a 45deg mirror at the end. Nowadays they use fibre optics but this was rigid. Like this

https://www.optronics.com/small-diameter-rigid-borescopes-industrial-grade.html

[Webster Colcord]

BTW, that crazy camera is still for sale on ebay. Price reduced from what it was originally listed at.

 

Maybe the best way to figure out what it was used for is to buy it and try it!

 

https://ebay.us/XEVSrR

Edited August 17, 2018 by Webster C

[Frank Wylie]

Frank, I didn't post this photo before - it really adds to the "home tinkerer" aspect of the rig. He put a plaque on it with his name -

 

Made by J.W. Robbins

8045 Diston Street

Phila PA

 

That being said, it's well done in its own way. Knurled aluminum knobs and all. Curiously, it also looks like it was made to be portable, for flat surfaces. Seems like he was doing extreme close-up photography on a tabletop, something that he needed to blast with light.

Webster,

 

Thanks for the additional shots! Strangely enough, it could be both.

 

I once knew a man who as a machinist at The Battelle Institute in Columbus Ohio and he built 1/8 scale locomotives, restored silent era and sound 35mm projectors and built enormous, wagon-based carnival organs (like a caliope) that used punched cards to produce music.

 

However, he built prototypes of military equipment ( he never disclosed what) in his day job.

[dan kessler]

Based on that last photo, seems to me the mirrors are out of position. When angled correctly, they would throw images from the side lights out in front of the camera, with the camera lens shooting between them. There might be another component, like some sort of screen, that the rig needs.

Or, yeah, the close-up illumination idea.

Edited August 17, 2018 by dan kessler

[Timothy Fransky]

In reference to the OP's original question, I've been looking at a B&H Model 627. I know Orson Welles used the 240 on many of his later films. Non-reflex, but they generally came with Taylor-Hobson glass. I've not used one, so I'm just offering them as a possibility. Perhaps some of the more informed members could sound in on the Model 627.

[Pavan Deep]

I have use this camera and it''s wind is pretty good, it's a c mount so virtually any lens will fit; https://vimeo.com/252682406

 

Pav

 

[Timothy Fransky]

 

I have use this camera and it''s wind is pretty good, it's a c mount so virtually any lens will fit; https://vimeo.com/252682406

 

Pav

 

 

That IS some lovely, clear footage. Could you explain your focus method? Do you use the supplied focus charts or do you actually measure with a tape?

[Pavan Deep]

Thanks, most of the time when I am filming with old cameras I use a 25mm Pentax CCTV lens or a Switar 25mm lens, the latter gives sharper images, but here I think I used the Pentax. When filming wide shots like these I set the lens to infinity, though I light meter all shots, for closer shots I guess the focus distance.

 

Pav