Aeroscope

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aeroscope camera (1910)

Aeroscope was a compressed air camera constructed by Kazimierz Prószyński in 1909 (French patent from April 10, 1909) and built in England since 1911,^[1] at first by Newman & Sinclair,^[2] and from 1912 by Cherry Kearton Limited.

1 Background
2 Popularity
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Background

Patented in 1910 by the Polish inventor Kazimierz Prószyński,^[1] Aeroscope was the first successful hand-held operated film camera. It has been powered by compressed air pumped before filming into the camera with a simple hand pump, similar to the one we still use to pump bicycle tires. Filming with Aeroscope, a cameraman did not have to turn the crank as in all cameras of that time, so he could operate the camera with both hands, holding the camera and controlling the focus. This made it possible to film with the Aeroscope hand-held in most difficult circumstances, as well as made possible to film from the airplanes, also for the military purposes. Camera carried 400 feet (122 metres) of 35mm film and could work without pumping for up to 10 minutes. The Aeroscope was known for its simplicity and reliability.^[1]

[edit] Popularity

Hundreds of light and relatively compact Aeroscope cameras were used by the British War Office for the combat cameramen on the battlefields of World War I, and later by all newsreel cameramen all over world, until the late 1920s. In 1928 Prószyński built an improved version of his camera, with an air pressure meter, but the more practical spring cameras like Eyemo and later Bolex took over. Still, at the beginning of the WWII some of the improved Aeroscope cameras were in use by the British combat cameramen.