The Robot II was a mechanical
135 film
file:135film.jpg, 135 film. The film is wide. Each image is 24×36 mm in the most common "small film" format (sometimes called "double-frame" for its relationship to the "single-frame" 35 mm movie format or full frame after the introduc ...
camera by
Robot
A robot is a machine—especially one Computer program, programmable by a computer—capable of carrying out a complex series of actions Automation, automatically. A robot can be guided by an external control device, or the robot control, co ...
introduced in 1938.
It was a slightly larger camera than the
Robot I, with some significant improvements but still using the basic mechanism. Among the standard objectives were 3 cm Zeiss Tessar and a 3 cm Zeiss Tessar in 1:2,8 and 1:3,5 variations, a 1:2,0/40 mm Zeiss Biotar and 1:4/7,5 cm Zeiss Sonnar.
The film cassette system was redesigned but it was only with the Robot IIa launched in 1951 that film could accept a standard 35 mm cassette. The special Robot cassettes type-N continued their role for take up. A small
bakelite
Bakelite ( ), formally , is a thermosetting polymer, thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin, formed from a condensation reaction of phenol with formaldehyde. The first plastic made from synthetic components, it was developed by Belgian chemist ...
box was sold to allow people to rewind colour film into the original cassettes as demanded by the film processing companies. The camera was synchronized for flash. The swinging
viewfinder
In photography, a viewfinder is a device on a camera that a photographer uses to determine exactly where the camera is pointed, and approximately how much of that view will be photographed. A viewfinder can be mechanical (indicating only direct ...
was retained but now operated by a lever rather than moving the entire housing. Both the deep purple filter and the yellow filter were eliminated in the redesign. Some versions were available with a double wind motor which could expose 50 frames. The
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
stopped civilian production of the Robot but it was used as a
gun camera by the
Luftwaffe
The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...
.
The Robot II took square photographs in the 24×24mm format, which allowed 50 exposures to fit on a 36-exposure film. It featured an all-metal Rotor shutter (1/4 to 1/500), a direct vision finder, and a screw mount for interchangeable lenses by
Schneider. The standard lens is a Schneider Xenon 40 mm f1.9.
Also available was the Robot Star II/50, with a double spring motor for 50 exposures and a Xenar 38 mm f2.8 lens.
External links
Robot IIa
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robot Ii
Cameras