People who have visited the Garden Expo all know that the North Hall of Changjiang Civilization Museum located at the bank of Chu River is an amazing place. It has 26 exhibition rooms and covers an area of 2,8000㎡. There exits uncountable “treasures” such as western furniture, imperial edicts, ancient coins, ancient jades, ornamental stone, snuff bottle, etc. all of which are old objects of years and rare to be seen.
However, the most interesting place is exhibition room of old cameras.
With camera, it has a history of more than 170 years since the French Lewis Daguerre invented photography in 1839. The exhibition room of old cameras which located on the second floor of North Hall of Changjiang Civilization Museum has collected cameras of 150 years. If you are a camera enthusiast or interested in the stories behind micro spy cameras, gun type cameras and telescope cameras, it will give you a lot surprise.
Looking back at history, the development of camera has experienced four stages of old box camera, portable camera, film camera and digital camera. The old cameras exhibition room mainly displays 7 series of cameras: the world early ancestor of projector, the world early rare gun type and telescope camera, the world early micro spy camera, camera made in China, German Leica camera, Hasselblad camera and treasures of old cameras from all over the world.
——Camera looked like a ‘pistol’——
You would never expect that previous cameras were designed into a shape of a pistol or a rifle. For example, the very eye-catching Leica rifle camera is not only looking like a rifle, the operation of which is also the same as a rifle. That is to say, the process of photograph is like shooting, pushing the trigger is the same as pushing the shutter only without any lethality. When you shot, you take a picture. There will be 100% return rates if you photograph everywhere with a gun. Isn’t it interesting?
However, though the gun type camera has no lethality, it will become a kind of terrifying assassination weapon to one whose mind is upon it for evil use. And there was a reporter shooting people with a modified “camera type pistol” in the western history.
During the First World War, a kind of Hayes Mk III gun type camera of the same weight as Lewis was used to train pilots.?
——Spy camera-a curiosity——
The most eye-catching camera in all these old cameras is old spy camera. People who often watch spy movies and TV drama must be familiar with this scene: a spy holding a small camera shrunk many times is secretly filming of confidential documents.
Spy camera in Hidden
With spy camera, we must mention Lumiere ELJY mini camera in 1930s. It is absolutely a high-end spy camera to spies. The lens is usually housed in the fuselage, out when use, and the viewfinder is mounted on the top of camera.
There is also Minox spy camera. As a famous mini camera in the world, almost every detector would have one in the period of 1940s to 1960s. This camera is very small and easy to take and hide. Many countries in the world like America even sold it fixed direction to secret institutions of governments and armies.
Tica Expo pocket watch spy camera is also not bad. This kind of spy cameras designed into the shape of common watch is very light and with a reflector can be knotted on the top of watch. It is portable and easy to disguise which was popular at the end of 18th century and early 18th century.
And we also have spy cameras designed into the size of cigarette box, like the pocket watch spy cameras, they are famous for exquisite, lightweight and easy to disguise. Image that you only need to take out a cigarette box and can take pictures of important information unnoticed. Isn’t it so cool?
——The old wooden box camera——
In the old camera exhibition room, you can discover a strong nostalgic smell. This camera looked very heavy is old portable wooden box camera. Its body made of wood and steel is full of “classic style”.
Its appearance owed to daguerreotype process invented by French painter Daguerre in 1839. The first portable wooden camera appeared with the use of this kind of technology. When you see it, would you remember the scene in the old movies of white smoke when taking a picture??
——The legend of Leica camera——
Germany has been ranked in the world with the throne of the kingdom of the camera in the period of 1920s to 1950s. Leica camera was famous for heavy materials of its body, reasonable structure, sophisticated processing and reliable quality. At that time, most people could not afford the luxury and it is also valuable for collection and is “Rolls Royce in the kingdom of cameras”.
The prototype of the first Leica camera was made in Ernst Leitz optical factory in Wetzlar in1913. As a portable camera for landscape photography, it was the earliest camera in the world used standard 35mm film.
Leica M6 camera is the pinnacle of mechanical manufacturing. Few electronic components are only responsible for photometry. “The unnecessary of battery” makes Leica M6 continue to maintain effectiveness and perfectly work no matter at minus 25 degrees centigrade or 60 degrees above zero.
——The brilliant of “Seagull” in old time ——
The real eye-popper is the past memory around us. “Seagull” ”Phoenix” series made in China are displayed in the exhibition cabinet and the sensational aura is still in.
There deposits the history of “Seagull”. Its birth name was Shanghai Camera but changed into “Seagull” officially on the New Year’s Day of 1968 because government provided that place names could not used as trademarks. From the first prototype camera to the last one of DF-5000 type in1999, the camera production in new China was on track to industrialization and the fame of “Seagull” camera was growing larger. In the last century, if you owned a “Seagull” camera, you would be really fashion.
The fame of “Phoenix” is not less that “Seagull”. The most classical one is Phoenix camera of 205 type. It took the crown four times in the national camera testing evaluation and was once the most sought after domestic camera.
?Notes:
All exhibits in the exhibition room are supplied by Fan’s Family Camera Museum of China, Wuhan. The reservoir is a businessman from Hubei who has a collection of old cameras of China and foreign countries more than 1000.
“History story” in old cameras——
The history of camera is a microcosm of our life to a certain degree and carved out of the context of social development. When you watch these strange, cool, handsome, or exquisite old cameras, will you remember those memories in the distant past? Remember the yellowed old photos in grandma’s drawer? Do you have an old camera? And those photos taken by it carry what kind of stories?
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