[Konvas] What the heck is an Antomax?

[Rick Garbutt]

> 
> --- On Thu, 8/21/08, Adam Frey <thefirstrule at chainsawlinux.com> wrote:
> 
>> From: Adam Frey <thefirstrule at chainsawlinux.com>
>> Subject: [Konvas] What the heck is an Antomax?
>> Check out this ebay listing:
>> 190245894900
>> 
>> I've never heard of an Antomax before. If it works, the
>> price seems right...
> 
> It's a typo for Automax.   It's an instrumentation camera built around a B&H
> Eyemo movement.  I think it uses a boresite finder.
> 
> ---LV 
> 

Hey, Leo!

ummm...no - maybe not exactly.

You're right about the typo, but the camera is not built around an Eyemo
movement.  I should know, on account of I have 10 of them.  (Based on a
couple of Eyemo bodies I have, there MAY be an Eyemo-based version, but none
of those bodies have an Automax ID plate on them.)

The movement (in every one of my Automax-IDd bodies) is a 4-point Geneva
cross-and-cam, driving a 16-tooth sprocket, so you can expect registration
accuracy kind of along the same lines as a theatrical projector.  Probably
rather better, as the camera will obviously run a LOT less film than the
projector.

Very 1960s technology running the thing - a 1600-or-so RPM motor is clutched
in to expose each frame.  It's all relays and microswitches, and you can do
a LOT better switching them out for a stepping or servo motor and a couple
of circuit boards.

One cool (if eccentric)feature is that every "real" Automax body I have has
the sprocket keepers and sprockets anodized the most beautiful blue; the
locks for the keepers are anodized cherry red.  Kind of makes it easy to
figure out threading.

No viewfinder - you're right about boresight; the camera comes with a bit of
frosted film stock you slip into the gate as a low-tech groundglass.  Pop
out the pressure pad, and there's a 45º front surface mirror that allows you
to squint at the gate.  Interestingly, all the shutters that came with mine
are 90º or less.  And one of the cameras I got came with a few tools,
including the widget showing the shutter dwell, so you can properly line
things up between shutter and intermittent.

Just before the film leaves the camera body, it runs over a (blue-anodized)
8-tooth sprocket with a TRIANGULAR cam on its shaft, this clicks a
microswitch 3x in 8 perfs.  Otherwise, it's completely passive, so I'm
assuming it ran a counter of some sort.

Takes one of them off-center Mitchell mags:  the mag sits vertically at the
back of the camera, and what would be the rear magazine wall in the normal
configuration is flush with the mounting plane of the camera body.  200'
capacity.

I have some JPEGs on my laptop which no longer wants to communicate with the
net (socket crapped out, and more expensive to replace than the computer is
worth) so trying to get things over to my new iMAC.  But I do have some
photos...

And I really do have more of these than I need, so interested in selling one
or two bodies (which, BTW, are fairly straightforward to swap out the
Eyemo-style lens mount to something like Nikon or Canon.)  If anyone's
interested, please contact me off-list.

Just back from my 2nd Burning Man; bailed early the afternoon of the burn,
as they isued a severe weather warning, and sho' 'nuff, a 6-hour whiteout
dust storm did materialize.  Less fun enduring one of them than you might
think.

Massive vehicle troubles on the way home, so tired amid after-trip chaos.

Hope all is well on Planet Leo, and that you're fit and flourishing.

Very best,
Rick