Secam Visophot / Stylophot | Subminiature camera

You are bidding on a vintage Stylophot Subminiature Camera with its rare viewer. What a wonderful little collector's camera. In very good condition. Nice collectible camera.


Description

France 1955 – Spy Camera – 16 mm – Infrequent. The Stylophot is a pocket-sized mini camera that produces 10x10mm images on 16mm film.
It was produced in France in 1955 and presented as a 'pen' camera, due to its resemblance to a fountain pen with the pen clip attached to the side. 'Stylo' being the French for pen.

The Stylophot uses its own cartridge system where the film is transported from one cartridge to another without ever rewinding. Film is advanced and the shutter cocked by pulling the silver tab on top of the camera. The same tab will lock the shutter when the camera is not in use.

The pin on the side allows the camera to be held in an internal vest pocket, enabling discreet photography by opening the jacket.
Contrary to other small-sized cameras that were more novelties than actual cameras, the Stylophot was actually used by private eyes in the 1950s.

History

The Stylophot was introduced in 1955 and is a subminiature camera that produces 18 images of 10x10mm on 16mm film. This plastic camera measures 4.5 inches tall by 1.25 inches wide, including the pocket clip, by 1.75 inches deep, including the lens hood. It is 1.5 inches deep without the lens hood. The mechanics of the camera appear very well made. There are many different variations of the Stylophot cameras, but all resemble a bulbous fountain pen, and all seem to work the same way. There is even a German version distributed by Kunis called Foto-Füller and a Lexus version with a snakeskin cover.

The camera has a fixed focus 27mm, f6.3 coated lens. The 'standard version' has two aperture settings for Noir (black & white) F11 setting, or Color, which was F6.3. The aperture settings are under the lens itself. Looking through the viewfinder, if the color is orange, it means the camera is NOT ready to shoot. Pulling up on the saw-toothed silver guide on the sides of the viewfinder cocks the shutter and removes the 'orange' color from the viewfinder, so you know it's OK to take your photograph. The shutter release is a silver trigger on the right side of the camera below the lens. The shutter speed is 1/50. Sliding the back down advances the film and restores the orange warning in the viewfinder. The frame counter is on the front of the camera, just below the viewfinder window.

There is a sliding lever on the back to load the film. Sliding the lever up releases the cover and exposes the area where the film is loaded. The film travels from the top to the bottom cassette, as shown in the photos. The pocket clip is also attached to the back. Another peculiarity is the film cassettes; there is old tape on the outside, and I assume you remove the tape to open the cassettes and load them from one to the other. I haven't removed the tape because it's old and brittle, but I should buy some film to try it someday. There is a small threaded socket, so I imagine you could mount this on a tripod or stand if needed.

Camera Designer
The designer of the Stylophot and many other cameras was Fritz Kaftanski. He has a pretty fascinating story. It's a story that involves many camera designs and the countries he lived in. He was born in 1899 in Essen, Germany. His parents were Giulio and Julie Kaftanski, of Jewish origin. During WWI, he worked for Deutsches Heer, analyzing the photos of aerial reconnaissance in Berlin. In February 1927, he married Sybille Essen, and in November of the same year, he started Fotofex Kameras with financial help from his father-in-law. In 1934, Fritz began SIDA GmbH in Berlin.
In 1939, he escaped Germany and moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where he founded the SIDA-FEX camera company. In 1945, he relocated to France, where he was involved with FEX-INDO in Lyon in 1938, Kafka in Paris in 1945, and SECAM in 1955, during which he designed and manufactured the Stylophot camera.