'Midg' Magazine and 'HIT' Miniature Cameras: The Extremes of Photography

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Before the advent of celluloid roll film, amateur snapshot cameras used small glass photographic plates. Repeat shots were achieved using magazine 'falling plate' cameras, among the most popular of which was the Butcher Company's 'Midg' series, produced between 1902 and the 1920s.
'HIT' cameras were a type of subminiature camera using tiny 17.5mm film rolls, produced in Japan both immediately before and immediately after the Second World War. They were incredibly popular as curiosities and knickknacks in the United States in the immediate post-war years, with hundreds of thousands being imported between 1945 and the mid-1950s.
SOURCES:
www.submin.com/17.5mm/collecti...
www.submin.com/17.5mm/collecti...
www.submin.com/17.5mm/collecti...
www.submin.com/17.5mm/collecti...
photo-analogue.blogspot.com/20...
licm.org.uk/livingImage/Ensign...

[@wyattroncin941]

"Midg" could be a stylization of "midge", a common name for a variety of species of small fly. perhaps the snap of the shutter or the clap of each plate falling forward is supposed to be reminisient of smacking highland biting midges?

[@yyams]

I was going to say exactly this about the fly. The tiniest little pests in the uk.

[@LaughingPsycho]

I have a very similar little Hit camera, complete with case and a couple of rolls of film. I've not tried it though, as it's part of my old camera collection. It actually belonged to my big cousin, which he may have got from one of the many American comics which advertised them as spy cameras, next to Sea Monkeys, and the cardboard nuclear submarine.

[@aldrifaen1831]

Im so glad i found this gem channel. Keep producing these great videos!

[@herbcraven7146]

I don't know if they were proper Japanese Hit cameras, but I seem to remember seeing miniature cameras in ads placed in comic books (usually as potential prizes for selling "Grit" magazine), which stressed that it was a "real working camera", often touting them as "spy cameras" due to the ease with which they could be concealed. Speaking of unusual Japanese cameras, my dad brought a Canon Dial 35 camera back from his time in Okinawa during the Vietnam War. It took photos on regular 35 mm film, but exposed only a half frame at a time, yielding twice as many pictures from a roll of film, perhaps another method of offsetting the costs of photography. I believe they were imported to the US under other manufacturers' names as well, and were briefly popular here.

[@snappers_antique_firearms]

I am really enjoying your content. very professional

[@lahma69]

Another great video!

[@ChrisAthanas]

Each of these deserves a short

[@Murgoh]

It might be possible to load those plate holders with sheet film cut to appropriate size if the camera is still functional. Those look a lot like the "septums" used in the Graflex Grafmatic sheet film magazine which is an interesting piece of vintage photo equipment in itself.

[@greggmcneill7407]

This is a fantastic video. Thanks for this. the explanation of the mechanism is just what I was looking for. I'll be taking possession of one of these great cameras soon and I'm relieved that I know know how to load and operate it. Thanks again.

[@jamesslick4790]

I never used one, But the "Hit" type camera was probably not worse in image quality than a cheap 110 cartridge camera, and maybe BETTER. IIRC 100 is about 16mm.

[@Allan_aka_RocKITEman]

FWIW: I remember seeing -- DECADES AGO -- one of those small cameras {or something extremely similar}. I can NOT remember if it was in the home of a family friend, or some shop or business, maybe some camera/photography store. But I know I saw at least one of them.

[@jamesslick4790]

Sprites DO exist! I have 6 of them in my fridge! LOL. Of Course, it was a hoax, and it looks obvious today. But for the time, very well done. Those girls knew how to use a camera. They did pretty good "SFX" for a couple of kids that early in the tech!

[@piad2102]

Good video.

[@silveracer9]

A nicely done and very informative presentation. Thank You!! have you ever heard of the miniture camera with the name Homer?

[@cwtrain]

"London. Paris. And Switzerland..." 🤨 "... Which is a country, not a city." _Drake Point_

[@jelehan88]

Stay away from Sprite, where there's Sprite there's Coke...

[@maxasaurus3008]

😂😂🤙🏻

[@inregionecaecorum]

I have a Pentax 110 system camera, that makes the Olympus Mju II 35mm (possibly the smallest sophisticated 35mm on the market) look oversized. The Pentax was a wonder of minituarisation.

[@Skorpychan]

A 'midge' is a small biting insect, like a mosquito but much smaller and quieter. They appear in swarms. Maybe that's what 'midg' was going for?

[@oldmandoinghighkicksonlyin1368]

New media technology makes people lose common sense when it first comes out. Fairies and cameras then. Ghosts and TikTok now.

[@jamesslick4790]

As a "camera nut", I will say those girls knew how to work a camera. Pretty impressive for the time. The effects in "Hollywood" movies then weren't much better. (And these were amateurs who were "kids" So, It's STILL an achievement for what it was.