The Bolex System - Text 9
Richard Authier, head of design at Paillard, was then tasked with designing the first Bolex Super 8 camera. The camera was conceived by Jean Thévenaz, and François Laurent was declared inventor of the optical system. The design of this very compact camera, the Bolex 150 Super, embodied the ideal of being lightweight and simple. Driven by a small electric motor, it automatically adjusted the diaphragm and offered a single speed, 16 frames per second. Accessories were done away with and, to simplify the camera, there was a single lens, a full-range zoom, which could be adjusted with a dial; in the Macrozoom version, this lens provided sharp focus from 3 cm to infinity. The Bolex 150 illustrates the changes that had taken place at Paillard. The camera was still mechanical and functioned with film stock, but it already foretold the electronic era. Its design could be that of a video camera. The camera’s mechanical body was no more: the instrument was envisioned by Richard Authier as an extension of the human body.
