Cyclope

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The Cyclope is a French 6×9 camera made by Alsaphot. It was designed by the engineer Lucien Dodin and has an unusual configuration, with a rigid body and a folded light path, the rays emerging from the lens being reflected by two mirrors before hitting the film. The purpose of this construction is to make a rigid camera with a standard 105mm lens without being too thick. Two Japanese cameras announced in 1952, the 4.5×6 Tomy and the 6×6 Rich-Ray-6, have a comparable system. However the design of the Cyclope is more radical: the film runs along the front of the body and the lens is offset to the top, looking like an eye above the top plate, hence the camera's name.

The Cyclope was announced in 1949 and released in 1950[1]. It was first sold in a version equipped with a Saphir 105/4.5 lens by Boyer and a Prontor II shutter to 1/175, for FF18,000, and later in a version with a better finition, a Saphir 105/3.5 lens and a Prontor SV shutter to 1/250, for FF30,000.[2] 1,800 examples were made of the Cyclope f:4.5 and 200 of the f:3.5.[3]

Notes

  1. Dates: Cyclope history in the Fex-Indo website (web archive dated Oct 12, 2004). Vial says 1951.
  2. Prices: Cyclope history in the Fex-Indo website (web archive dated Oct 12, 2004).
  3. Vial, p. 88, citing Dodin himself.

Bibliography

  • Vial, Bernard. Histoire des appareils français. Période 1940–1960. Paris: Maeght Éditeur, 1980, re-impressed in 1991. ISBN 2-86941-156-1. P. 88.

Links

In English:

In French: