Bolex: История швейцарской кинокамеры

Swiss luxury camera manufacturer

Bolex International S. A. is a Swiss manufacturer of motion picture cameras based in Yverdon located in Canton of Vaud, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. Originally Bol, the company was founded in 1925 by Charles Haccius and Jacques Bogopolsky (aka Bolsey or Boolsky), the company's name having been derived from Bogopolsky's name. In 1923 he presented the Cinégraphe Bol at the Geneva fair, a reversible apparatus for taking, printing, and projecting pictures on 35 mm film. He later designed a camera for Alpa of Ballaigues in the late 1930s. Paillard Bolex cameras were much used by adventurers, artists, as well as nature films, documentaries, and are still favoured by many animators. Over the years, notable Bolex users and owners include: Steven Spielberg, Ridley Scott, Andy Warhol, Peter Jackson, Jonas Mekas, Jean Luc Godard, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, James Dean, David Lynch, Marilyn Monroe, Edmund Hillary, and Mahatma Gandhi

While some later models are electrically powered, the majority of those manufactured since the 1930s use a spring wound clockwork power system. The 16 mm spring wound Bolex is a popular introductory camera in film schools.

In 1927, Ukrainian born Jacques Bogopolsky, who specialised in building cameras in Geneva, imagined a camera for the 16 mm format (Bolex Auto Cine A,B,C), and created the Bolex S. A. with the help of Charles Haccius, a businessman from Geneva. Charles Haccius invested 250,000 Swiss francs in the company. The society did not produce any cameras. However, the Auto Ciné A and B were produced by Longines in Saint Imier and the projector by Stoppani in Bern. As of 1929, the Longines company no longer wished to produce the cameras. Bolex was bought by Paillard SA for 350,000 Swiss francs and Jacques Bogopolsky was hired as consulting engineer for five years. Soon Paillard realized that the cameras and projectors were not in fact the exceptional products promised by their partners, and after two years Jacque Bogopolsky was no longer welcome in Sainte Croix. The traditional version of the story tended to present the situation rather simply: Bolex is the name of a brand produced by the Paillard company, a brand represented mainly by a camera that was invented by Jacques Boolsky (another of Jacques Bogopolsky's names). In fact, the alleged inventor of the Bolex did not invent anything about the camera, which as early as 1935 would become known under this name. With the patents sold by Boolsky proving unusable and the machines defective, Paillard had to start from scratch to invent a Bolex which had only kept the name of Boolsky's "invention". The Bolex as we know it is the invention of the engineers at Paillard. In 1932, Marc Renaud, a young engineer, inspired by the products of Paillard and assisted by Professor Ernest Juillard, began development of the Paillard H 16 camera. In 1935, the H 16 camera was put on the market, the 9.5 mm version followed in 1936 and the Double 8mm version in 1938. The H 16 was highly successful. Paillard Bolex introduced the L 8 for the market of pocket 8 mm film cameras. With the postwar boom in home movie making, Paillard Bolex continued to develop its 8 mm and 16 mm ranges with the H16 increasingly adopted by professional film makers. The company also made a successful range of high end movie projectors for all amateur film making gauges. In 1952, during the golden era of 3D film, Bolex offered the Bolex Stereo: a 3D stereo kit for their H16 camera and model G projectors. Several technical changes were made to the H cameras in 1954, above all an entirely different claw drive together with a laterally inverted film gate and a 170 degrees opening angle shutter. In 1956, the first H16 reflex viewfinder model was brought out. In reaction to the upcoming use of heavier varifocal or zoom lenses and the bigger synchronous electric motors attached to the body Paillard gave it a big rectangular base, with three tapped bushings replacing the original single tap “button” base in 1963 and soon afterward a protruding 1 to 1 shaft for the ESM motor. A saddle for a 400 ft. film magazine finally allowed the H 16 to be used like professional synch sound cameras. Following rapid expansion, Bolex employed circa 6000 people in the 1960s. Paillard Bolex was slow to introduce a Super 8 camera although they quickly modified the 18 5 Auto 8 mm projector for Super 8 as the 18 5 L. At about this time(1966), the Bolex 16 Pro Camera was introduced to compete with the Arriflex 16 BL camera, as a technically advanced professional camera more suited for television use than the H16. Nevertheless, the H 16 Standard camera was made until the last days of 1969. The H 16 and H 8 standard models afford the rackover critical focusing feature that had been first introduced with the Bell & Howell Standard camera in 1912. In 1971, Bolex released an even more affordable option: the Bolex 280 Macrozoom Super 8. The new model featured wide range manual zoom and the ability to focus at close distances. It shot at 2 filming speeds, 18 and 24 fps, and was able to expose single frames. Unlike the classic mechanical Bolex Cameras, the 280 Macrozoom needed 5 1.5 volt batteries to operate.

Effective January 1, 1970 Paillard sold the Bolex division to Eumig of Vienna. In 1971, Eumig rationalized the Super 8 range, and Super 8 equipment production in Switzerland was discontinued. The Bolex product brand was retained while being manufactured in Eumig or Chinon factories. The H16 cameras were still made in Switzerland.

In 1981, Eumig went into liquidation and Bolex was bought by René Ueter who set up Bolex International in 1982. Terry Gilliam, Will Vinton, Maya Deren, Steven Spielberg and Spike Lee. It results as a development of a cult of using Paillard Bolex for decades for beginner's camera in film schools worldwide. Jules Schulback, a furrier and maker of home movies, filmed, with his 16 millimeter Bolex camera, Marilyn Monroes white skirt billowing from a "gust" up through a subway grate, in a publicity stunt for The Seven Year Itch, around the corner from his apartment, in New York. The Bolex cameras remain a strong status as an icon into cinema and intemporal beautiful objects as itself. Its production helps to give Swiss Made its reputation of quality, additionally of watchmaking. It has been used in various advertising as a symbol. In 2015, it appeared in an Omega ad with George Clooney. Another time in 2015 various Bolex models, including P2/8 mm and Super Zoom/8 mm, appeared in a famous campaign for Chanel eyewear with Kristen Stewart

Antoine de Saint Exupéry, French writer, poet, aristocrat, journalist and pioneering aviator. He became a laureate of several of France's highest literary awards and also won the United States National Book Award. Haroun Tazieff, Polish, Belgian and French volcanologist and geologist. He was a famous cinematographer of volcanic eruptions and lava flows, and the author of several books on volcanoes. Jacques Piccard, Swiss oceanographer and engineer, known for having developed underwater submarines for studying ocean currents.

There are two documentaries about the history of the Bolex camera. Beyond The Bolex, a biographical film about Bolex founder Jacques Bogopolsky (later anglicized to Bolsey), is directed by his great grand daughter Alyssa Bolsey, and features an in depth look at the original notes, schematics, prototypes of Bolex A and B cameras A second project that is currently in production, is being undertaken by Swiss director Alexandre Favre. Bolex was used exclusively to film Teeny Little Super Guy for Sesame Street in 1982.

In 2012, Cinemeridian, Inc. licensed the named Bolex from Bolex International to create a digital Super 16mm cinema camera called the Digital Bolex D16. Digital Bolex announced their collaboration with Bolex via the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform on March 12, 2012 at the SXSW Film Festival where they had a trade show booth.