Cine-Kodak K-100, Ultra-16, and Bigfoot!

August 9, 2019August 9, 2019 L.T. Hanlon4 Comments

Photo of a 1950s-era Cine-Kodak K-100 turret movie camera. This 16mm camera has three lenses on front and a leather-and-polished aluminum body. — **Cine-Kodak K-100 16mm movie camera.**

Photo of a typewritten sheet of paper with the following text. Friday, August 9, 2019. Chicago, USA. It's a big, wide, wonderful world! Smith-Corona Galaxie Deluxe. Assuming the weather cooperates Saturday and Sunday, I'm going to give my Ultra-16 movie camera a whirl. The camera began life in the 1950s as a Cine-Kodak K-100 Turret, an amateur camera famed for filming countless high school and college football games. A cousin of this camera, the CineKodak K-100 non-turret model, was used to capture the Patterson—Gim1in bigfoot film in 1967. These 16mm cameras come equipped with a standard gate giving an aspect ratio of about 4:3. However, the Cine—Kodak Is one of several camera models that can be modified so that wasted film space is exposed to create a 16:9 image. I had this updating done just after we moved down to this condo — or up, actually, since we're on the 54th Floor. Until now, however, I just haven't had the time, interest, or inclination to lace up the camera and put it through its paces. I only have one 100—foot roll of film, so I'll have to be fairly selective about what I film. I'm thinking maybe Lake Shore Drive, North Michigan Avenue, and Oak Street Beach, then some street photography if there's film left. After this project, there's Russian windup Super-8 camera I need to try out. — Oops! That should read “Patterson-Gimlin film.”
Here’s a fascinating Cryptomundo item about the camera and the famous film.

4 thoughts on “Cine-Kodak K-100, Ultra-16, and Bigfoot!”

maryech says:

August 11, 2019 at 9:27 am

Really cool looking camera. Big fan of the Patterson-Gimlin film here – grew up in the Pacific Northwest and we take our Bigfoot very seriously there.

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- L.T. Hanlon says:
  
  August 11, 2019 at 11:02 am
  
  I found out about Bigfoot in junior high when my family lived in Alaska and I spotted that Argosy magazine in 1967 or ’68 with a cover feature about the film.
  
  The idea of Bigfoot is appealing, but I lean toward it being folklore. Unless we’re dealing with just a handful of long-lived creatures, there would need to be a fairly large population of sasquatch to prevent the species from becoming extinct.
  
  I also believe that somebody would have killed one of them by now.
  
  Have you read any of David Paulides’ “Missing 411” books? Paulides has done some Bigfoot research as well as explored the supposedly large number of unexplained human disappearances in national parks and other wilderness areas. He’s careful not to venture an opinion about who or what’s behind the allegedly unexplained disappearances.
  
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maryech says:

August 11, 2019 at 5:28 pm

I was not familiar with the “Missing 411” books. Looks like Hulu made a movie based on the books.

Growing up, our family had a tongue-in-cheek fascination with Bigfoot – my sister claims that I have the gait of the Lady Bigfoot of the Patterson-Gimlin film. We’re a fairly rational group, but if we were camping in the Mt. Hood National Forest and heard the bushes rustle and twigs snap, our thoughts immediately turned to Bigfoot.

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Matt L Larson says:

July 7, 2021 at 10:05 am

I’m pretty sure Roger used the Cine-Kodak K-100 (Series E) camera with the 100′ rolls. I’m still researching but I think I’m correct on this. Not 100%.

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