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A Sub-Standard Pioneer

By KENNETH F. MILLER
Descriptions of early apparatus are always interesting, and the present
one will be found doubly so because the instrument concerned appears to
have carried many features only recently re-introduced on some of the
more advanced cameras

A few years ago I came into possession
of an extremely interesting instrument
-one of the original home movie
cameras taking 17.5 mm film with a
central perforation.

Although it had been roughly adapted for
the modern type of 16 mm film by
altering the claw mechanism and
masking off parts of the gate aperture, the
original centre-claw arrangement could
still be traced quite clearly. The image at
right shows the front of the
apparatus, with the original "Biokam"
nameplate still in place.

The spool-box seen on the top of the body
holds 25 feet of film and has quite an
effective patent device for shutting the right-hand side of the "cassette" or spool-
film orifice to prevent fogging when the box on the top of the instrument.
film is being removed from the camera
after exposure. The image at left shows the "works"; with
the lens panel removed. The revolving
The film runs shutter is not unlike some of the modern
into the body ones, the two small knobs visible on the
of the camera front panel operate this. The upper one
after passing gives "time" exposures, while the lower
the gate, and provides "instantaneous" ones, these, of
can be left there course, being for single-frame work.
loose - there is
no form of take- The mechanism for this is brought into
up - or action by setting the knob under the
rewound into lens. An eight-frame crank is fitted for
the top chamber normal running, also a single frame one,
by means of the while the only viewfinder provided is the
small handle "direct on film" type. The body of the
seen in on the instrument is provided with a film-

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