Cameras Behind Classic Movies: 1922'S Filming Equipment

The 1920s saw the continued development of movie cameras, with the first all-metal cine camera released in 1911-12, and the first 35mm camera to take full-frame 24x36mm exposures introduced in 1914. In 1922, Kodak released the first full-colour Kodachrome film, and the KODAK No. 2 Hawk-Eye FILM PACK CAMERA, an all-metal box camera that took size 520 pack film. The Debrie Sept camera, a combination 35mm still and movie camera, was also marketed in 1922, after being patented in 1918.

Kodak's No. 2 Hawk-Eye FILM PACK CAMERA

The KODAK No. 2 Hawk-Eye FILM PACK CAMERA was produced between 1922 and 1925. It is an all-metal box camera that takes size 520 pack film, with a rotary shutter and a meniscus lens. The meniscus lens is an optical lens that produces a smaller focal point and fewer aberrations than a standard plano-convex lens. The camera was introduced by Kodak in 1903 and was initially called the Premo Film Pack. The film pack contained 12 sheets of film, thinner than single-sheet film, each with a numbered paper tab attached. The tabs were used to load a fresh film into place for each exposure, with the previously exposed film being moved to the back of the pack.

The original Hawk-Eye cameras were made by the Boston Camera Company, which was taken over by the Blair Camera Company in 1890. The Blair Camera Company was then bought by Eastman Kodak in 1899, which is why there is no Hawk-Eye No. 1 in the Kodak list. The Hawk-Eye No. 2 camera has a cardboard body, covered with black leatherette, and a real leather strap on top. It uses 120 film to make 6 x 9 cm pictures. The camera has two viewfinders, both prism finders, and a simple meniscus lens.

The Hawk-Eye No. 2 was a relatively inexpensive camera. It was first produced in 1913 and sold in Great Britain. The film for the camera was wound with a double lever, and frames were counted via a red window in the back. The shutter was a simple "guillotine" type with only one speed, likely 1/30s. There were two apertures available through a pull-out strap on the top of the box, allowing for different diameters in the pathway of the light.

The first full-colour Kodachrome film

In 1922, Kodak produced a short test film using Kodachrome, a brand of colour reversal film that would be introduced to the public in 1935. This test footage, which runs for four and a half minutes, features actresses gesturing for the camera. The lighting and colour are exquisite, with warm reds and flattering highlights. The actresses' gestures are also fascinating, as they act out fluttery, innocent modesty, warm maternal love, and, in the longest sequence, sexy, puckered-lip vamping. Their open expressions of feeling and the particular way they move their hands and tilt their heads immediately mark them as women of the interwar period.

Kodachrome was the first colour film to be successfully mass-marketed that used a subtractive colour method. It was used for cinematography and still photography, and for nearly 20 years, it was the go-to colour format for film. However, its complex processing requirements meant that independent photography stores were prohibited from developing Kodachrome. Customers had to mail it to Kodak, which would then send the developed film back as part of the purchase price. This process-paid arrangement continued in other markets around the world even after it was prohibited in the US in 1954.

The development of Kodachrome was a complex process that took place over many years. In 1922, Leopold Mannes and Leopold Godowsky, two young Harvard graduates who were also professional musicians, were introduced to Dr C. E. Kenneth Mees, the English Director of Research for the Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, New York. Mees supplied Mannes and Godowsky with multilayer emulsions for their experiments, and in 1928, they joined the Kodak Research Laboratory. In 1930, they concentrated on methods of processing multilayer films, while their colleagues worked out ways of manufacturing them. The result was Kodachrome, which was launched in 1935.

Kodachrome was first sold as a 16mm movie format, followed by 8mm movie format in 1936, and 35mm and 828 format for still cameras. It was sensitive enough to permit exposures of 1/30 second at f/8 in good light and sold for 12s 6d for an eighteen-exposure film, including the cost of processing. However, the processing cycle was very complex, and the stability of the dyes was not very good. An improved process was introduced in 1938, and Kodachrome remained the commercial integral tripack film until it was discontinued in 2009.

The Debrie Sept camera

The Debrie Sept is a French spring-driven camera that takes 18×24mm exposures on 35mm film. It can be used for still pictures as well as cine sequences. It can also be transformed into a movie projector or enlarger by adding a lamp housing.

The camera was first created by the Italian company F.A.I.T. in the 1910s under the name F.A.C.T. Autocinephot. It was then modified and sold by the same company as the Apparecchio Foto Cine Automatico Sept in the 1920s. The design was later sold to the French company André Debrie, which produced it from 1922 or 1923 to 1927. The Debrie Sept was one of the first 35mm still cameras to be produced in significant quantities and found some success in the United States.

The name "Sept" refers to the seven functions that the camera can perform: still camera, sequential camera, cine camera, still projector, cine projector, enlarger, and cine transfer machine. The camera takes perforated 35mm film in reloadable cassettes, with film sold in five-metre rolls allowing for 250 exposures in 18x24mm format. The camera has a detachable motor housing and a waist-level brilliant finder that can be used as an eye-level finder with a pivoting eyepiece.

The Debrie Sept was popular with newsreel photographers in the 1920s due to its handheld capability and ability to capture 15-second bursts of movie action with each loading. It was also used to film the chase sequence in the 1922 film 'Robin Hood' starring Douglas Fairbanks.

The Kinamo camera

In the 1920s, the film industry saw the use of a variety of cameras, from Kodak's first colour film tests to the introduction of the first 35mm camera. One notable camera that emerged during this period was the ICA Kinamo 35mm camera.

The camera's mechanism was designed to be hand-cranked, which was a common feature of cameras during this period. However, the Kinamo camera's hand-cranking mechanism was particularly well-crafted, ensuring smooth and consistent film speed. This attention to detail in the hand-cranking mechanism set the Kinamo camera apart from its contemporaries.

The Aeroscope camera

The Aeroscope was a type of compressed air camera for making films, constructed by Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński in 1909. It was patented in England in 1910 and built in England since 1911, first by Newman & Sinclair, and from 1912 by Cherry Kearton Limited.

The Aeroscope was the first successful handheld film camera. It was powered by compressed air pumped into the camera with a simple hand pump before filming. This meant that, unlike with other cameras of the time, a cameraman did not have to turn the crank to advance the film material, and so he could operate the camera with both hands, holding the camera and controlling the focus. This made it possible to film with the Aeroscope handheld in the most difficult circumstances, as well as from airplanes, also for military purposes. The camera carried 400 feet (120m) of 35mm film and, once pressurised, could work with no further pumping for up to 10 minutes. The Aeroscope was known for its simplicity and reliability.

Hundreds of Aeroscope cameras were used by the British War Office for combat cameramen on the battlefields of World War I, and by newsreel cameramen all over the world until the late 1920s. The Aeroscope was used by Arthur Herbert Malins, recognised as "the most famous of the war cinematographers", who used it at the Battle of the Somme. As several of the cameramen died filming from the firing lines, the Aeroscope gained the nickname "camera of death".

In 1928, Prószyński built an improved version of his camera, with an air pressure meter, but the more practical spring cameras like Eyemo and Bolex took over. However, even by the beginning of World War II, some of the improved Aeroscope cameras were still in use by British combat cameramen.

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