I.D. help with this gadget

[bob cole]

I found this gadget in an old Bell & Howell device I believe is a copying stand...It was in one of the pockets & may have nothing to do with the copier...Anybody have any idea what it is? It has no markings on it...
TIA...

 

[rogue_designer]

can you give an idea of scale?

 

[biomed]

Perhaps a spectacle for a movie or still camera? Just a guess.

Mike

 

[jlw]

It looks like some kind of viewfinder mask, although I'm not sure why you would have needed one since the Bell & Howell 70-series movie cameras had a turret finder (like a Contax or Kiev finder) that was coupled to the lens turret. Maybe this is for one of their 8mm cameras that had a side-mounted viewfinder...?

 

[bob cole]

I.D. help with this gadget

can you give an idea of scale?

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thanks for the replies...as for scale, the gadget is 2.5 inches [62mm] long...the circle is 1" [25mm] in diameter... and the prism [which doesn't seem to be much of a change in image size] is 16mm x 11mm....thanks, again...

 

[rogue_designer]

oh! that's a prism? Could be a beam splitter element, either for color projection, or viewfinder use.

Hard to know for sure. I'll bet that 1" circle is to fit it on a guide rail.

 

[bob cole]

oh! that's a prism? Could be a beam splitter element, either for color projection, or viewfinder use.

Hard to know for sure. I'll bet that 1" circle is to fit it on a guide rail.

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thanks, again...rogue_designer...I guess I'll just file it away under, quien sabe...

 

[jlw]

the prism [which doesn't seem to be much of a change in image size] is 16mm x 11mm....thanks, again...

Aha! If this is a prism, then it's probably an "auto-up" close-up device. The prism isn't intended to change image size, just "bend" the light path slightly to compensate for parallax.

The ring-shaped portion no doubt would have mounted on the front rim of the lens, and the prism would have fitted over the side-mounted optical viewfinder. It would compensate the viewfinder so it showed roughly the same area as the lens was seeing -- exactly what you'd need for shooting with a cine camera on a copy stand.

Focusing wouldn't have been an issue since B&H professional cameras had a through-lens focusing eyepiece. If this device was made for amateur cine cameras, there might have been different screw-in diopter lenses for close focusing, matched to ones that would attach to the prism (possibly this explains what look like clips on the prism?)

Researching your copy stand and accessories might be a fun project, if you enjoy that sort of thing. "Back in the day," Bell & Howell was a maker of top-quality professional cine equipment -- its 2709 studio camera was a mainstay of the animation industry, and its Filmo 16mm and Eyemo 35mm cameras shot most of the World War II newsreel footage you're likely to see (at least from American forces) and it offered a huge range of accessories to adapt its equipment for various uses. If you could get hold of one of its catalogs from the correct era, you'd probably be able to find out exactly what your gizmo is.

 

[bob cole]

I.D. help with this gadget

again, thanks to all for the guidance on this weird gadget...