Lumiere Super ELJY, (Type 3)

Looking through many of McKeown's Camera Guides, which is the Bible of all camera collecting books, the Lumiere ELJY camera is one camera that always caught my eye. I believe it has to do with the size proportion of the lens to the camera body that caught my eye. The much larger proportion the lens has compared to the camera body reminds me of the Leica Dial-set Compur cameras of the mid-1920s.

My Lumiere Super ELJY camera.

My Lumiere Super ELJY camera.

The Company

The Lumiere company is a French company founded in 1893 by Charles Antoine Lumière, which started out as a film manufacturer and is most well known in the cinematography world. Charles's sons, Auguste and Louis Lumière, were the first to make a mark in the cinema world. The two produced short films starting in 1895 and what is now know as modern kind of movies.

In 1903, they invented a new photographic patent that was a successful color process for a film that lasted for years. They began to produce the Autochrome, a black & white plate but combined 3 color filters to create a color image that continued until the 1930s. They then started making sheet and roll film using the same process.

Lumiere started producing cameras in the 1920s through 1961 with all different cameras, including plate, folding, 35mm in different styles, colors, and shapes. Doing research on the blog and looking at all the different cameras Lumiere produced, I recognized a few other cameras in my collection. For this post, I'm just going to focus on the ELJY camera.

My Camera

There are many different models of the ELJY camera with versions and upgrades to the camera. The ELJY model that I own and am talking about is the Super ELJY, type 3. If you're interested in seeing the different models and variations, you can see them here (http://corsopolaris.net/supercameras/eljy/eljy.html). Personally, I didn't realize there were so many. The ELJY was produced between 1937-1960.

 The Super ELJY camera is a ruggedly built camera with a pull-out lens similar to the modern-day Rollei 35 cameras. To put the lens in the position to take a photo, you rotate the lens clockwise and pull the lens away from the camera body. The lens is on a very sturdy chrome barrel. Once extended, you turn the lens counterclockwise to lock the lens into position, and the lens won't slide back into the camera body.

 While the image size is 23x35mm, which is almost the same as 35mm, the camera takes a paperback roll film which is more similar to 127 or 120 films than 35mm. Some people say this is the "large format" miniature camera due to the camera and film size. The camera is more significant than the subminiature cameras that I have but considerably smaller than the 35mm camera, even the previously mentioned Rollei 35.

The camera is just over 3" wide by 2" tall without the finder up; with the finder up, it's 2.5" tall, and the camera is 1.75" deep with the lens retracted, or 2.25" with the lens extended. The lens is a Lypar 40mm f3.5 lens with aperture settings going to f20. It's odd because the aperture settings are 3.5,5,7,10,14 & 20. The shutter speeds go from "T" for time exposure, "B," 25, 50, 100, 125. The focus range is from 0.5m to Infinity.

 The camera has a simple pivoted, two-blade shutter which there is no cocking; just press the shutter release to take a photo, and there is a place for a cable release for the longer exposures. To open the back, the back door locking lever is on the bottom of the camera. The entire back comes off the camera to load and replace the film. There is also a tripod socket on the bottom of the camera. The red window on the back of the camera used to count exposures has a sliding door to open to view the film numbers.

On the top of the camera is the winding lever to advance the film. There is also a pop-up viewfinder. There is also a lever to slide out next to the viewfinder to correct for parallax when focusing close. When I first opened the camera, I noticed an exposed roll of film still in the camera. I'm going to have to find a way to process the film to see what treasures are on the film.

Thank you for taking a few minutes out of your busy schedule to read my blog. It's very much appreciated, and I would love to hear from you. One of the great joys of writing this article is hearing from people. Many tell me about their camera collection, which I enjoy hearing about. Until next time, please be safe.

 

Petal Camera

In my early days of collecting, I was never a real huge fan of the smaller subminiature cameras, mainly since most of them were the lesser quality cameras, or as I called them, "carnival camera" like the Hit camera. Then there was the other end. The 007 spy style camera was coming from Minox. As I grew in my camera maturity, coming across cameras like the Minolta or Yashica 16mm camera gave me an appreciation of some of these cameras' quality and quality.

My Round Petal camera

My Round Petal camera

For this week's camera blog post, I wanted to go back to one of the subminiature cameras I have in my collection. The Petal camera has always intrigued me since it's the smallest of the small non-medical cameras made according to Guinness World Records. As far as cameras go, this one is tiny and just a little larger than a quarter in the US or a 2 Euro coin. The St. Peter Optical Company made the Petal camera, whose Japanese name was Sei-Petero Kōgaku, in 1948. According to some, I've seen some references where it stated its introduction in 1947. The first US advertising of the camera was in U. S. Camera in February 1949, which you can see here.

The Camera:

The Petal camera comes in two different styles, with an even rarer third version named the Evarax A. The two primary Petal camera are either a round-faced camera, which is what I own, or a second model with an octagonal shaped face. The Evarax A camera is an octagonal shaped face camera with a more elaborate etching on the faceplate. The Petal camera is only 1.25" across by 1.75" tall by 5/8" deep and weighs 2.2oz. The camera has a 12mm f5.6 lens, placed in the upper middle on the front of the camera. There are two shutter speeds, either "B" for time exposures or "I" for instant, which is 1/25th of a second, controlled by a wheel on the camera's front.

My Petal camera compared to a U.S. Quarter.

My Petal camera compared to a U.S. Quarter.

On the top of the camera is an optical viewfinder, and to the right of the viewfinder is the shutter trigger lever. Along the top of the optical viewfinder is a lever that can be mover over the trigger arm to lock it so you cannot take a photo when you don't want an accidental image taken. The shutter release lever pushes a plunger down into the camera, which trips the shutter. On the camera side is a knurled ring that you rotate to advance the film to the next exposures. To the side of the knurled ring, number 1 to 6 with indents stops the ring at the next photo.

Loading the Camera:

It took me some time to figure out how to get to the film chamber. After playing for about 15 minutes or so, I noticed that the back of the camera. The camera back can be unscrewed to get to the film cassette. Once the back is off, it exposes the film cassette. Once that's removed, you can see the shutter mechanism and the inside of the camera itself.

Unthreaded the back off the Petal camera. You can also see the exposure counter.

Unthreaded the back off the Petal camera. You can also see the exposure counter.

The film came in preloaded discs with 6-6mm images on each film cassette. The film cassette holds the film. To get to the film, the cassette needs to be unscrewed too. The original Petal film was a panchromatic film, which needed to be loaded in complete darkness. Many people used orthochromatic film like that can be loaded and unloaded under a red safelight, which doesn't affect the film. A film cutter allowed the Petal camera owners to cut 35mm film to use in the film cassettes.

Once the film is in the cassette and back into the camera, you thread the back onto the camera. You need to rotate the back portion of the camera one to two revolutions clockwise until the #1 is next to the exposure indicator. Doing this opens the film window on the film cassette and allows light to get to the film once the shutter is triggered.

Exposure counter on the Petal camera.

Exposure counter on the Petal camera.

After you took the six exposures, the exposure counter is at number six to unload the film. You need to turn the number counter clockwise two numbers to number 4, closing the film window and allowing the photographer to unscrew the back and take out the film cassette for processing.

Conclusion:

The Petal camera is a lot more sophisticated of a camera than I first thought when I purchased it many years ago. It's very well built and a prized camera to own for the "spy" photographers. Extremely small, very well made, and a beloved camera in my collection. The shutter on my camera is inoperable. It would be fun to cut some film and take it out for a spin.

 If you have questions or comments about this camera or any others in my collection, I'd love to hear from you. Thank you for taking a few minutes from your day to read about this fun camera. Until next week, please be safe.