Help Needed W/ Dewey Bergman Vintage Equipment- Garage Sale Find Queensland Australia

[Stuart Draycott]

Hi, I'm hoping someone can help me - I've had the remarkable good fortune to find scuba diving 'Hall of Fame's (and Sea&Sea founder) Dewey Bergman's strobe housing (Anchor shack II), containing the Honeywell strobe & attached to a 'Giddings Felgen' camera mount arm - amongst a box of 16mm film gear at a local (Maroochydore, Qld, Australia) garage sale. Un-clasping the lid reveals the name 'DEWEY BERGMAN' in old dymo tape atop the strobe and the camera arm has the remnants of an old 'Sea & Sea' sticker. My question is would anybody in your organization (or the community reading this) have any idea how this gear came to end up here? Did Mr Bergman spend much time in these parts? I would love to be able to piece together the history of this unique item. If anyone has any information, it would be much appreciated
Many thanks, Stuart

 

[Sam Miller III]

Stuart,
I knew Dewey -- a long time ago, and not very well...I was an early NAUI instructor #27,1960, and he became a NAUI instructor several years later probably about 1965 or so. As I recall lived in San Francisco, California and I lived in Orange county about 500 plus miles distance.

He embraced diving with a passion - I recall him founding Sea & sea, which produced photographic equipment. He also became a world traveler/photographer, which is how the equipment ended up in Australia- possibly left behind , lost in transit or stolen, now 30 years or more later it surfaces.

Attempt to post individual pictures and some one can possibly ID each item for you,

Cheers, SDM

 

[Stuart Draycott]

Thanks so much for answering my post. Here's some pics of the strobe housing - It's the only piece of equipment that I can definitely link with Mr. Bergman, although a Minolta 35mm camera was amongst the items as well as a selection of 16mm films (on reels in cans) & Bell & Howell projector. I'll check out the films if I can get the projector to work. Cheers, Stuart.

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[Sam Miller III]

Oh for the days of yesteryear!
The blue plate is a tray for a 35 MM camera. Possibly the Minolta or a Nikonos -- I would suggest that you set it on the tray and attempt a fit.

The strobe is a Heiland or Hieland (?) very popular during the 1960s-1970s...The housing was made by Anchor Shack, as I recall a diver operation in San Francisco which Dewey may or may not have had and interest.

I need to do some research and get back to you,

SDM

---------- Post added April 22nd, 2013 at 12:58 PM ----------

Ha!
Found it! Introduced in 1968

The Anchor Shack -571 Jackson Street, Hayward, Cal.

"Hydro Strobe"...
$99.50 with connector for Nikonos & Calypso
$109.50 with universal connector. (You possibly own this one)

Strobe( Not as I suspected) Suggested to check model number.

Honeywell Strobonar--
* model 660 $149.50
* model 600 $229.50

Many years ago in the genesis diving I managed to acquire and bind all dive magazine beginning with Skin diver magazine Vol 1 Nr 1 December 1951. As the sport grew and full size catalogs began appearing I also bound them--why? I don't know? Now I have the largest resource of books, catalogs and junk in the US and possibly the world..Horrible hobby!

Send the information off the blue tray..

I charge for this...Go have a Pavlova, enjoy it! That will be your payment...If you have Vegemite I charge double!
\
Cheers from CenCal (Pismo Beach-Yes the same place Buggs bunny was always attempting to reach)

SDM

 

[Sam Miller III]

Isn't this wonderful!

Take the time to research a question, provide a definitive answer complete with prices model numbers and year introduced...

Not acknowledgement or thank you for the effort ...

Never again, K-MAG- YOYO

SDM

 

[simonbeans]

As always, I am most grateful for your input. These youngsters these days!! Give them a regulator with 2 hoses and they are now vintage. Ha! Funny how we actually dove (dived) without the "modern" stuff that so-called vintage divers need and yet we survived to tell the story of what reality WAS. Thanks Doc, you have a supporter in me. (Us old guys got to stick together!!)

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Dr. Miller, thank you for the post and information. While the person who originally posted did not acknowledge, there are those of us here who really do appreciate your efforts. Looking at the original photo (top one) it looks like this may be a Nikonos connector on the strobe.

SeaRat

 

[giorgino]

The original maker of this housing was Oceanic Products, now Oceanic (I think). This is my housing that I received form Scubapro Italy around 1975 when that firm tried to enter in the uwp market, but without chance. Inside mine I used a Rollei strobe, because Honeywells was not distributed in my country, but the size was the same. Marvelous object in that era: I used it a lot with my Nikonos II and 28mm lens, because the field of light was not so large for the Nikonos 15mm lens, with which one I used an Oceanic Products 2003. You can find these units in the middle of the page:
fotosub storica

 

[Akimbo]

… As I recall lived in San Francisco, California and I lived in Orange county about 500 plus miles distance.

He embraced diving with a passion - I recall him founding Sea & sea, which produced photographic equipment. …

I was at Dewey’s home in the Oakland or Berkeley hills (can’t remember) several times when he hosted UPS (Underwater Photographic Society) parties — I was 14 or 15. He was a very gracious guy and was easy for a kid like me to admire.

Small point: I think you might be confusing Dewey’s pioneering See & Sea travel agency with SEA&SEA Underwater Imaging. It was certainly one of the first travel agencies to specialize in diving and was easily the most successful at that time. The agency was later taken over by Carl Roessler. I could be wrong but I don’t believe there is a connection to SEA&SEA Underwater Imaging which started years later in Japan.

I wonder where Dewey’s Sampson housing with Bell and Howell 16mm camera is? I think he shot a Rolleimarin for stills before switching to 35mm… like most pros in those days. I never heard of any photo hardware development he was involved in, unlike Giddings and Hollis.

The original maker of this housing was Oceanic Products, now Oceanic (I think)…

The original Hydro Strobe housing was made by Bob Hollis when he owned the Anchor Shack dive shop in Hayward that opened around 1965 in an old neighborhood grocery story. The original Hydro Strobe used four ¼-20 studs and wing nuts instead of Nielsen snaps. It was a cast aluminum version of a Plexiglas housing made by Helmut Stellritch(sp?) in San Jose. Helmut’s brother Carl was a camera repair technician and made flash-bulb systems for the early Calypso and Nikonos cameras. Bob also made parts for converting the Rolleimarin housings to O-ring shaft seals.

The Hydro Strobe became one of Oceanic Products offerings when Bob started it with John Clark in the early 1970s. Oceanic Products later became Oceanic, a full-line Scuba manufacturer. I have some old OP catalogs around someplace if interested. I still have an OP Hydro 35 and Hydro Strobe.

 

[giorgino]

The original Hydro Strobe housing was made by Bob Hollis when he owned the Anchor Shack dive shop in Hayward that opened around 1965 in an old neighborhood grocery story. The original Hydro Strobe used four ¼-20 studs and wing nuts instead of Nielsen snaps. It was a cast aluminum version of a Plexiglas housing made by Helmut Stellritch(sp?) in San Jose. Helmut’s brother Carl was a camera repair technician and made flash-bulb systems for the early Calypso and Nikonos cameras. Bob also made parts for converting the Rolleimarin housings to O-ring shaft seals.

The Hydro Strobe became one of Oceanic Products offerings when Bob started it with John Clark in the early 1970s. Oceanic Products later became Oceanic, a full-line Scuba manufacturer. I have some old OP catalogs around someplace if interested. I still have an OP Hydro 35 and Hydro Strobe.

Tnx for infos, Akimbo. Living in Europe, in the '60 and '70 was very difficult for me to have a complete view of the developments of firms in this particular fileld. I didn't know Anchor Shak was born before Oceanic. I read infos about Oceanic and other firms as Ikelite and Giddings Felgen from my avid readings of Tzimouli's Skindiver magazine, that arrived in my country in the '70s in no more than 5 copies, I think. At that times, the few uw photographers in Italy used Rolleimarin IV or Calypso Phot (I have had both) with bulb-lamp flashes. The switch here became in 1974 when a little firm, SubCenter of Milan, became to import Ikelite, some Oceanic things, and many photographers (as me) became to switch from 6x6 to 35mm format. I remenber also the Mark 50 and 150 flashguns, quite impossible to use here because of lack of the big 510V battery...
Marvelous times, we was Young also...

---------- Post added December 23rd, 2014 at 12:58 PM ----------

I just noted now the Anchor Shack housing in the Stuart's pictures is a II Hydro Strobe model: mine, Oceanic marked, is the IV. So, some time passed between ...