8mm Forum: The UniveX Cine 8

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Posted by Maurice Leakey (Member # 916) on August 27, 2008, 06:07 AM:

I am currently reading the life story of Russ Meyer called "Big Bosoms and Square Jaws" by Jimmy McDonough.

When he was fourteen in 1936 Russell Albion Meyer, Russ Meyer to all film fans, was given a cine-camera which led him into the cine bug for life.

" "$9.95 Movie Camera Makes Memories Live Forever," shouted the ad for the UniveX Cine 8. It was a tiny no-frills unit with a crude viewfinder and f.5.6 Ilex lens made in 1936 by the New York based Universal Camera Corporation, a company run by a banker and insurance man that was regarded with disdain by 'real' photographic equipment companies such as Kodak. But the UniveX took the relatively new 8mm format and made it affordable for the poor and unwashed. Thirty feet of orthochromatic black and white film cost only 60 cents a roll and a buck to process."

At age 19 Russ was inducted into the Signal Corps Reserve as a trainee combat photographer, and never looked back.

Has any Forum member got (or heard of) this UniveX camera?

Posted by David Michael Leugers (Member # 166) on August 27, 2008, 10:27 PM:

Yes, I had one for years before selling it. The smallest movie camera I have ever seen. It used single R-8mm film (a long lost short lived format) and was a very, very basic camera. It looked very cool and very art deco. It was well made and 70 years after mine was made, it still ran like a top.

Posted by James E. Stubbs (Member # 817) on August 29, 2008, 12:26 AM:

Yep, I've seenum! Pretty cool actually. They take two solid metal reels to hold 30' of single 8mm (Not fuji single 8) film. The film is still available from a few sources and you can easily make your own w/ DR8 and a film slitter. The biggest problem is finding the reels. Either on this forum or filmshooting there were several posts about the U8. They're somewhate rare but there are people out there using them.
Cheers,

Posted by Wade Rupp (Member # 1264) on September 01, 2008, 06:18 PM:

I tested my father's A8 last month using Svema 1X8 which John Schwind sent to me free of charge since he was doubtfull it was any good. It wasn't. It wasn't completly clear due to age, even though Mr. Schwind kept it on ice, but the images were faint, ghost-like. About 80% of the footage was framed adequately, the rest I aimed too high. I will have to get used to the crude popup viewfinder it has on top if I were to keep using it. The last few feet were extremely jittery, (possibly 'cause I let it wind down too long) the other footage looked fine in that regard. The lens only opens to f5.6 so the ASA 50 film could only be used outdoors. Supposedly Univex made lenses for these as fast as f1.8 or so. I've yet to see any such lens anywhere. The camera runs at about 16fps. One wind will last almost 1 minute, but the instructions say to go no more than 30 seconds, (possibly causing the aforementioned jitter on one shot.) The camera apparently has no governor, and will wind down slower and slower after about 30 seconds. The film has to be loaded on the Univex proprietary spool, (emulsion in, sprokets up), and the film from Mr. Schwind was on tiny cores, and was a real pain to load and get it right. I ended up getting some lint on the film, but I found I can just remove the interchageable lens while shooting and take a pair of tweezers removing the lint or hair right off the film at the gate. Amazing! I did try taking some sound footage--wild synch-, but the images were too faint to really see the results. I expect some difficulty synching, except that the shots are all 30 seconds or less. Because the camera is so simple and small it is fun to use. It's heavy for its size, being all metal--it's some zinc, stainless, aluminmum and brass alloy. I will try one more time probably with slit regular 8 either from Schwind, or from my local lab who said they'd be glad to do it.

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