More on the Samson from another board.....................
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Re: SAMSON VINTAGE CAMERA HOUSING[/h] Mon Oct 01, 2012 4:05 pm
I was on the original HDS B of D. During that time period I published a number of articles in my dedicated column "Diving facts from Sam's Almanac." During my tenure my friend, fellow dive club member, occasional diving buddy and minor mentor Herb Samson passed away.
I wrote a detailed obituary of Herb for publication in the HDS journal of Herb and his many contributions to diving, from his early involvement with UW photography in Hollywood, to his unequaled cameras and radical speargun to establishing the very first Black Sea Bass spearfishing world record.
I was turned down by the "God of Historical Diving" who I suspect had never heard of Herb Samson and his many contributions to the underwater world. "This is an organization of professional divers we will not mention or honor sport divers" or words to that effect.
So I began loading the Board of Advisors with sport divers; Andy Rechnitzer, Who is he? Mistral brothers, Bob & Bill, They are surfers!, Dick Bonin, A navy diver! and a few others who were rejected
Now all is forgiven and ten years after Herb Samson's passing HDS is piecing together bits and pieces of information based on I suppose, I heard, I think I was told rather than relying on those who are still alive knew him, his family, and his products.
I no longer belong to HDS..........
sdm
Re: SAMSON VINTAGE CAMERA HOUSING
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Popeye » Fri Oct 05, 2012 3:34 pm
Herb Sampson filed a description with the US Patent Office for his motion picture camera housing in April, 1959. He followed that up with a patent application in on December 7th, 1959, and the patent was awarded in February, 1960. Besides being a well balanced compact housing, Herb's design had several novel features, two of which were quite innovative for the time and both could be seen on the rear cover of the housing. Herb had a light meter installed in the window of the rear cover along with a large, easy to read scale for both distance (marked for both air and water distances) and aperture.
Also, Herb had designed an optical viewfinder with the front lens element very close to the camera lens, and the rear, viewing element at the rear of the housing. This viewfinder was designed to eliminate, or minimize, the problems of parallax found in housings using a "sportfinder" type aiming system. Herb went on to collaborate with motion picture star, Jon Hall, selling the housing as the Sampson/Hall SCUMPA (Self Contained Motion Picture Apparatus). The housing also allowed for an electric motor drive for the Bell and Howell D70 camera.
Popeye
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Re: SAMSON VINTAGE CAMERA HOUSING[/h]
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That is VERY INTERESTING!
The "Samson Professional Underwater Camera Box" was first advertised by a very small anouncement in the January 1955 issue of Skin Diver Magazine on page 31. He placed his housing on the market before he had patent protection
In addition to the built in optical view finder and the light meter-(do you recall the brand?) there were also a number of other unique features. Such as;
* The unique External sports finder
* The F stop with positive stops
* The large wind knob
* The large internal flim counter
* The special rubber lens covers
* The Spear Gun mounts
* The power head mounts
* Special internal finish
* Special external finish-(mine still looks like new)
And of course his other products, such as
* Water proof watch case (I think I have the last two in the world)
* Samson world record Spear gun- produced by three different companys
* Samson "long tom" spear gun
* Samson spear fishing head.
Interesting note his first and only dealer was Dr Nelson Mathison who anounced his dealership in the same issue of SDM January 1955.
The first SDM cover of a Samson Camera was the February 1958 issue. It was a picture of a very young Ron Merker, holding a Samson Camera in his left hand and a California lobster in his right hand--a almost full year before Herb Samson had a patent on the camera system.
The last person to purchase a camera from Herb was the Professional Underwater photographer Bill Mc Donald. After that sale Herb sold to Jon Hall who did very little with the camera
I am currently very busy with another project therefore I would like to impose on you to make additional comments on the unique features of the Samson products,less all this history be lost--I simply don't have the time
Go for it!
SDM
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Re: SAMSON VINTAGE CAMERA HOUSING[/h]
by
21 » Tue Oct 09, 2012 3:37 pm
