Amateur Photographer & Cinematographer (1933)

August 23rd, 1933 Thi amateur photographer o 6 CINEMATOGBAPHCR o Aids to Rolleiflex Work. So many enthusiastic photographers have taken to the Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera (which takes pictures i\ in. square or if in. square on roll films) for work of all kinds that the makers have done well to provide them with gadgets for increasing the usefulness of this delightful little camera. Two of these new aids to Rolleiflex work are decidedly useful to many photographers who want something more than snapshots. These accessories are now in stock at the showrooms of the distributors, Messrs. R. F. Hunter, Ltd. be available at all the big dealers’ shops. The first is a pano r a m a head for use on a t r i p od when it is desired to get a panoramic strip of landscape on a suc¬ cession of negatives. On the sea front, on Scottish lochs, in the woods and forests, and in mountain country — to quote just a few occasions — there is often a moment when the photographer wants a long strip of landscape rather than an almost square picture limited by the arbitrary shape of his plate or film. The Rollei¬ flex Panorama Head, fixed on the tripod, can be swung stage by stage, from left to right, over an arc of about 180 degrees. Each movement is governed by a ratchet arrangement which clicks when the next frame is in position. When the film is developed the picture can be joined up in printing without any overlapping of the image — though of course there is the margin between the films to be cut out of the strip of pictures. The joining up of the successive pictures into one homogeneous whole, however, presents no difficulty. Such a device will not be wanted every day, but many photographers will want it sometimes if ever they use a tripod, and as it costs only 22s. 6d., and is little bigger than a pocket-knife (with spirit-level included), it is neither a luxury nor a nuisance in the pocket or camera case. It is, in fact, a precision tool well made and accurately scaled, as one expects from Rolleiflex apparatus. The second Rolleiflex adjunct is a tripod attachment for enabling the Rolleiflex to make stereo pictures. The two pictures are obtained on successive film frames by sliding a bar, on which the camera has been fixed, before making the second exposure. This again is a precision accessory, which allows for a lens-separation of anything up to 2| in. The sliding bar is securely locked at any position in its travel. Even if stereo work is not so popular to-day as it was twenty years ago, there are still old hands, carrying a Rolleiflex, who now and again will be glad to take a pocket apparatus of this kind out with their Rolleiflexes, in either size, and spend two films to get occasionally a jolly stereo picture about 2JX4J in this way by a small additional expenditure and the use of a gadget costing 27s. 6d., which will last a lifetime. New Kodaks. A new Kodak to produce sixteen vest-pocket negatives on an eight-exposure spool of 2 1 x 3 J film is a real inno¬ vation in the Kodak range, and as usual when Kodak set out to produce a good-class little article such as this they have made a good job of it. In the design the hand of Dr. Nagel, whose works Kodak acquired some time ago, can be traced, and they have done well to adopt those features. This jolly little camera, well made in every respect, is 4fxi^X3 in. in dimen¬ sions, and therefore slips into an ordinary pocket. You press a button and out springs the baseboard with the lens front at the position for infinity. Fo¬ cussing is by a lens collar. The spool -holders have spring-actuated pins for holding the spool, and thus loading is as simple as it can be. There is a neatness and strength about this camera which carries conviction ; the finish is good, with lined metal slides and leather-covered body ; the struts which hold the lens front are as rigid as anyone could wish them to be, and the direct-vision finder is of sensible pattern. An ingeniously designed depl^h-of-focus table appears on the top of the frame, which will be useful to the man who employs an f/3.5 lens or an f/4.5, but I am rather afraid that it will not be consulted so much as it should be. With a Kodak anastigmat of f/4.5 aperture and delayedaction Pronto shutter (three instantaneous speeds), the price is £6. With a Compur shutter and the same lens, the price is £8 2s. 6d. If an f/3.5 Zeiss Tessar in a Com¬ pur shutter is desired, the price becomes £12 5s. But there is one model, not available at the moment when I called at the Kodak showroom, which interested me ; one with a Kodak f/3.5 anastigmat and Compur at £g 15s. I have not yet met the Kodak f/3.5, but if (as I fully expect) it is as good a lens as the Kodak f/4.5, which I have used for many hundreds of exposures, then this particular model is likely to win the good opinions of many discriminating photographers. (51, Gray’s Inn Road, W.C.i) and will soon 183 2 1