Comet III : International Camera Museum : Blue Moon Camera and Machine

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Comet III

The Comet III is an elegantly designed 127 camera made by the Italian company, Bencini. It was introduced in 1956, at the Milan Fair, and enjoyed a production run lasting until 1969. The camera is relatively unique in its vertical design - exposures are 3x4cm and are oriented horizontally on the film, rather than vertically. Beyond that, the camera is pretty basic in its operation, with a single shutter speed of 1/50th, plus a Bulb mode. Some models of Comet IIIs allow adjustment of focus, while some are simply fixed focus.

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Comet III

We think there are decent odds you have never seen a Comet III before. We sure hadn't, till this one came by to pay us a visit, courtesy of Marcus Heinrich (he has a thing for cameras like this and often brings them by to share with us).⁠

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The Comet III is a curious little 127 camera produced by Bencini in Italy and introduced in 1956. The post-WWII years were an interesting time for camera manufacture in Italy, which saw a relative boom of companies designing and building cameras. In 1946, there were roughly 30 different Italian companies making cameras or other photographic products. By 1955, this number had shrunk to 15 and, by 1964, it was down to two: Bencini and Ferrania. In truth, Bencini had been around well before the outbreak of the second World War, having been founded in 1937 and producing a number of cameras, before switching over to airplane parts for the Italian war effort.

After the war, Bencini resumed camera production and made several different models of cameras in 35mm, 120, 110, 126 and 127. They were very fond of diecast aluminum, such as is used for this Comet III. This made for cameras that were extremely lightweight and still durable. The Comet III (as well as many other of Bencini's cameras) were functionally very simple, despite highly stylized designs. There isn't much at all to the camera's controls, though the camera itself looks like a complex work of art. ⁠Interestingly enough, the Comet III stood out from Bencini's earlier 127 cameras by running the film vertically instead of horizontally. This meant, that in its normal configuration, the frames are arranged in a landscape orientation instead of portrait.⁠

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The Comet III enjoyed a production run lasting until about 1969, though Bencini continued building cameras until the mid-1980s.⁠

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