Norwood Director
The Director is a series of hand-held light meters created by Donald W. Norwood and cinematographer Karl Freund. Sekonic of Japan acquired the rights to manufacture them starting with the Director S / Sekonic Studio S in 1957. A very similar meter is still marketed, as the Sekonic Studio Deluxe.
Norwood Director ad copy image by scan courtesy Voxphoto (Image rights) |
Contents
Model A
The Norwood Exposure Meter was manufactured by Photo Research. It continued to be made after the release of the Model B. The Spectra line of meters is based on the Model A.
Norwood Exposure Meter image by Eagle_Eye_Photo (Image rights) |
Model B and C
The Model B, released in 1948, was manufactured by America Bolex owned by the Brockway family. It featured a complete redesign of the exterior shell. The revision C is the same as the model B except for a new nameplate. Paillard of Switzerland started distributing Bolex cameras in the US and with it American Bolex Coropration was no longer needed. The company was renamed Director Products.
Norwood Director (Model B) image by Anssi Puisto (Image rights) |
Model D and M2
The Model D added ASA 10 to the scale. This model is called Color-Matic and manufactured by Director Products Corporation. The M2 model was the same as the Model D but had a new company nameplate: Brockway.
Model S / Type S
The Japanese company Sekonic started to manufactured the M2 model, now labeled on its face as Brockway S. It is often called the Director Model S or Type S. It was available in the Japanese market as the Sekonic L-28 Studio S. The Brockway name was dropped after several mergers, which led to Sekonic becoming the sole manufacturer and distributor.
Miscellaneous
M3
The Director M3 was a basic direct reading meter.
Norwood Director M3 image by Anssi Puisto (Image rights) |
Super Director
The Super Director from Helio-Tech was manufactured by Walz of Japan.
Links
- James Ollinger, "The Many Lives of the Norwood Director", the first of a series of pages on these light meters, within "James Ollinger's Exposure Meter Collection"