Bell & Howell
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| B & H cine camera with selenium meter image by Dirk HR Spennemann (Image rights) |
Bell and Howell is an American manufacturer best known in the past for motion-picture equipment. The company was started by Donald J. Bell, a projectionist, and Albert S. Howell, who worked for a maker of film projectors. Their first camera, a wooden cine camera, was made in 1910. The company's early products were very successful, and they made most of the cameras used in Hollywood for a while; however, Bell and Howell fell out, and Howell and an associate bought out Bell's share in the firm.[1]
Bell and Howell made only a few notable still cameras. Of these, perhaps the most impressive is the Foton from 1948, a cooupled-rangefinder camera with a spring motor advance allowing continuous exposures at 6 frames per second. Some of B&H's cameras came about by company acquisitions; B&H bought the Three Dimension Company, which made stereoscopic cameras and equipment, and retained the TDC brand for the Stereo Colorist and Stereo Colorist II and the Stereo Vivid.
In the 1960s, some Canon cameras (including at least the FX, Demi, Canon Dial 35 and some of the Canonet series) were marketed in the USA by B&H, some with and some without Canon's branding as well.[2]
The company is now (as at June 2012) owned by the holding company BHH LLC. Some compact digital cameras are sold with the Bell & Howell brand.
Still cameras
- Foton, 1948
- Electric Eye 127, 1958
- Autoload 340, 1967
- Autoload 341, 1970
- Autoload 342, 1970
Notes
- ↑ Gale Directory of Company Histories, 2006, Gale Group Inc.
- ↑ McKeown shows a Dial 35 marked only for B&H; McKeown, James M. and Joan C. McKeown's Price Guide to Antique and Classic Cameras, 12th Edition, 2005-2006. USA, Centennial Photo Service, 2004. ISBN 0-931838-40-1 (hardcover). ISBN 0-931838-41-X (softcover). p123.
