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BAUER and Regular Eight

Han Fokkelman

The manufacture of amateur movie equipment goes back to the year 1903
when Ernemann brought to the market a movie camera with 17.5 mm film
perforated down the centre. This format lasted until 1921 when Pathé
introduced the 9.5 mm format, which was followed two years later, in 1923, by Kodak’s 16 mm
format. In 1932, Kodak halved the 16 mm film which enabled the construction of handy little
equipment for amateurs.
The European market remained loyal to the 9.5 mm and 16 mm formats, while 8 mm was getting
more and more popular on the American market. It was at the Leipziger Fair in 1936 that Siemens
Halske showed the amateurs a cartridge with 8 mm spools of film while Agfa introduced to the
market the Movex cartridge with 10 metres of single 8 film.

Bosch had always avoided the amateur market although some
research had been done on 16 mm cameras. However little growth
was foreseen in the 9.5 mm and 16 mm markets, while the 8 mm
market that still had only a few competitors lay completely open.
Consequently, in 1937, Bauer got the order to develop an 8 mm
camera for the Movex 8 mm cartridge. In 1938 they accomplished
that goal but, before they could start production, the Second World
War broke out and it was only in 1950 that the camera appeared
on the market.

The Bauer 8 is a single lens camera with a spring motor, naturally,
but with 5 different speeds. It has a 10 m film capacity using a
Movex cartridge. The lens is interchangeable and there were 6
different ones available. That was really necessary because zoom The Bauer 8
lenses did not exist at that time. With this camera the trend was already set and Bauer would
deliver high-grade products for amateurs in the future. However, this camera was not a success.
It was difficult to find the Movex cartridges in Europe and Double 8 was popular on the American
market. We must also remember that Kodak did not show any interest in providing the competitor
Agfa with Kodachrome film in a Movex cartridge.
The first double 8 camera, the Bauer 88, made its appearance in
1953. The camera is strikingly simple in design but it has the
quality of the later models. Most probably it would have taken too
much time to design an elaborate model, so the simple 88 appeared
as the first one. It has a spring motor that could expose 2 metres of
film at one winding. This applies to all cameras of the 88 series.
The 88 has only one film speed, namely 16 frames/sec. The lens is
interchangeable by means of a bayonet mount. The 88 C appeared
a few months later, in 1954. This one is fitted with four speeds: 8,
16, 24, 48 frames/sec.

Left: The Bauer 88

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