Astrocam 110

[photax]

Hi !

I found this unusual camera some weeks ago: A rocket camera for 110-film from 1979. It had been partly assembled and came in the original box with a lot of accessories ( all complete ) and operating instructions. The head of the rocket includes a small 110-format camera which takes pictures through a deflecting mirror. After taking a picture the rocket will return by a parachute. Now it is ready for take off, but i think I will keep it as a collectors piece on the ground. In addition there is no 110-film available here for ten years.





I think the flight performance of this Japanese rocket is rather poor :



MIK

[Berndt]

Very interesting find !!! 110 film is available again, but I also wouldn't really trust on the flight performance of this rocket ;-)) What do you think, was the purpose of this rocket camera or how does it suppose to work ? Automatically taking pictures from the sky ?

[Stephen]

The camera was rigged to fire as soon as the rocket turned over at the top of the flight, also releasing a small parachute, needless to say they are very unreliable!! They came from the US as a toy production, and are still made to take a small digital camera. Model rockets were virtually illegal in the UK till the 1980's, only fireworks were allowed. The rockets use black powder to power them, with an oxidant, more power than plain fireworks and have thrust nozzle etc., to give better performance.
To take sky pictures frankly a kite gives far better results than rockets, but the rockets are greater fun!!!!

Stephen.

[lloydy]

The absolute randomness of the final image makes that the best photographic toy ever. I think someone should make a coke and Mentos rocket with a crappy old digi cam on it.
www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Coke-Rocket

I love that rocket Photax, it's amazing that it's survived. That's real history.

[genazzano]

Never saw one before. Great find.

[Deleted]

A good and interesting toy camera

[pompiere]

I remember seeng new ones in the store a few years ago, just before Kodak quit making 110 film. The shock from the parachute ejection charge was supposed to fire the camera. If you didn't choose the correct delay time on your engine, the camera wouldn't be pointed down towards earth when it fired. My son has a collection of model rockets, as he did a 4H project using them, but none with a camera.

[philbirch]

We had this type of thing in the 70's in the UK, the rocket was propelled by co2 as combustible fuels were not allowed by law. I often thought of putting a camera on board but there was nothing light enough, and how to trigger?

I bought a 'spy camera' from the bay and rubber banded it to the bottom of a model helicopter, it worked fine but the video was so jerky