8mm cameras

Although 8mm cameras were aimed at the amateur market, they were sometimes used by ethnographers for simple documentation purposes. Among those to do so were Dina and Claude Lévi-Strauss who took a camera that Claude describes as an “oval-shaped miniature 8mm camera” on their 1935-36 expedition to the interior of Brazil.

This description would fit the Bell & Howell Filmo 127-A, the so-called ‘Straight Eight’ (see below), which was launched in 1935, i.e. the same year in which the Lévi-Strausses set out on their journey.

Bell & Howell Straight Eight, launched in 1935. Image: Holger Ellgard (2007)
© 2018 Paul Henley