The Prestwich Model 5 Cine Camera

Prestwich Kinematograph cine camera for 35mm film in 300 foot internal wooden magazines. It is hand-cranked with two eight-frame-per-turn shafts and one single frame shaft. Film drive is by two continusous sprockets and claw intermittent. There is no lens in the rack and pinion mount. The camera has a footage counter and a film punch, with tripod bushes on both top and bottom. It is possible to view the rear of the film gate from the back for critical focussing. Stencilled number T239. (3 inch Specail Stigmati patent lens by Dallmeyer, London, Serial No 62046; not original?)

The Prestwich Manufacturing Company of Tottenham (London) was founded by John Alfred Prestwich (1874-1952) in 1895. Prestwich was an engineer of outstanding ability, who constructed some of the finest cinematographic apparatus of cinema's first decade, he held patents for a number of inventions, not limited to cinematography. After the early 1900s, his work was focused on internal combustion engines, gearing and other systems for motor cars and cycles.