Revere Model 88 [1940]

An interesting WWII era filom motion picture camera using so-called “double 8mm” film. In reality this was 16mm film, which the camera exposed only one side of. Then the film would be flipped and respooled and the other side exposed. Development labs would split the film in two and splice the ends together to produce one approx 4min long 8mm film. Manual everything – even the motor is spring wound.

Film was “daylight loadable” so the reels must have been pretty light tight along the edges.

Cinema cameras are not really my thing, so when I get them it is typically in a lot with other cameras, or when included as part of a collection. In this case, the Model 88 came to me with a bunch of other cameras. It was a neat find given how steampunk the thing looks. Mine cleaned up nicely and seems to work just fine. It even came with four extra rolls of film, one unknown (which may have been already exposed) and three rolls of Kodachrome which expired in the mid 1970s. The last Kodachrome developer stopped in 2011.

Sold it all on eBay not long after taking the pictures.

What’s So Special?

A very common cinema camera from the early to mid 1940s. Extremely heavy camera, even for the time.

Pros

Fast f/2.5 Bausch and Lomb lens
At 16fps you get about 2 minutes of film, flip the film over for another 2 minutes of recording

Cons

If you can find the film it is probably expired, and then youd have to figure out how to get it developed.
Heavy as heck – you need to want to use this machine
Lens is fixed