Home Movies (1943)

HOME MOVIES FOR NOVEMBER An average cinebug tells what he wants in a post-war camera THIS IS THE POST WAR CAMERA I WAIT! i AM just one of the countless number of citizens that manufacturers are planning cine cameras for after the war. I already have a camera; makes pretty good pictures, too; but it isn't the camera I'll want when things open up again and I can shoot the kind of movies I've always wanted. Camera makers' ads and direct-mail questionnaires are seeking out practical ideas from movie amateurs for improving the post-war camera, and while little else is being said about it, manufacturers are generally agreed that the cine camera of tomorrow must have refinements in keeping with the recent progress of amateurs in the field of cinematography. Prior to our entry into war, production of cine equipment barely kept abreast of demand. Under such conditions, there was little incentive for any manufacturer to pause in the midst of plenty to re-tool for a new model. Today, things are different. Conversion of camera plants to war production caused jigs, dies and molds to be shelved for the duration. Few, if any, of them may ever be used again. Manufacturers now have the breathing spell for research and redesigning they could not undertake when the heat of competition made such steps imprudent. Wizards of the drafting boards have been told to start thinking about a better post-war camera and some right smart ideas are being sketched during occasional intervals in the blueprinting of bombsight and machine-gun parts. These ideas, I believe, won't be okayed for production until the vast army of amateur movie makers have been heard from — fellows like you and me with one or two practical suggestions of our own to offer. My specifications come out of no deep knowledge of cinematic engineering. They do come out of a reasonable amount of experience in making home movies. They come from By JOSEPH LENSER shooting pictures and comparing the results with those of brother cinebugs with cameras more expensive and refined than mine. I started shooting movies in 1939. I've bought and traded three different cameras since then. I've never owned a "Super Special." But my dream camera is still a thing of the future which I hope to see soon after camera manufacturers get going again. And there are thousands of other cinebugs whose history is about the same. As for me, this is the kind of post-war cine camera I want: It must first and foremost be a "basic" model — one which easily, inexpensively and gradually may be improved, as my purse permits, with refinements such as a turret front, wind • It must accommodate either magazines or spools of film interchangeably 354