British Panoramic Camera?

Ok experts help me out on this one. An older gentleman showed me an antique

panoramic camera the other day. It was made in England and used probably 620

film. The body was made from Bakelite, it had a screw on lens cap, and the lens

was collapsible. Depending on the orientation of the camera it would select

from three different shutter speeds. What brand of camera was this?

Not all your description fits but the 1937 Purma Special comes to mind. This was a bakelite body 127 camera with a collapsible lens and screw on lens cap. The idiosyncratic shutter design had three speeds selected by the orientation of the camera. It also featured the first use of a plastic lens in the viewfinder. I don;t think it was panoramic though.

 

http://www.vintagephoto.tv/purma.shtml

The shutter speed being selectable by orientation was made possible by the fact that the image was square. In the case of 127 this would be 4cm x 4cm or 1.25 inches square.

Hi, John I have to agree with Colin here - the only British bakelite camera I can think of that had a 3-speed orientation shutter, was the Purma Special. It had several weird design features, including the screw-on cap that acted as the pop-out lens retainer, as well as that strange "mouse-trap" focal plane shutter.

 

However, it certainly wasn't panoramic, and it took square format shots on 127 reel film. That square format makes a lot of sense when you consider the orientation aspect .....

 

Although I'm not generally a lover of bakelite as the medium for camera bodies, I make an exception for the Purma Special so I've actually got three of them. Two are working and one isn't, so that last one gave me the ideal cause to take the thing apart to see just how its so-called "focal plane" shutter worked. Hmmm, well OK - so it certainly isn't an FP shutter in Leica or Contax terms , but it is interesting. In fact, for anybody with an interest in the weird and wonderful, I recommend buying a Purma Special and dismantling it just to get a close look at one very strange shutter design ..

 

I've dug up an advert for the Purma, which might ring a few bells for your friend's memory perhaps?<div></div>

Pete, from the photos of the Purma in the link in my post it looks as though the film plane is curved. Is this the case on your examples? I seem to remember the later Kodak Brownie Vecta and some other Kodak 127 cameras had this feature along with a plastic lens. Is the Purma lens glass or plastic? The info I have seen says it is the v/f lens that is plastic rather than the taking lens.

 

cheers - Colin

Hi, Colin Yes, the film plane certainly is curved and quite pronounced too. It's hard to tell about the taking lens being plstic or glass, because it's really very small. Like you though, I'm sure I've read somewhere that it's the viewing lens that was the first plastic-fantastic optic.

 

When I get my mini-studio set up again to do some close-up stuff, I'll dig out the Bitsa Purma and take some pics of its innards including the curved film plane, along with that weird "mousetrap" FP shutter. It's quite amazingly crude compared to twin blind cloth shutters on Leicas and Exaktas, etc, but according to legend was reliable and the only way you shoot action pics on a budget camera so long as you held it at the correct angle. The only reason my third model is non-functional is because a piece of internal bakelite housing has snapped off. All the mechanical bits (such as they are) are still in there, sliding across according to whatever compass direction! (Pete In Perth)

That's exactly the camera. Yea the film plane is curved and the shutter is a horizontally rotating slit. Thats why I assumed it was a panoramic camera. Now to find one for myself!

So wait... curved film plane and focal plane shutter.... does that make this one of the only CURVED focal plane shutters?

OK, folks, here it is, right before your very eyes, etc, etc - the totally nude view of a Purma Special's amazing shutter arrangement. I've kept the pic size quite big so you're going to have to wait for it to unload, but if I'd gone small you wouldn't be able to make out the various mechanical gizmos, etc.

 

Hello, you ask - where's those cloth blinds? Sorry, none of that thar' over-complex stuff. This thing operates via the sliding metal gizmo on the left, behind the curved filmplane cover on the right. The cadmium-plated thingy is the swinging weight that either slows or accelerates the speed the moving plate moves across. A Leica or Contax, this ain't ......... but it was reliable. My other two Purmas still operate perfectly, and they could date to around 1937.<div></div>