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Old 02-03-2015, 08:01 AM
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K'Tesh K'Tesh is offline
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Default Estes Cineroc, one of the most elegant model rocket products ever

Just picked up a classic read, and wanted to pass on the following... It was found in G. Harry Stines' book Handbook of Model Rocketry 4th Edition... I love what it says about the Cineroc.

Quote:
Optical payloads
__________________________________________________ ________________________
One of the most interesting model rocket payloads is a camera, and many model rocketeers have worked very hard to build and fly camera models. The first camera model on record was built and flown by Lewis Dewart, of Sunbury, Pennsylvania, in 1961. A small Japanese camera was simply strapped to the side of a model rocket. When the ejection charge popped the nose, it pulled a string that released the shutter and permitted the camera to take a photo of the ground below-or the sky and clouds, depending on the direction the model was pointed.

Vernon D. Estes and Estes Industries, Inc., brought out the first commercial model rocket camera, the Cameroc, in 1965. The Cameroc allowed all model rocketeers to become in-flight photographers. The Cameroc lens points straight up through the tip of the nose. Therefore the model must be over peak altitude and pointed down when the ejection charge goes off, ejecting the nose-camera and tripping the shutter. The Cameroc takes one black-and-white photograph per flight, hopefully while the nose is pointed toward the ground from a respectable altitude. The negative is a circle 1.5 inches in diameter. It is Tri-X film, which you can develop in your own darkroom (or even on the flying field) if you are a camera buff. If you are not, you can send the film to Estes for development. Don’t take it to your local film processor because they do not have the facilities for developing circular negatives and because the ASA film speed of the Tri-X film must be pushed to ASA 1200 by special processing techniques. Standard processing won’t work.

It also occurred to a number of model rocketeers that a motion picture camera in a model rocket would produce a spectacular piece of footage as the ground fell away and the model climbed to high altitudes. The first in this area was the movie camera rocket built and flown by Paul Hans and Don Scott, of Port Washington, New York, in 1962. This was a big model powered by a Type F motor because the smallest motion picture camera available at that time was the Bolsey B-8, a spring-wound 8-mm camera. It was heavy. Following months of preparation, including flights of preliminary designs carrying dummy cameras, Hans and Scott committed their Bolsey B-8 to flight. The lens looked out through a hole in the side of the nose section; the nose and body sections were recovered on separate brightly colored silk parachutes.

On the first flight everything worked perfectly. The model flew beautifully. Scott had to climb a tree to get the camera back. The color film was sent to the processing lab-and promptly disappeared! It was lost. The company replaced the film, but could not replace the flight footage. Undaunted, Hans and Scott tried again at the Fourth National Model Rocket Championships at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. This time the two modelers took the film to a different processing lab with very explicit instructions.

That first in-flight piece of color motion picture was indeed spectacular. The boys sold it to Time-Life, Inc., who never used it but left it to languish in their voluminous files.

Vernon D Estes and Estes Industries came to the rescue of the model rocketeer again. They hired Mike Dorffler, a young model rocketeer who had developed a very small and very lightweight model rocket movie camera. Dorffler’s camera was refined and developed into the Estes Cineroc, one of the most elegant model rocket products ever to be put on the market. Fully Loaded with its own cassette of Super-8 color film, the Cineroc weights a mere 2 ounces (56.7 grams). It is battery driven, has a 10-mm focal-length lens shoots 31 frames per second at f:11 with a shutter speed of 1/500 to stop and rocket motion, and is 9.9 inches long and 1.75 inches in diameter. This tiny movie camera has taken some outstanding in-flight movies. It probably has thousands of other uses where a small, very lightweight movie camera is required.

If you want to fly cameras, I highly recommend the Estes Cineroc and Cameroc. They work, they are reasonably priced and they can give you some spectacular results. Of all the model rocket payloads these two cameras are perhaps the most fun to experiment with.


Mr Stine and I apparently share a common vision (too bad the Cameroc and the Cineroc aren't still "reasonably priced" anymore).

BTW, there are two photos showing the Cineroc that I've spotted so far in the book. One held by Frederick C. Durant III, while Astronaut Michael Collins is inspecting a Cameroc, and another that clearly shows just the Cineroc with Omega rocket and the Cineroc/Omega decal that apparently never shipped out.

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Jim
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Old 02-03-2015, 01:22 PM
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pterodactyl pterodactyl is offline
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Thanks for posting this passage from the Handbook, its a great reminder as to how big a game-changer the Camroc and Cineroc were to the hobby in their time.
Both the Camroc and Cineroc pictured with Michael Collins are expected to be transferred from NASM (where they have been hidden in storage for about 45 years) to the Museum of Flight where they will go into the "Inspiring Rockets" exhibit that will be dedicated during NARCON.
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Old 02-03-2015, 02:36 PM
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All these years later and the Cineroc is still "one of the most elegant model rocket products ever to be put on the market."

If you haven't held one and examined how it works, I don't think you can really understand how amazing it is.

-- Roger
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Old 02-03-2015, 06:51 PM
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Earl Earl is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pterodactyl
Thanks for posting this passage from the Handbook, its a great reminder as to how big a game-changer the Camroc and Cineroc were to the hobby in their time.
Both the Camroc and Cineroc pictured with Michael Collins are expected to be transferred from NASM (where they have been hidden in storage for about 45 years) to the Museum of Flight where they will go into the "Inspiring Rockets" exhibit that will be dedicated during NARCON.


Ahh, it is good to know those specific items are still accounted for and will have a new home.

I believe that photo was made when Collins was the Director of the Air & Space Museum in the early 1970s. Durant was Assistant Director for many years until his retirement in 1980. Can you believe he is still alive? At 99 years, no less! Wow!

After finally acquiring my first Cineroc several years ago and having finally completed building and finishing a vintage Omega booster for it, I hope to make at least one 'true' Cineroc film flight with it, maybe sometime this summer.

It is truly a marvel of miniature design; a lesson in straightforward engineering without overly complicated mechanisms that can creep into designs of this sort.

Earl
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