Any one used a One Shot Tricolor cameras (Two mirror types)?

Does any member have experience in using or have first hand knowledge about these mid century cameras?

 

I understand some were made with an aluminium body for rigidity and contained two very thin semi-transparent mirrors for directing the image rays through to the respective Red, Green and Blue filters (Wrattens #25, #58, #47).

Kodak made two types of B&W panchromatic plates for use in 'One Shots' - one for the Green and Blue record and the other for the Red.

The mirror alignment was so precise that the image on the glass negatives were identical in size without any colour fringing in the final positives.

The B&W glass negatives could be developed with a standard photographic chemistry.

 

Any other anecdotal and recollections would be appreciated.

 

Edited September 23, 2018 by matt_t_butler

I have used red, green, and blue filters to make my own color images, just for fun

 

 

 

Never used one, but have always been fascinated by the idea...

and blown away by the color quality of one-shot pictures from Tsarist Russia and Imperial China.

 

At Camera-wiki:

Category:Three-color cameras - Camera-wiki.org - The free camera encyclopedia

 

That category includes both three-shot and one-shot cameras.

Does any member have experience in using or have first hand knowledge about these mid century cameras?

 

I understand some were made with an aluminium body for rigidity and contained two very thin semi-transparent mirrors for directing the image rays through to the respective Red, Green and Blue filters (Wrattens #25, #58, #47).

 

(snip)

 

Is this before dichroic mirrors were invented? I understand that broadcast quality

color TV cameras use a similar system, but with dichroic mirrors to you don't lose 2/3 of

the light.

 

The dichroic mirrors reflect some colors and allow others through.

The Devin one shot camera illustration pictured in the opening post used a pellicle mirror system - the pellicle was very fragile with a thickness of 0.0005 inches (five ten thousands of an inch) or about 12.7 microns. Think of extremely thin cellophane or a Wratten gel filter.

The light loss for each semi transparent pellicle was utilised by the clever placement of the pellicle(s) to deliver the correct amount of exposure to each photographic plate to make a balanced B&W negative for each colour separation.

My understanding of prism block systems (optical glass) used in 3 tube color video cameras did lose light that was then boosted by signal amplification.

As well as I know it, video cameras use dichroic mirrors, that reflect some colors and transmit others, so minimal loss.