Good Projections

I always have these lofty dreams each time I decide to go yard sailing, as if I'm going to find that rare gem amidst a sea of thick 1980s finance books, crooked picture frames, and kinda-used-for-a-week exercise equipment. Like so many other dreams that fill my head, this idea is quickly squashed by musty reality and little, neon pink price tags. I never find anything really good at a yard sale. Except this past weekend.

Last Saturday's yard sale voyage may have been good enough to make up for at least this summer's treasure drought. I found two items, sold together for a measly $5.00, that fall in the range of "just the sort of thing I was hoping for." I picked up a Bell & Howell Two-Fifty-Two standard 8mm film camera and an accompanying 8mm projector.

When I first spotted the 252's brown, leather case, I was sure that some sort of old camera resided inside. That's just the sort of case I keep my uncle's Pentax K100 in (and it's just the sort of case that gets people asking "Is that a purse?"). When I flipped open the case, it took me a moment to figure out exactly what I was looking at. The 252 is an odd camera, befitting the style of most regular 8mm cameras from the '40s (or so says a quick Google search), but it looks downright alien today. First, it has two lenses and a filter holder on a swivel thing. There's a wide angle and a telephoto lens. For a while I thought there was a third lens on there, but after close inspection, I see that it's just a dark socket where could you place a filter of some sort. Who knows?

Another interesting feature of the camera is the aperture-style dial in the front. I'm not totally clear on how it works, because it's labeled by standard f-stops; black & white or color; and cloud coverage. So if you're filming on a hazy morning, just turn it to the "hazy" setting. But that's only helpful in very specific filming conditions--unless it works the opposite way, and actually makes the film look hazy or cloudy or overcast. Nah, that's too crazy, even for the 1940s.

I've tried, throughout the week, to do some research on the camera, but information is scant. There are plenty of old time camera enthusiasts out there, but just about every one of them is trying to sell me a Xeroxed copy of the instruction manual. Nice try, but I think I'll figure this thing out myself. For example, I'm sure that an instruction manual would have simply explained to me that the crank on the side of this thing doesn't operate like a turn-of-the-century film camera (where one has to crank at a constant speed in order to maintain a proper framerate). It took me a couple examinations to realize that you actually wind the crank up like it's a toy car, and then you hold down a release and the film is exposed at a standard framerate. The manual would probably be able to tell me what the frame rate is (I'm guessing 18 frames per second).

So what does all this mean? Is this motivation just temporary, bound to subside once I realize how difficult of a task this might be? I'm hoping that's not the case. I plan on using this camera, and trying to make at least one film with it. Companies still produce 8mm film, and there are places that still develop it. This could be the sort of healthy lo-fi adventure I've been yearning for. There are plenty of hurdles to overcome in this process, like the fact that the camera doesn't record sound or that a regular roll of film may be as short as 7 minutes, but I think I'm up for it. Can you say Battleship Potemkin 2?