I recently found my lens/shutter unit for one of these cameras (serial 2,131 out of 15,000) and decided to look it up. It is listed as a low-altitude oblique shot aerial camera for hand held use. I was wondering if anyone could fill me in as to what sort of missions it would have been used on?
Regards, Robs
By: Airspeed Horsa - 14th August 2008 at 16:33
Thankyou for the help. I have various old cameras here but have not used roll film larger than 220 size. Perhaps its time to do real photography…:D
By: Truculent AME - 14th August 2008 at 06:53
Fairly good listing of aerial cameras used by the military here
http://mysite.verizon.net/yenrav/20cms/cameras.htm
IIRC – it is a light weight hand held camera used for a variety of aerial photo uses until the end of WWII. Lots are available in the evil-bay place – as far as modern cameras go they are definately not a “Lightweight” unit. Uses a 5 inch wide roll film – and takes 5 inch x 4 inch negatives.
I have an even earlier aerial camera – a Keystone F8 camera – is much the same class but uses 7 inch roll film and takes a 5 inch x 7 inch negative. This type of camera was used by Margaret Bourke-White – a female journalist and photographer of the era.
http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/bour-mar.htm
The lens assembly is set at infinity focus – so no focusing is possible – and they have a variety of speeds to select. Lens will be designed for B&W film – often using red or orange filters to cut the haze.
The K20s are good cameras – have a good reputation – and are built to military specs so unless stored in damp locations have fared pretty well.
Regards,
Truc
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August 13, 2008 at 5:42 pm