General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

1

Total Parts

1

AKA

camera in waterproof case

Patents

N/A

General Description

Clear rigid synthetic [acrylic] casing fitted with grey rubber (?) seal; metal (including brass) hardware and fittings; portion of yellow woven synthetic fibre cord used as neck strap reinforced with opaque synthetic tubing; brown and black synthetic knobs and black synthetic protective ring defines area on case in front of lens. Predominantly silver metal camera casing has black imitation leather (?) covering on large areas of body; black leather carrying strap; clear glass lens. Markings printed by hand in blue ink on adhesive tape label applied to case back.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

28.0 cm

Width

25.0 cm

Height

28.6 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Photography

Category

Cine cameras

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Bell Howell

Country

United States of America

State/Province

Illinois

City

Chicago

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Quebec

Period

Unknown

Canada

Owned and used by Canadian film maker Bill Mason, who achieved international recognition for his wilderness and canoeing documentaries in the 1960s and 1970s. According to Ken Buck it was used by diver Joe MacInnis for filming underwater sequences in Mason’s film, In Search of the Bowhead Whale. Further research will be required to confirm this.

Function

General: Used to record moving images in two-dimensional format. Specific: This camera housed in waterproof case used to record moving images under water.

Technical

The Bill Mason collection consists of typical cameras and other equipment in the 16 mm format widely used by documentary film makers in Canada in this period. This is a simple 16mm camera housed in a waterproof acrylic casing. This model was marketed to amateur film makers. It has a two-lens turret taking standard C-mount lenses, a rotary shutter and an optical (non-reflex) viewfinder. Its spring motor speed can be varied between 8 and 64 frames per second, providing about 30 seconds of running time at 16 fps. It accommodates 100-foot film magazines.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

Printed markings visible on camera body [through case] include "16 MM/ MAGAZINE CAMERA - 200/ Bell & Howell/ CHICAGO/ MADE IN U.S.A." and "BELL & HOWELL/ 16 MM". "TAYLOR-HORTON/ No. 509512/ 1 INCH - f/1.9/ Bell & Howell" among markings printed on lens housing. Chart formatted hand written markings on tape label read "f L/ 1.9 7-8/ 2 8/ 2.8 9/ 4 10/ 5.6 11/ 8 12/ 11 13/ 10 Just BLACK/5 Just RED/ 3 Just below/ red".

Missing

Unknown.

Finish

Clear rigid synthetic [acrylic] casing fitted with grey rubber (?) seal; metal (including brass) hardware and fittings; portion of yellow woven synthetic fibre cord used as neck strap reinforced with opaque synthetic tubing; brown and black synthetic knobs and black synthetic protective ring defines area on case in front of lens. Predominantly silver metal camera casing has black imitation leather (?) covering on large areas of body; black leather carrying strap; clear glass lens. Markings printed by hand in blue ink on adhesive tape label applied to case back.

Decoration

N/A