Around
1930 Heinz Kilfitt, a trained watchmaker, designed a new 35 mm
film compact camera using a 24x24mm frame format (instead of the Leica
24x36mm or cine 18x24mm formats). The 24x24mm square frame provided
many advantages including allowing for over 50 exposures per standard
roll of Leica film instead of 36. Kodak and Agfa rejected the design
and it was sold to Hans Berning who set up the Otto Berning firm.
Otto Berning got its first Robot patent in 1934. This omitted the
spring motor drive as it was originally intended to come in two
versions: Robot I, without motor, and Robot II with a spring motor. Its
release was delayed and already the first camera "Robot I" included its
hallmark spring motor. The first production cameras had a spring drive
that could turn at a sensational 4 frame/s. The body of the Robot 1 is
Stainless steel. Kilfitt designed a rotary shutter with speeds from 1
to 1/500th second. The camera used proprietary "Type K" cartridges, not
the standard 35 mm cartridges--- introduced in the same year by Kodak's
Dr. August Nagel Camera-werke for the Retina --- available today. The
camera has no rangefinder. Its does not need one: it was designed for
use mostly with short focal length lenses (e.g. 40 mm).
The Robot I was quite small, the body measuring only 4.25 inches long,
2.5 inches high, and 1.25 inches deep. A razor sharp, zone focusing
f2.8, 3.25 cm Zeiss Tessar lens added only 1/2 inch to the camera
depth. It was about the size of an Olympus Stylus although it weighed
about 20 ounces, approximately the weight of a modern SLR. The die cast
zinc and stamped stainless steel body was crammed with clockwork. A
spring motor on the top plate provided the driving force for a rotary
behind the lens shutter and a sprocket film drive. The film was loaded
into cassettes in a darkroom or changing bag. The cassettes appear to
be based on the Agfa Memo cassette design, the now-standard Kodak 35 mm
cassette not yet being popular in Germany. In place of the velvet light
trap on modern cassettes, the Robot cassette used spring pressure and
felt pads to close the film passage. When the camera back was shut, the
compression opened the passage and the film could travel freely from
one cassette to another.
The rotary shutter and the film drive are like those used in cine
cameras. When the photographer's finger pressed the shutter release, a
light blocking shield lifted and the shutter disc rotated a full turn
exposing the film through its open sector. When the finger was raised,
the light blocking shield returned to its position behind the lens, the
spring motor advanced the film and recocked the shutter. The action was
almost instantaneous. With practice a photographer could take 4 or 5
pictures a second. Each winding of the spring motor was good for about
25 pictures or half a roll of film. Shutter speed was determined by
spring tension and mechanical delay since the exposure sector was
fixed. The Robot I had an exposure range of 1 to 1/500 s plus the usual
provision for time exposures.
The camera had other features not specifically related to action
photography. The small optical viewfinder could be rotated 90 degrees
to permit pictures to be taken in one direction while the photographer
was facing in another. When the viewfinder was rotated, the scene was
viewed through a deep purple filter similar to those used by
cinematographers to judge the black and white contrast of an image. The
camera had a built in deep yellow filter which could be positioned
behind the lens.
In 1938, Berning introduced the Robot II, a slightly larger camera with
some significant improvements but still using the basic mechanism.
Among the standard objectives were 3cm Zeiss Tessar and a 3 3/4cm Zeiss
Tessar in 1:2,8 and 1:3,5 variations, a 1:2,0/40 mm Zeiss Biotar and
1:4/7,5cm Zeiss Sonnar. The film cassette system was redesigned but it
was only with the IIa launched in 1951 that film could accept a
standard 35 mm cassette. The special Robot cassettes type-N continued
their role for take up. A small bakelite box was sold to allow people
to rewind colour film into the original cassettes as demanded by the
film processing companies. The camera was synchronized for flash. The
swinging viewfinder was retained but now operated by a lever rather
than moving the entire housing. Both the deep purple filter and the
yellow filter were eliminated in the redesign. Some versions were
available with a double wind motor which could expose 50 frames. WWII
stopped civilian production of the Robot but it was used as a gun
camera by the Luftwaffe.
In the 1950s Robot introducted the Robot Star. Film could be now be
rewound back into the feed cassette in the camera just like mainstream
35 mm cameras.
Robot then introduced the "Junior", an economy model with the quality
and almost all the features of the "Star" but without the angle finder
and without the rewind mechanism.
In the late 50s, the company, now called Robot-Berning, redesigned the
Robot Star and created the Vollautomat Star II. The length stayed the
same but the height increased by half an inch. The new higher top
housing disposed of the right angle finder and instead included an
Albada finder with frames for the factory fitted 38/40mm and 75mm
lenses. The drive and shutter too were improved. By 1960 the hallmark
stamped steel body was replaced by heavier die castings. The camera
became with slight changes the Robot Star 25 and Star 50. The Robot
Star 25 could expose 25 frames on a single winding, the double motor
Robot Star 50 could, naturally, expose 50 frames. Since most cameras by
then were sold for industrial use where the camera was fixed in
position Robot also introduced versions without a finder-- and even
without rewind. Although most production dates from the 50-60s era,
essentially the same camera continued to be manufactured into the late
1990s.
During the Cold War, Robots had a large following in the espionage
business. The small camera could be concealed in a briefcase or a
handbag, the lens poking though a decorative hole. The camera could be
activated repeatedly by a cable release concealed in the handle. The
company was well aware of this market and produced a variety of
accessories which made the camera even more suitable for covert image
making.
Robot-Berning also produced enlarged versions of the Robot, the Robot
Royal 18, 24 and 36, with an incorporated rangefinder and with an
autoburst mode of operation capable of shooting 6 frames per second.
The camera was about the size of a Leica M3 and weighed almost 2
pounds. It was equipped with a Schneider Xenar 45 mm f2.8 lens. The
Robot Royal 36 took a standard size 35 mm picture but was identical to
the Royal 24 in all other regards. They retained the behind-the-lens
rotary shutter with speeds from 1/2 to 1/500 s.
A version for instrumentation (and traffic) was also created on the
basis of the Royal design: the Recorder. These cameras were like the
Royal but without viewfinder or rangefinder. They, however, included
interfaces to motors and had detachable backs to support bulk film
cassettes. A special parallel series of the Royal too was available
that included these features. While the Royal had only limited market
success the Recorder was well accepted. It became centerpiece of their
portable document capture, traffic control and security solutions. It
continues today to be the standard Robot camera for instrumentation
applications.
While all agree that the Robots were superb at sequence photography,
the shutter that made this possible placed some contraints upon taking
objectives and shutter speed. To reach speeds as high as 1/500 second,
the inertia of the thin steel shutter disc had to be kept at a minimum.
This meant a small-diameter disc with a minimal sector opening. The
screw in lens mount was 26 mm diameter. The clear lens opening was only
20 mm. In contrast, Leica's mount at 39 mm was almost twice as large.
Further, to permit lens interchangeability, the shutter was mounted
behind the lens so the disc interrupted the expanding light cone. This
placed some limits on lens design. While the 75 mm Sonnar could be used
with the aperture set to f/22, the Tele-Xenar would show some shutter
disc vignetting unless opened more. The maximum focal length lens for
general photographic use that could be fitted with acceptable
vignetting was 75 mm although telephotos such up to 600 mm were
offered. A 150 mm Tele-Xenar were offered supplied for long distance
action photography, however they produced a circular image on the 24 x
24 mm frame. The lack of a rangefinder on the Robot and Robot Star
required zone focusing of these long lenses. Every shot had to be
estimated or premeasured. All of the mechanical movement made for a
noisy camera, although not as noisy as some modern motor drives. For an
extra fee, Robot-Berning supplied silenced versions with nylon gears
for discrete use.
Within its limits the Robots did an excellent job of sequence
photography. The standard 38 mm f2.8 Xenar lenses were extremely sharp,
even by today's standards, and zone focusing worked well on rapid
action with short focal length lenses. The reliable motor drive was as
fast, if not faster, than current electrical drives and there were no
batteries to run down. Flash could be used at any speed. The square
frame was big enough, given modern films, for 8 x 10 or greater
enlargements and 50 pictures could be taken on a standard 36 exposure
roll. The cameras, especially the later ones built to industrial
standards, will take much abuse and still keep functioning. They show
what precision mechanical equipment is all about.
From Wikipedia
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