Chris's camera pages
A boxed Camoject 35mm bakelite camera and projector set
Here is an interesting, and quite rare, camera and projector set.
Strictly speaking, this shouldn't be listed in my current collection anymore because I've already swapped it away, but I have left this page on my website because there seems to be so little information to be found elsewhere regarding the Camoject.
This set is now back in the UK with David Gardner, who collects only British-made cameras. He is a member of the Photographic Collectors Club of Great Britain, and edits their 'Tailboard' newsletter.
David also has the 16mm Camoject camera and projector in his collection, and he has been researching the history of the Camoject company. I'm sure he would be delighted to hear from anyone with Camoject equipment, or who has any information about either the equipment or the company that made it. Contact David Gardner
This simple camera taking images approximately 16mmx16mm on 35mm film was made by Camoject Ltd of Brentwood, Essex. The main parts of the camera body are bakelite and the top, and bottom plates are aluminium pressings.
The camera is fitted with an interchangeable Dualpur f/3.5 Double Anastigmat lens with a coarse-thread screw mount, and has a single-speed guillotine shutter immediately behind the lens mount.
The camera used a cassette-to-cassette film winding mechanism, the cassettes are missing on this example, but must have been very close in shape and size to a standard 35mm cassette, since they fit into place snugly. Unlike a 35mm cartridge though, the film was wound emulsion side out.
The 200-250 volt 100 watt projector is equally primitive. It lacks any slide carrier, slides were simply slid down into position behind the lens. The connection for power is not the typical three-pin plug, but a fitting to connect with a lamp base.
This set was imported by a man from Dunedin, New Zealand in March 1954, apparently direct from the Camoject factory, which raises the question of exactly how the camera and projector set was marketed. Perhaps an mail-order advert in the back of some magazine.
The camera and projector are in the original shipping carton, complete with the instructions and price list, and the lucky purchaser clearly had to pay out for customs duty and sales tax before he could collect his parcel from the post office.
One reference I found on the internet to a 35mm Camoject is on a submin.com website, where they say it probably never went beyond prototype stage. Certainly the Camoject cameras more commonly seen take a 16mm film, not 35mm. The evidence here suggests that the camera and projector certainly were in production, though perhaps not for long!