Kemco Homovie

[cameratech]

There have been some weird and wonderful formats over the years in the history of film, but the one devised by the Kodel Company of Cincinnati in the late 20's has to be one of the oddest. Contrary to perceived wisdom, Kodak weren't the first to come up with the 8mm format. That distinction goes to Kodel with their Kemco Homovie camera and projector system. It used 16mm film, but using a complicated pulldown (and across) mechanism, exposed 4 separate frames between each perf - 2 left to right, drop down, then 2 right to left - in a crazy zig-zag pattern.

I found a short video of the camera in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jipHrams4do

Pretty cool!

[grainy]

The box looks just like my stinky (literally) old cine kodak until you get the motor running.
Love the gate/shutter action!
beautiful, thanks for posting!
G

[BAC]

Very cool, that's why I love Regular 8mm, the clockwork mechanisms. I can see why it didn't catch on though, the chance of mechanical problems are multiplied with the side to side motion. I assume the projector would have to run at the same side to side motion.