Monday, December 14, 2020

"Hand-Held" WWII Aerial Camera

Check out this Fairchild K-17 aerial camera from the 1940s:



It's a "hand-held" camera, but it weighs 75 lbs!

It shot 9x9 inch negatives on a 9.5 inch wide roll of film:



Here's a bit from a website about "combat mapping" that mentions how you'd use the K-17:

While these cameras were normally clamped into mounts, a pair of handles and a viewfinder could be fitted to K-17s and K-18s for hand-held operation. What “hand-held” meant is subject to interpretation, as these cameras were not lightweights. With a 200 foot roll of film, the A-5 film magazine used with the K-17 weighed 30 pounds. A complete K-17 with 12″ lens cone and a full magazine weighed about 55 pounds. With a 24″ lens instead of the 12″, the weight climbed to near 75 pounds.

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