Prismac
Le Prismac is an innovative stereo roll-film camera designed by Maurice Deloye and made in about 1906 by the French maker A. Devaux.
The body of the camera is made from aluminium, and is a box with rounded ends. The top and bottom and the round ends have leather covering. The flat front and rear are uncovered metal. The two lenses are mounted in the front plate, as are most of the controls: a lever to set the speed (as a number 1,2,3..) of a four- or five-speed guillotine shutter, depending on the model and the shutter release; and in one model a slider that appears to select between taking a stereo pair or a single photograph, and in another, what looks more like an aperture lever. Below the right lens is the front glass of a galilean viewfinder, in a tube passing through the whole depth of the camera. On the rear of the camera are just the eyepiece of the finder and either one or two red windows. The key to wind the film is on the top.
The back plate of the camera detaches for loading. On the inside of the back plate is a dividing plate that runs front-to-rear across the camera, with a roller at the front end. This inserts between two rollers in the rear of the body, so the film is made to run flat along one side of the dividing plate, and back along the other. Behind each lens is a reflecting prism which directs the image-forming light onto these two flat sections of film. This arrangement allows the camera to be somewhat more compact than other stereo designs.
The camera was made (over time) in three models which make slightly different sizes of image: 4x4cm, 4x4.5cm[1] and 5x5cm.[2]
Notes
- ↑ Prismac 4x4.5cm camera, serial number 1004, sold at the 32nd Leitz Photographica Auction, in March 2018. The camera has unmarked lenses, a four-speed shutter, a single red window, and what must surely be a mono/stereo selector (labelled '1' and'2'). The same camera was sold again at the 35th Leitz Auction, in November 2019.
- ↑ Prismac 5x5cm camera serial number 219, also sold at the 32nd Leitz Auction. The camera has unmarked lenses, a five-speed shutter, and a lever with engravings '8', '12', and '16' (which might be aperture settings). It has two red windows, with frame numbers engraved to indicate which window is to be used with which numbers.
