International photographer (Jan-Dec 1933)

2500 Pix a Second A special telegram from New York to Hearst papers dated May 20, adds the following interesting chapter to the technical history of motion picture photography. The message carries no names of the producers and inventors of this new camera : NEW YORK, May 20.— A portable superspeed camera, which takes 2500 pictures a second and can photograph objects moving with the rapidity of a cannon projectile, has been demonstrated here. The camera, operating at 125 times the speed of a normal motion picture camera, has no shutter and the film runs continuously instead of being stopped for each "frame." One hundred feet of film, which usually runs in four minutes, speeds through this camera in two and a half seconds. JVorks in Any Light It differs from anything previously made by taking its pictures in ordinary light, either daylight or artificial. Lights flashing hundreds of thousands of times a second have been the only means of taking such pictures heretofore. An electric timer is part of the apparatus, and the time used on the object photographed is recorded in minutes, seconds and hundredths of seconds on the same strip of film as the pictures. Motion pictures taken with the new development prove conclusively that the eye is faster than the hand. They showed the hand is not removed from a burning cigarette until 26-100ths of a seconds after the cigaret begins to burn, whereas the eye is closed 13-100ths of a second after a brilliant light is flashed before it. They showed also that a wing requires ll-I00ths of a second. Reveals Machine Defects In practical application the timing system is said to provide an entirely new opportunity for the study of extreme speed motions, such as the valve spring and tappet mechanism in gasoline engines. The flexure of an airplane propeller at full speed may be shown and studied. The slightest aberration in machine operation can thus be shown and defects in newly designed machines caught at the beginning, it is claimed. Reading from top to bottom: Showing the new silent Bell b Howell camera on production at RKO studio. The camera blimp in the foreground shows the method now universally used in all studios to silence the camera noise. A. S. Howell, chief engineer of the Bell & Howell Company, and Joseph Dubray, manager of Hollywood Bell & Howell plant, in foreground. Picture shows Edward Cronjager, chief cameraman; Joseph Biroc, operative cameraman; Willard Barth, assistant; Paul Bristol and Tom East, electricians; Earl Wolcott and Harold Stine, sound men. "Here's how I'd do it" — and Lowell Sherman gives Mae West his version of how a scene for her first Paramount starring picture, "She Done Him Wrong," should be handled. Charles Lang, chief cameraman; stills, Elwood Bredell. "Uptown New York"— at California Tiffany Studios. This view shows how camera crane is used, doing away with the time it takes to set up parallels, etc. Those in the picture are Leon Waycoff and Shirley Gray (on steps); Victor Schertzinger, director; Norbert Brodine, cameraman, on crane; Johnny Echard, assistant; Joe Benson, grip, operating crane; Don Donaldson, gaffer; Alf Burton, motor man (sound); Gilbert Pollack, "mike" man; Noel Mason, assistant director; Charles Henley, head prop; Bert Eason, assistant cameraman. Still by Roman Freulich. Synthetic Fog— Ernest Schoedsack (in chair) directs Leslie Banks and Steve Clemente in a scene from "The Most Dangerous Game, new RKO picture. Arranged through the courtesy of Perry Leiber, head of RKO publicity. This unusual still by Gaston Longet shows action.