Siluro

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The Siluro (meaning "catfish") is an underwater camera made by Nemrod Metzeler in Barcelona, Spain between c.1960 and 1966[1].

The body is a plastic cylinder with a sports finder at the top, a large handle on the user's left, and typically, a bulb flash reflector attached to the front. The flash is powered by a B-C circuit contained within the body of the camera, utilizing a 22.5 volt battery and a capacitor.

The Siluro is equipped with car-tire-style valve for pressurising the interior, to confirm good sealing and allow it to operate to depths of 40m. There are some lead ballast weights built in. The single speed shutter is ~1/55s with an f16 fixed-focus with a depth-of-field of around 1-2.5m. The image format is 12 6x6cm exposures on 120 film.

The Siluro is a reworking of Jordan Klein's 1950s design, the Mako Shark. It is still based around the innards of a Brownie-type camera, but with a spacer frame around the film gate to permit closer focusing. Additionally, the Siluro uses 120 film rather than the harder-to-find 620 size and adds metal weights to give the camera neutral buoyancy. Also, the back of the Siluro is attached by spring clips rather than screwing closed.

Another variant is also known, the Siluro-S with twin handgrips.

Notes

  1. McKeown p.711; other sources (e.g. Medfmt.8k]) quote 1960-62 (archived)

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