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US Navy Gun Camera Film


sgtdorango
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I found alot of cool stuff lately, trying to post some of it......I thought this was a really cool item, found it in an antique mall co-op, at first I thought it was undeveloped film footage and my imagination ran wild!! But it looks like three boxes of unused gun camera film dated 1944!!!!, two boxes are opened,one canister looks open so maybe it was used...who knows! one box is sealed, does anybody know if these are rare to find? I would like to know any info on this film and maybe it would be a clue to what gun cameras were used in what airplanes.....thanks.....mike

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That is unexposed film that was never used. Each box would hold enough film for 25 seconds, which is actually quite lot of film for a dog fight. They could set the AN gun camera for faster speeds so the film would only last 12 or 6 seconds, but since the cameras only fired when the guns did, the 25 seconds at least was more than enough. I have a WWII film print of dozens of dog fights as recorded by gun cameras and each mission is very short. Consider that, as noted at the P-51 had "Six Browning .50 machine guns. The two inboard guns had 400 rounds each, enough for 32 seconds. The four outboard guns had 270 rounds, enough for 22 seconds. "

 

The AN gun cameras were only about seven inches long. I assume they they had one for each gun, but am not sure.

 

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Very interesting find! Ironic that we used a german film company for our gun cameras.

 

Mike

 

Ansco was an American company that merged with AGFA in 1928 - AGFA was a Belgian/German company. An ANSCO history at http://home.att.net/~wlcamp/ansco.htm says that the company had large facilities in New York and that in December 1941 After the US enters the war, the US government seizes Agfa Ansco as enemy property and places Treasury agents in company offices to supervise operations."

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Ansco was an American company that merged with AGFA in 1928 - AGFA was a Belgian/German company. An ANSCO history at http://home.att.net/~wlcamp/ansco.htm says that the company had large facilities in New York and that in December 1941 After the US enters the war, the US government seizes Agfa Ansco as enemy property and places Treasury agents in company offices to supervise operations."

Do you still think the film can be good? I would imagine(like to think!) that it would also have feed other types of camera's or was it just proprietary to that one camera? Very cool item's though regardless thumbsup.gifthumbsup.gifthumbsup.gif .. What did you buy the stuff for?

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Thanks for all that great info!!!....I saw the film canisters in an antique mall and couldnt resist buying them for $4 a box, I really dont collect these items , I collect mainly helmets and in my travels I see cool stuff and grab it for trade or selling , figured I might trade or sell them to someone who is into the Navy or camera stuff....let me know if anyones interested, I really dont know if these are hard to find or what they are worth......mike

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Do you still think the film can be good? I would imagine(like to think!) that it would also have feed other types of camera's or was it just proprietary to that one camera? Very cool item's though regardless thumbsup.gifthumbsup.gifthumbsup.gif .. What did you buy the stuff for?

 

 

This film would work in any 16mm movie camera. Unexposed film can last for several years if stored in a cool place, but I can't imagine something from 1944 would work at all.

 

If you find old film and want to know if it was exposed and processed, just hold it up to light and you will see the images in the individual frames: otherwise it will just be dark.

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Do you still think the film can be good? I would imagine(like to think!) that it would also have feed other types of camera's or was it just proprietary to that one camera? Very cool item's though regardless thumbsup.gifthumbsup.gifthumbsup.gif .. What did you buy the stuff for?

It could conceivably still be unexposed film which, of course, it will no longer be if you hold it up to light outside of a dark room. Reels should be enclosed in some kind of sealed pouch, if not exposed; it won't be in those boxes just loose.

 

It appears to be safety film, which means it won't spontaneously catch fire on you.

 

Running it through a regular 16mm projector would be a dicey bit of business because of its age - could be extremely brittle, or maybe not if you are lucky.

 

Interesting find.

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i have about six of the gun cameras i=some in the original wooden boxes.they are quite interesting to collect.....but that is me ...i like the weird stuff

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I digitized some gun camera footage from 16mm film this afternoon and put it on YouTube. The 16mm reel is over 60 years old and includes short segments from various pilots. I have put one segment online for now: it is a mission flown by an officer who became commanding officer of the 357th Fighter Squadron. The 16mm film came from his estate. It is a strafing mission (he actually wrote a book on that for the Air Corps in WWII). This gives you an idea of typical gun camera footage: shaky, over-exposed and short. I will put up some other clips showing show air-to-air shooting (each segment has a title card like the one shown in the image below). Click on the image to see the video on You Tube:

 

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