The first amateur movie-or cine-camera was patented in 1898, but it wasn't until 1923 that mainstream manufacturers began making cameras specifically for the amateur market. During their history, thoughtfully and thoroughly detailed in this authoritative text, a huge range of amateur cine cameras was made. The four major amateur movie film gauges are covered at length: 16mm, 9.5mm, Standard-8, and Super-8, along with some of their less successful rivals. Unique in a book on this subject is a major chapter on movie camera accessories, many of which found strange and complicated ways of bringing professional specifications to amateur equipment. The book is illustrated throughout with landmark cameras-those that epitomized certain eras, plus many other unusual and rarely illustrated models. A glossary of technical terms and an index complete the book.

The Daguerreotype Camera of 1839 is a photographic landmark. It introduced the first practical method for taking a photograph, although what is generally acknowledged as the first photograph was actually taken thirteen years before with a different type of camera by Nicephore Niepce. The Leica was the first camera to make the 35mm format popular, but it was by no means the first camera to use 35mm film. Likewise, Polaroid wasn't the first to produce an instant picture camera, but was, surprisingly, the first company to introduce an autofocus single lens reflex. The history of the camera is flush with similar anomalies. This lavishly illustrated book with over 460 pictures looks at the cameras that became landmarks and analyzes how and why they influenced future design - sometimes in a big, important manner, other times in a lesser but still significant way.

In November 1943, four years into World War II, Corporal Sid Wade, a conscripted and reluctant soldier in the British Army, was uprooted from a cold English winter and transported to the tropical coast of West Africa. Sid Wade was the author's father and, nearly 70 years after his two-year stint in Sierra Leone, he discovered the scrapbooks and diaries he had compiled during his time there. These were filled and overflowing with letters to and from home, his army paybook, post cards, snapshots, drawings, paintings, newspaper clippings, maps, government pamphlets, amateur dramatics and music concert programmes, poetry written by army buddies and newsletters written by the soldiers. These scrapbooks and diaries told more than his father had ever spoken about - they told a story that had little to do with the big picture of the war, but rather the smaller picture of day-to-day life for young soldiers suddenly transplanted into an alien and often frightening environment. Battling a harsh climate and tropical diseases as they trained members of the Royal West African Frontier Force, the soldiers found time to write and produce newsletters, paint and draw pictures, write poetry, put on music concerts and even organise amateur dramatics productions, all in a region that was something of a forgotten front, and known to all as 'The White Man's Grave'. Thanks to these scrapbooks and the associated ephemera, plus the author's own research, at least some part of Corporal Wade's African experiences, and that of his fellow soldiers, has been uncovered, shedding light on a less well-known aspect of WWII.

The 1950s was the decade of the Queen's Coronation and the Festival of Britain; of family shops and pea-souper smogs; listening to the wireless and watching the box; when money was counted in pounds, shillings and pence and weights were in pounds and ounces. It was when children walked to school and six of the best' was a painful experience; postmen wore uniforms with peaked hats and chimney sweeps rode bikes with their brushes and poles balanced on their shoulders; milk and bread were delivered to your doorstep every morning and orange juice was free for schoolchildren; and when most people still preferred smooth shiny toilet paper to the new absorbent type. The Second World War left Britain in a period of austerity. Yet, born of the relief of the war ending in 1945, there was a spirit of hope for the future and new beginnings, from which grew a climate that was a comforting mix of the traditional past blended with exciting glimpses of an exhilarating future. John Wade records briefly some of the great achievements and events of the 1950s, but concentrates more on what it was like for ordinary British people living their lives during a far from ordinary decade.

An accessible, design-led guide to the coolest, most collectible vintage film cameras combined with a practical reference to discovering the authentic buzz of shooting with film. Retro Cameras is a stylish, design-led guide to classic and retro cameras aimed at those who want to discover the world of analogue photography. It includes more than 100 camera models, from the easily affordable to the highly collectible, in 13 formats: 35 mm SLRs; 35 mm Rangefinders; 35 mm Viewfinder Cameras; Roll Film SLRs; Sheet and Roll Film Folding Cameras; Twin Lens Reflexes; Instamatics; Stereo Cameras; Panoramic and Wide-angle Cameras; Miniature Cameras and Instant Cameras. Supplementing an already comprehensive resource are quick reference shooting guides for each format, as well as a section on retro camera accessories. With over 400 specially commissioned photographs, practical advice on how to use and get the most out of each camera, buyers' tips and a dedicated glossary, Retro Cameras is a perfect reference for young photographers who want to get creative with analogue photography, while also offering authoritative guidance for more experienced collectors and enthusiasts.

Books about war and the pictures that came out of conflict usually concentrate on the picture content. But behind every picture there is a camera - and that's what this book is about. Profusely illustrated throughout with pictures of the cameras, rather than the pictures they took, it looks at 100 years of conflict from the Crimean War to the Korean War. It begins in the days when a photographer needed to be more of a scientist than an artist, such were the difficulties of shooting and processing any photograph. It ends with the cameras whose compact dimensions, versatility and ease of use meant that photographers could largely forget the science and concentrate on the art. Some cameras simply recorded events. Others defined and changed the way those events proceeded. These were the cameras that went to war, and this is their story.

Over 500 crisp color photos display the wide range of cameras produced from the earliest days of photography to the rise of the digital age. The informative text provides a history of cameras, organized into chapters by various camera types, including snapshot, folding, rangefinder, single lens reflex, twin lens reflex, stereo, panoramic, miniature, and spy cameras. Cameras within each chapter are arranged chronologically to show the development of the camera type. Every camera presented has earned its place by meeting one or more of these criteria: it is a major landmark; epitomizes a certain era; is rare or a prototype; contains something different or unusual in the design; and/or is especially weird or strange. Rounding out this engrossing guide are a glossary of technical terms and an index. This book will be enjoyed by camera collectors, photo historians, and all who have ever captured life on film or in pixels.

Over the years many weird and wonderful types of transport have come and gone, some of which succeeded against all odds, others that spectacularly failed, and some that never got beyond a designer's drawing board. Railway engines driven by horses, for example. Or maybe the surprising number of cars, boats and trains driven by aeroplane propellers. In this book you will find cars that flew, cars that floated on water and boats that ran on roads; steam-powered aeroplanes, electric submarines, railways driven by pneumatic air, aircraft with flapping wings and a whole lot more. If you are a person who would like to have flown in an airship, or travelled in a train whose carriage sat on stilts above the sea with its tracks below the water, or dreamed of riding on a London to New York railway that took twelve days to travel the long way around the world, or maybe just fancied fixing your bicycle to a railway track, then this book is for you.