Hi,
up for auction is a Polaroid Miniportrait Cambo Model 40 camera.
The camera was decomissioned from a local foundry(Iscor),which was used for ID photos for the workers.
The camera does have some surface scratches, but is in overall good condition and still working.
Film will have to be ordered online as it is rather scarce to come by in South africa.
Some info on the camera,
The Cambo model 40 is a professional passport portrait instant camera. A heavy solid metal camera, preferably to use on a tripod, but also usable as hand camera by means of its big strong grip. The camera can make four images on each film sheet. Therefore it is four similar cameras in one, the inside separated in four separate dark cambers which define four passport photo sized image frames. The image format is 2×2 images in a 73×85mm rectangle (each image ca. 36×42mm).
Some main parts of the camera were made by Polaroid. The back of the camera is an original Polaroid film holder for Polacolor 125i instant film pack cartridges. The lensboard is another original Polaroid part, the big round Polaroid Miniportrait passport camera shutter unit. In the center it has a selector to choose the lens for the next exposure. A fifth setting allows to expose through all four lenses at once. The selector is marked with the Cambo logo. On both sides is a lever, each positioned between an upper and a lower lens. The right lever allows the choice between the apertures f16, f11, f8, f22 and f32 (in this succession because of very special aperture blades). The left lever allows the choice between the shutter speeds 1/50 sec., 1/100 sec., and bulb mode. The lens barrel around that shutter unit bears the shutter cocking lever, the release cable connection thread, and the flash connector. The lenses for the four separate camera chambers are four equal Schneider-Kreuznach Radionar 1:8/125, each one focused on the same distance which is the optimal passport photo portrait distance. But the camera has also some Cambo parts: The massive metal chamber containing the four camera chambers, the very fine reverse Galilean telescopic bright frame viewfinder, the strong tripod thread unit bearing the camera's serial number, the strong grip and the special shutter release cable. The cable's release button end is poked into the grip so that the shutter can be released with the thumb of the camera-holding hand.
