What kind of Camera? Rail, track, ?

[JimCreightonKy]

I've got a paper print of this photograph of a military unit my grandfather was in in 1918. He said that it was taken with a rail/track mounted camera that moved from one side of the formation of men to the other, and he thought the camera was set up to pull the film across the exposure area as the camera moved side to side. All faces are equal distance from the lens as it moved across. What's the camera called, anyone know?
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater

[Bob Salomon]

Could have been a cirkuit camera or a modified cirkuit camera.

The technology of moving the film while the lens moves in the opposite direction was used by the USAF for horizon to horizon panoramics from RF101 Voodoos and RF4C Phantom 2s on 5" aerial roll film while I was in RecTec in the early 60s. Could have been in use much later as well.

[IanG]

It would have been a Cirkut camera, they'd been around quite a while by 1918.

[JimCreightonKy]

Cirkut doesn't seem likely, as they appear to pivot around a central point in the mount, while this photo was taken from a camera with the entire unit moving horizontally along a metal track system. Definitely taken in 1918 in Illinois (USA).

[BarryS]

Almost certainly a Cirkut camera. The military used them extensively for military unit photos like yours. I have a collection of Cirkut photos including military ones from the the early through the mid-nineteenth century.

[IanG]

A Cirkut camera does rotate on a circlular track but if you're in the shot it doesn't look that way as you only really notice the front part move from left to right. When I was at school we had two large gro"up shots taken every year with a Cirkut.

The description " He said that it was taken with a rail/track mounted camera that moved from one side of the formation of men to the other, and he thought the camera was set up to pull the film across the exposure area as the camera moved side to side." fits a Cirkut perfectly.

Ian

[Steven Tribe]

A cirkut camera on a bad day!
Results are usually much better than this.
In my old school (State Grammar in London "Floreat Florebit") there was a lot of wall space to these shots from the 20's and 30's which gave good images of every single boy and teacher in the School that year.

[JimCreightonKy]

Thanks, guys. Sounds like you know more than I do about this (which is minimal!). Appreciate it.

[BarryS]

That's really cool that your grandfather remembered the occasion of the photograph and related it to you. I wonder about the people in my Cirkut photos and what their lives were like.

[Brian C. Miller]

I've got a paper print of this photograph of a military unit my grandfather was in in 1918. He said that it was taken with a rail/track mounted camera that moved from one side of the formation of men to the other, and he thought the camera was set up to pull the film across the exposure area as the camera moved side to side. All faces are equal distance from the lens as it moved across. What's the camera called, anyone know?

The type of camera is called a "slit" camera. These are still in use today, mainly for sporting events. The photograph you posted shows some "bow" to the building in the background, which is typical of a camera which rotates the lens around in a panning motion. However, it is not as bowed as I've typically seen, so I'm inclined to agree that a modified Cirkut camera on a track was used. The men were positioned in a semi-circle around the camera, and in this case it was probably laid out more like an oval.