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Combat Movie Camera


captaxe
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Also in the carrying case, wrapped in a separate cloth, was this smal Bell and Howell Filmo camera

 

post-701-1243811146.jpg

 

post-701-1243811221.jpg

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Bob Hudson

Thanks so much for the additional photos!

 

That FILMO SPORTSTER is an 8mm camera made about 1947-50 I believe and is not worth much at all, maybe $20: had it been a 16mm Filmo it would be worth perhaps $400-500.

 

But that does not at all detract from the value of the 35mm camera kit. I see that it has a KINOSCOPE lens. The word "kinscope" was used a few different ways including for the technique used to record TV shows in the 50's and 60's before video tape became practical. They basically put a movie camera in front of a TV and shot the screen: if you've ever watch, say, "I Love Lucy," those were all kinoscopes.

 

In this case, though, the name was used for an "anamorphic lens" which is a type of lens that allows you to capture widescreen images on film by compressing them in just one dimension: if you played the film back through a normal lens everything would look squished together, but if you used an anamorphic lens on the projector is would stretch it back to a wide image. If you've ever seen a movie that says it was filmed in CinemaScope, well that was done with anamorphic lenses. I believe that Kinoscope lens would have been used on the 8mm Filmo: the lens says TOP because yiu to align it so that the image compression is in the horizontal plane.

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  • 1 year later...

Hi all, sorry for the late response on this thread but i just saw it for the first time on the net and i would like to add a little to the subject.

 

I too just landed a military set much like this and looking at your set I think that the Camera body and lenses are all 1943' to 45'. Now the Armed forces issued every one with the Eyemo. Very heavy, This camera was black in color when it was first recruited to the military.

 

The Filmo 70's were used exclusively by the Marine Corps in the early years of the war. They bought as many civilian versions as they can to supplement the heavy Eyemo version (35 mm). When the public saw the colored film movies of Tarawa, Iwo Jima this prompted the Army to add the smaller 16mm Filmo into their inventory.

 

The first indicator is the logo on the upper right hand side, It looks like a RAINBOW embossed area that supposed to have the FILMO DL name plate. The Military took this off and replaced them with a larger plate that says CAMERA MOTION PICTURE and its serial number. But as i see it was taken off. Probably when it was sold out to the public.

 

Second are the color of the lenses (Black) this is military.

 

Also a good indicator is most of the early Filmos are 'black' or brown in color, again due to their civilian heritage. They did not started with the (green color) "at least for the majority of it" until the 50's.

 

But your camera body is a WW 2 version. The reason for it being green was because most of them where taken back to the US Army Signal Corps Base in "Tobbyhanna" Indiana. Your camera was then "refurbished" around the mid 1980's or earlier. This is why it looks mint in its appearance.

 

The last indicator is that it is only a 100' footer hand held type. It doe's not have the ability to carry the 400' magazine reel like the 'KRM' version can, which were added during the Korean conflict all the way to Vietnam.

 

Most of the 16mm's where used for color filming as a supplement to the Eyemo. Also due to the new interest of Old school style with new film students, there are programs for cheap packages for these camera sets.

 

 

If my fact are wrong I do apologize, but i hope this helps

 

Sorry for the very late response

 

C. ;)

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