Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Another 8mm cine camera from the 50s, this time by US Manufacturer Bell & Howell - The 319 'Sun Dial' 1953.
Although it was designed and manufactured in the same era as the Eumig C3R - this camera has a far more 'mass produced' quality about it - with simpler lines, fewer cast or milled pieces, and generally lower quality surfaces and materials.
It's another hand-wound, clockwork, standard 8mm movie camera, with a fixed Super Comat f 1.9 / 10mm lens. Film speed is fixed at 16 fps.
The 'feature' of this model, is the innovative 'Sun Dial' exposure system - basically a series of coloured targets for you to point the exposure dial at, with each colour representing how sunny is was - from yellow (Bright Sun) - through to dark red (Cloudy Dull). Clearly an attempt to make exposure settings easy for the amateur photographer.
The colours used in the 'Sun Dial' are repeated in the parallax viewfinder markings - a nice design touch.
The hand crank is a really cheap feeling pressed metal piece, and has no chrome, unlike the Eumig.
No doubt thousand and thousands of these little cameras were churned out during their lifetime - my copy is in good external condition, but the spring and motor sound a little stiff - at least compared to the precision sound and feel of the Eumig.
About the only other 'feature' is hidden away behind the shutter release just below the 319 logo - if you pull the release down, you get normal filming - if however you push it up, the camera will expose a single frame at a time, allowing you to do stop-frame animation
Although it was designed and manufactured in the same era as the Eumig C3R - this camera has a far more 'mass produced' quality about it - with simpler lines, fewer cast or milled pieces, and generally lower quality surfaces and materials.
It's another hand-wound, clockwork, standard 8mm movie camera, with a fixed Super Comat f 1.9 / 10mm lens. Film speed is fixed at 16 fps.
The 'feature' of this model, is the innovative 'Sun Dial' exposure system - basically a series of coloured targets for you to point the exposure dial at, with each colour representing how sunny is was - from yellow (Bright Sun) - through to dark red (Cloudy Dull). Clearly an attempt to make exposure settings easy for the amateur photographer.
The colours used in the 'Sun Dial' are repeated in the parallax viewfinder markings - a nice design touch.
The hand crank is a really cheap feeling pressed metal piece, and has no chrome, unlike the Eumig.
No doubt thousand and thousands of these little cameras were churned out during their lifetime - my copy is in good external condition, but the spring and motor sound a little stiff - at least compared to the precision sound and feel of the Eumig.
About the only other 'feature' is hidden away behind the shutter release just below the 319 logo - if you pull the release down, you get normal filming - if however you push it up, the camera will expose a single frame at a time, allowing you to do stop-frame animation
