Info on cine camera

[Fanz]

I recently bought an old cine camera from a market stall (purely because it looked interesting).

It's called the MEOPTA Admira 8F, and was made in Czechoslovakia and that's all I've been able to find out.



To satisfy my curiosity does anyone know what year or even decade it comes from? And how was I able to find it on a market stall in West Yorkshire?

Thanks.

[Dave Watterson]

It was made between 1960 and 1964. The viewfinder tilts - a cunning trick to get round the parallax problem ... the lens is well below the viewfinder. It had a good reputation as a basic standard-8mm camera. It ran at 16fps ... though the Meopta website thinks it was 18fps. (http://www.meopta.cz./index.php?id=313)

There is a brief clip on YouTube of some film taken with one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=JP&hl=ja&v=jaxlhV0B7lI

You might get some answers about its provenance - and tips on where to buy film to try it - from the Bury Cine Club in Lancashire http://www.burycine.org.uk/ who specialise in cine rather than video.

But I agree, it is a delightful object to look at and amazingly small for an 8mm camera too.

Dave

[Fanz]

Thanks Dave. I knew I'd come to the right place for information.

You know I'd not even considered trying to actually film something with it... I might seriously consider that as a film-making experiment.

John