Honestly, I am taking pictures that don’t involve the scabby corner at the back of my garage, but…
I realised, yesterday, that two bits of old kit that I’d acquired because nobody really knew what to do with them fit together!
One is the original Kodak Super-8 ciné camera, a veritable Box Brownie of a movie camera: it is has manual exposure with a handy ‘Sunny f/16’ guide on the side of the camera, fixed focus, and a single speed. It’s a grey box, and feels surprisingly well-built and purposeful. I’ve been meaning to write something about it for a while.
The other is a far more obviously-Sixties piece of design: a Cima movie light. Made in West Germany, it’s got some thoughtful bits of design, and lots of accessories in the box, and there’s a stylish insert of plastic wood-effect on the folding handle. But, in the end, it’s a 1000-watt halogen tube with a shortish grey mains lead. It fits onto the top of the camera with a blade attachment that moves an A-D filter out of the light path of the camera. (The big trick of Super-8 was that all films were artificial light balance, and all cameras had a filter built in for daylight use: 40 ASA tungsten-balanced Kodachrome became 25 ASA in daylight, and had a little bit of extra speed in artificial light.) And cameras came with a key to insert in the top of the camera if the light source was separately mounted.
So far, so good. I took some pictures, and then – purely in the interests of research – I plugged in the light, this thing that has sat in an attic for around 40 years. This despite the fact that I’d read the instructions, which include the words ‘Do not worry if the lamp smokes when first switched on’ and the ‘1000 watts’ label.
The wonder is that it was ever on the market at all. The bottom picture shows the outfit five seconds after switching off: the halogen tube is still glowing red, as in ‘red hot’! People will have used these, hand-held, at children’s parties…
On the plus side, it is jolly bright. And the tube does smoke when you switch it on.
who incidentally exudes a rather lovely, approachable, nature.
.) Does the comment indicate that the UK has changed all its outlets and I need a new set of adapters? Or, is it just the male connections that have changed?
.) Does the comment indicate that the UK has changed all its outlets and I need a new set of adapters? Or, is it just the male connections that have changed?
) But all of this has nothing to do with that wonderful halogen light.Search for all the latest photography gear and services.
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