Parker Pen Company of Parker Place, Janesville, WI, USA looked at expanding their markets and introduced the Parker Stellar subminiature camera in 1949.
With experience in making attractive products and established channels for sales it should have been successful. Parker hired a Chicago advertising agency to undertake a market survey and 100 cameras where made, then, for financial reasons they cancelled the project.
The well thought out camera was based upon a camera design patented on 15th November 1948 by Perlin Development Corporation, United Kingdom.
The horse-shoe shaped camera with a leather wrist strap resembles a light meter. When closed the camera is 75x57x32mm (3x2 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches). The front cover hinged up, like the Compass 35. Made of plastic with polished aluminium trim.
The lens is a coated Parker Stellar f4.5, 37mm with shutter speeds of 1/30 and 1/50 s. The camera uses 16mm un-perforated film in 5 3/4 inch (147mm ) strips mounted in a special cassette. These are round plastic discs, 2 inches (50mm) in diameter, with a stamped metal plate having nine indentations. On the opposite side is a round metal plate, spring loaded. This was inserted into the camera over a similar plate. A small plastic lock is on the top left. The film is wrapped around the the inside of the outer wall of the cassette and a prism aimed the imaging beam on to the film. The film is advanced and the shutter cocked by rotating the cassette. The film holds 8 exposures of 13x16mm.
On the front is a black pointer which can rotate the entire front element of the lens. The pointer has markings 10 ft - inf. At the furthest point the it could be rotated anti-clockwise over the top of lens until it stopped at the 3-10ft marker.
The lens aperture and shutter speed are linked, similar to the EV systems. Three settings are marked
- 1 dark subjects / failing sunlight /shadows
f4.5 at 1/35s - 2 average light / to overcast / and cloudy
f8 at 1/50 s - 3 bright / direct sunlight / only
f11 at 1/75 s.
These brought the Waterhouse1 stops over the lens. Nothing about the Parker Stellar was derived from other camera designs.
Film Instructions
Last updated 30th September 2008
1. John Waterhouse 1842-1922. A system of small plates with a hole placed in front of or behind the lens.
2. Photographs supplied courtesy of United Country Beloit Auction & Realty Inc.