Good morning! 👋 

Hopefully, you did better than I did and got out to take photos this past weekend. 😢 I wanted to but it’s just been too cold. 🥶

Today is going to be strange! 🙈 We’re talking all about odd and unique film cameras.

Let’s break it down:

1. 🌎️ Cameras that spin

2. 🤵‍♂️ Spy cameras

3. 🔷 Many lenses

4. 🔫 Just odd

🌎️ Cameras that spin

How do you get a panorama on 35mm film? Have the lens swing from one side to the other.

Widelux

First made in 1958, this camera uses a swing lens to capture a 140-degree view. Instead of a regular shutter, the lens and a slit pivot from one end to the other. Panon Camera Shoko, the company that made this camera, produced them up until 2000, so it’s pretty easy to get a hold of one. There are 35mm and 120 versions. Fun fact: Jeff Bridges, aka “The Dude”, 🎳 was a big fan of this camera. He put out two books (unfortunately out of print), but you can see some of his work here. Rumor has it a company is bringing back the Widelux. 🙌 

To really understand how it works it’s best to see a video of it.

Globuscope

If 140 degrees isn’t enough, there is the Globuscope, which creates 360 degree images on 35mm.🤯 Same principle as the Widelux, except you hold it like a torch and it spins all the way around. Apparently, this camera was used as a prop in Ghostbusters II. 👻 

🤵‍♂️ Spy cameras

James Bond, Ethan Hunt, Jason Bourne—who doesn’t like a good spy thriller. 😁 They may be fictional, but there are some real life cameras made for the purpose of documenting secrets. 🤫 

The Minox

This little camera, used by intelligence agencies during the Cold War, was perfect for taking pictures of secret documents. 📄 It produced an 8 x 11mm negative. The film was just 9.2mm wide (1/4th the size of 35mm film), and unlike 35mm, it had no sprockets. You could get 50 exposures out of one roll.

Extending the camera, advanced the film and cocked the shutter. It had a 15mm f3.5 lens with shutter speeds as fast as 1/1000th of second.

Tessina

What if you wanted a wrist camera? That’s where the Tessina came in. This thing is kinda crazy. It uses regular 35mm film, loaded into a special cassette. It’s a TLR with two 25mm f2.8 lenses, one for capturing the image and the other for viewing. Viewing was done by looking down at a piece of ground glass.

Further making it like a watch, ⌚️ to advance the film, it used a clockwork main spring that was wound from a pull out crown. Fully wound it could advance 8 frames.

The whole camera came with a wrist strap, so you could really wear it like a big watch. It should be no surprise that this camera was made in Switzerland.🇨🇭

🔷 Many lenses

The iPhone 📱 and the PIxel weren’t the first cameras to have multiple lenses. There are some funky film cameras that have 4 lenses.

Nishika N8000

The “3D” camera—this clunky 35mm camera had 4 lenses on it. The lenses, which fired at the same time, were in a straight line, spaced slightly a part. The result, when all 4 frames were looked at in quick succession was a "3D” parallax effect.

Today, you could easily make the images into a gif to share the effect. I’m not exactly sure how this was done when the camera was first introduced. It’s a fun, 🥳 but not particularly useful camera.

ActionSampler

Another quirky 4-lens camera was the ActionSampler. Instead of the lenses being in line, this camera featured a 2×2 square setup. Because of this all 4 images fit onto a single 35mm frame. The lenses fired in sequence instead of at the same time. The 1/100s shutter exposed each image in .22 second intervals. If you were quick 💨 enough, each image would be slightly different.

And it had clear plastic camera housing. But the best part is this camera is still available today. 🎉 You can get it on Lomography for $40.

🔫 Just odd

I’m not really sure how to classify these cameras. They’re just…odd.

Mamiya Pistol

In response to the May Day 1952 protests, the Japanese 🇯🇵 police wanted a camera they could quickly use without having to obscure their vision with a viewfinder. This half frame, 35mm camera was quickly developed. It was never actually used during any protests. Apparently, while being tested by the police force,👮‍♂️ there was some concern that people would confuse it for a real gun. I can’t image why. 🤷‍♂️

Canon Photura

It’s not a camcorder. 📹️ This is actually a 35mm still photography camera. For some reason in the early 90s Canon had a not-so-great idea to create this strange camera. It had a flip out lens cover with a built in flash. Holding it in one hand you could easily use the 3x zoom. But not surprisingly, this bulky camera did not do very well.

That’s all of the strange cameras I have for you. Which was your favorite? 🤔 

I will see you next week. 🫡 

Go turn a negative into a positive—preferably with a crazy camera.

Ben Henschel

📷️ Yashica Mat 124G / 🎞️ Kodak Portra 400