That's not a camera, is it?

[Bob Wright]

Of all the oddities in the realm of firearms, none seem more bizarre to me than the cameras from around the turn of the century designed to resemble guns.

I remember an article in a camera magazine years showing a camera designed to look somewhat like a Browning HiPower pistol. There were others looking like an oversized revovler and one looked like a shotgun.

I cannot imagine anything's appearance being more threatening than a gun.

http://www.oobject.com/14-cameras-that-look-just-like-guns/revolver-de-poche/2492/

Anybody else seen these?

Bob Wright

 

[James K]

No, but I can just imagine what would happen to "freedom of the press" if some news photog turned up at the White House with one of those!

Jim

 

[Avenger]

Can't say that I've seen a camera shaped like a gun, but I have seen cameras mounted on stocks like a rifle. For LONG range pictures without a tripod, usually birders have them. It was a bit startling, my first thought was "Good Lord, what's the bore on THAT thing?!?!"

 

[Willie Sutton]

Reminds me of a certain cold-war object de' art I saw in the former East Germany in a museum:

Praktina FX camera, which was an East German single lens reflex that also had a built in straight-path optical finder. The camera was unmodified. Google Praktina and you'll see what I mean. These were very common professional photographers cameras in Eastern Europe, the best of the East's 35mm cameras.

The "telephoto lens" however was a single shot barrel, with an internal suppressor, triggered by the same camera mechanism that usually stopped down the diaphram at the instant of triggering the shutter. There was a simple smoked fiilter over the end of it, which shattered (obviously) when the device was fired.

The shooter used the optical viewfinder of the Praktina to sight the thing for an assassination shot. The barrel was specially loaded, I am not certain that it even used a standard cartridge of any type.

Interesting...

Willie


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