Dirty World News

I've spent the past half hour playing around with an old 16mm Bolex camera that my brother Tom gave to me last year as a gift and, thanks to the enormously resourceful Bolex Collector website, I've tracked down the serial number (#58725) and identified the model as a 1950 model H-16 Deluxe.

Actually, that should be "I think I've identified the model." According to vintage camera buff Michael Tisdale, it's incredibly difficult to differentiate between the H-16 Leader, Standard and Deluxe models:

These terms were only used to differentiate between models that included different styles of viewfinder accessories. These viewfinders could be purchased or installed later; a fact which, today, makes it nearly impossible to identify early H cameras as Leader, Standard or Deluxe.

Though I used a Bolex in one of my college film classes about a dozen years ago, I haven't actually shot anything with this one. As much fun as that might be, it's just too damn expensive to shoot 16mm these days. But I do enjoy playing around with it, if only as a reminder to dig out the rest of my vintage film cameras and identify them as well.