US made cameras around 1944

[elcabezagrande]

The Ansco B2 Speedex, made in Binghampton, NY, 1940, could also be considered. It is a near-clone of the first-generation Agfa Isolette.


Ansco B2 Speedex by Greyscale3, on Flickr

 

[WriterGrl]

So @Jim Jones, if my journalist, (fictionally speaking) was able to store his 3.25x4.25 in a watertight ammunition box, what would he do in the event of a possible sinking? Run to the box to retrieve his vocational lifeline? How would the box be secured? Just wondering how he would get to it in a hurry.

I'm thinking this would make a great action scene.

 

[Mr Bill]

WriterGrl, if you want a bit of realism, just as research, you might have a look at the book Life Photographers - What They Saw. It's a collection of interviews with photographers. Two of them were in ships that were sunk. David Schermer was on the civilian ship Zamzam, sunk by a German raider, apparently after being mistaken for a troop ship. He hid his film inside the bandaged hands of a friend, and the photos were later used to help identify the raider which was subsequently sunk.

Ralph Morse, about as serious a photojournalist as there ever was, was on the Vincennes when it was sunk in battle, his exposed film locked away in the ship's safe. As he says, orders came to abandon ship, then "I left my cameras still hanging up on the bridge. What was I going to do with them in the middle of the Coral Sea? I had no plastic bags to put 'em in or anything." (It was a much more serious situation than Schermer's; if you read my reference, you'll understand why the camera gear took a back seat.)

Regarding cameras in use, there is a bit of this in an article about Robert Capa. Capa is, i believe, the only photographer to go ashore in the first wave of the D-Day invasion. His blurry (melted emulsion) photos are probably among the best-known war photos ever. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/06/photographer-robert-capa-d-day

Best of luck on your book!

 

[Jim Jones]

WriterGrl, a journalist probably was berthed in officer's country, with more space for personal equipment than us enlisted men had many years later. In the several hours between the attack and the sinking of the Princeton, the journalist would have plenty of time to prepare for leaving the ship. Aircraft carriers are floating arsenals and fuel tanks, and any fire presents a great hazard. Knowing this, the journalist probably anticipated the possibility of abandoning ship, and also could make last minute changes to his plans. In the meantime, being encumbered by a watertight case while photographing the dramatic chaos of a burning aircraft carrier would have complicated his job.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

So @Jim Jones, if my journalist, (fictionally speaking) was able to store his 3.25x4.25 in a watertight ammunition box, what would he do in the event of a possible sinking? Run to the box to retrieve his vocational lifeline? How would the box be secured? Just wondering how he would get to it in a hurry.

I'm thinking this would make a great action scene.

Margaret Bourke-White grabbed the camera(s) she thought would be most useful and IIRC took pictures in the lifeboat. I don't recall what if anything she did with any exposed film she may have had, but you can find the info in her autobiography "Portrait of Myself". Worth reading for the information concerning photojournalism in this era.

 

[cowanw]

Capa is, i believe, the only photographer to go ashore in the first wave of the D-Day invasion. His blurry (melted emulsion) photos are probably among the best-known war photos ever. http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2014/06/photographer-robert-capa-d-day

Robert Capa came ashore in the second wave with the 16th Regiment of the US 1st Infantry Division.
There are lots of photos of the first wave.
Just three members of the the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit on D-Day
Charles Roos, who was the first Allied cameraman ashore on D-Day. Roos' film of Canadian soldiers disembarking under fire on Juno Beach is among the most iconic footage of the D-Day Landings.[3]
Lieutenant Ken Bell, who landed on Juno Beach on D-Day with The Highland Light Infantry of Canada, and shot the only surviving colour footage of D-Day. ( Bell shot with a Rolleiflex)
Sergeant D.W. Grant, who on D-Day filmed approximately two minutes of motion picture footage of soldiers of The North Shore Regiment landing at Bernières-sur-Mer. The film was quickly sent to England and cleared for distribution by news outlets.
I am sure British photographers were there too

 

[Mr Bill]

Robert Capa came ashore in the second wave with the 16th Regiment of the US 1st Infantry Division.
There are lots of photos of the first wave.
Just three members of the the Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit on D-Day ...

I stand corrected on that, and my apologies to all the military photographers I've overlooked.

I sort of grew up worshipping the Life magazine photogs, and tend to see things through that filter.