Speed-O-Matic
image by John Kratz (Image rights) |
The Speed-O-Matic Corporation was a camera maker based in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. In late 1947[1] it produced the Speed-O-Matic bakelite "instant" camera using direct-positive film packs. The camera had an extinction meter on its top, and different aperture stops could be selected.
The camera used double-sided film packs, so after one exposure the pack had to be removed and flipped, then re-loaded. Then the two exposed film sheets had to be transferred into a separate development tank. Processing required four different chemical solutions to be filled into the tank, then emptied back into storage bottles again—with water rinses between each step. Not unlike a pseudo TLR, perhaps this camera would be best classified as a "pseudo instant camera". The much simpler peel-apart system from Polaroid, introduced in 1948, turned the Speed-O-Matic into a forgotten curiosity.
After the company failed, the Dover Film Company purchased the molds for the camera and released a revised version as the Dover 620-A.
Notes
- ↑ December 1947 advertisement for the Speed-O-Matic in Popular Photography magazine (Volume 21, No. 6; page 236).
Links
- Speed-O-Matic user manual at Butkus.org
- The Speed-O-Matic at The Old Album
- Speed-O-Matic (and Dover) cameras at Oddity Cameras
- Dover 620-A and Speed-O-Matic at Marcy Merrill's Junk Store Cameras
WIth original instructions image by Inspiredphotos (Image rights) |