Parker Stellar

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The Stellar is a stylish subminiature camera made by the Parker Pen Company in 1949. Only about 100 cameras were made before the product was abandoned.

The camera makes eight exposures 13x16mm on a strip of unperforated 16mm film, mounted around the edge of a wide, shallow drum-shaped cassette. A mirrored prism in the centre of the drum directs the image-making light from the lens onto the film. This allows the camera to be very shallow front-to-back. The cassette is rotated by hand to advance to the next exposure; doing this also cocks the shutter.

The camera has a coated 37mm f/4.5 lens. It has three exposure settings, numbered 1-3 and shown as descriptions of the light conditions appearing in a window above the lens. The exposure setting varies both the aperture set with three fixed aperture stops, and the shutter speed:

• 1 - Dark subjects, failing sunlight, shadows: 1/35s at f/4.5;
• 2 - Average light to overcast and cloudy: 1/50s at f/8;
• 3 - Bright direct sunlight only: 1/75s at f/11;

There are two focus settings, for 3-10 feet and 10 feet-infinity. The camera has a reverse-galilean viewfinder. It is mounted on a short leather strap, which when swung round acts as a cover over the viewfinder and the clamshell lens-cover. There are some exposure guide-notes on the inside of the lens-cover. There is a tripod socket.