We
have well over 400 cameras on display at Seawood Photo.
Many are odd and interesting, yet by far the ones that
elicit the most comments are the machine gun cameras.
We have six of
these unusual cameras from the
U.S., England, and Japan spanning WWI to the Korean War.
Perched over the camera bar, they look ominously down on
the store like they are guarding the store.
While they look like actual guns,
they were actually used to train gunners by shooting
photos instead of bullets. Crosshairs or reference lines
show up on the final photographs, showing the user to
see if he actually hit his mark. The cameras were
sometimes mounted on aircraft to photograph aerial
combat practice, or tripod mounted for ground use.
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Thornton Pickard
(click
to enlarge)
This was made in England during WWI,
and is an excellent reproduction of a Lewis gun.
Often seen mounted on the Sopwith Camel
aircraft, or used in the trenches, this was the
preeminent machine gun used by the allies. The
camera uses 120mm rollfilm in the 6x4.5 format.
The lens is unmarked.
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Williamson Manufacturing Company
(click
to enlarge)
This is
an aerial version of the Lewis, with extended
trigger guard to allow use while wearing heavy
gloves. 120 rollfilm cartridge mounts in rear of
gun. Removable drum assembly has two slots that
hold spare film magazines. The Dallmeyer 12”
Antistigmat taking lens is located underneath
the barrel.
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Rokuoh-Sha Lewis
Gun
(click
to enlarge)
This is a Japanese copy
of the Thornton Pickard. Odd that they would
copy this verbatim, as the closest gun they
actually used was called a Type 92, and was
functionally very different in design. Also uses
120 rollfilm. The lens is an Optor 28.5cm f11.
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Rokuoh-Sha
Type 89
(click
to enlarge)
35mm half-frame movie
camera. Large crank on the right side winds a
spring that advances the film when fired. WWII
vintage. There was originally a watch under the
yellow plastic shroud on the front of the
camera. Through a split-prism assembly, the
watch was filmed at the same time as the target,
allowing the viewer to determine the duration of
fire. Konishoruko
Mfg. Co. lens; later to become Konica.
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Fairchild Gun
Camera H2
(click
to enlarge)
16mm movie camera simulating a
Browning .30 caliber machine gun. Taking lens is
beneath lens barrel. Lens is unmarked.
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Filmo 16mm Movie
Camera
(click
to enlarge)
Standard Filmo 3-lens turret
camera, but mounted in a rifle stock with a dot
reticle gunsight. |
I was curious to see how these
cameras operate, so I chose the Rokuoh-Sha and the
Williamson as they both use readily available film and
both seemed to be in working condition. As there
is no book depository or grassy knoll in San Anselmo,
and as police get quite excitable when confronted with
heavy machine guns, I decided it best to set these up in
my own back yard.
The Rokuoh-Sha is big and heavy.
It is mounted on a large wood surveyor’s type tripod,
and feels very solid. Film is loaded in a cassette that
fits in a box between the receiver and the gun barrel. A
glass plate with a grid pattern etched on it slides just
in front of the film plane. The shutter is cocked and
the film is advanced by pulling back on a bolt lever on
the left side of the camera, as if cocking a gun. When
the trigger is pulled the bolt slides forward with a
loud clunk and the shutter is released.
The Williamson has a
rear-mounted film cassette, and receptacles for two
spare cassettes located on the drum. Operation is
basically the same as the Rokuoh-Sha, but the fit and
finish of moving parts is much more crude.
Photographic results were rather
disappointing. The Williamson shots appear as a smear of
light; the shutter was obviously hanging up.
The Rokuoh-Sha fared much
better, but as you can see the images are soft and have
very little contrast. I guess as long as they could see
a target on the film the military brass was happy with
these cameras. Not going to replace my Hasselblad!
I’ve seen photos of a German
MG42 machine gun camera…I wonder if the optics would be
better?
