Home Printing Films Season 2 Episode 7

Monotype: Stay Put! The Use of a Revolutionary Darkroom Camera

Printing Films · Season 2 · Episode 7
The ‘Rotadon’ darkroom camera from Monotype’s subsidiary, Pictorial Machinery Limited, is a revolutionary, new camera made for photographing, enlarging and reducing, and creating photo positive and negatives for photographic reproduction and printing.

It is so revolutionary that it allows the operator to STAY PUT and not have to move anywhere compared to old and outdated copy cameras (which is hilariously acted out by a chain-smoking, bumbling operator).

The camera has a vacuum back for creating exposures on plates, films, and papers with a mirror setup and easy adjustment for enlarging and reducing images and illustrations to any size needed for film output. Lots of obscure buttons, switches, and gauges are on display along with diagrams and darkroom shots to show how the system works.

Year: 1955

Episode Details

Air date, runtime, timezone, and episode position.

Season
2
Episode
7
Air Date
22/Mar/2026
Air Time
Runtime
22 min

Overview

Episode summary.

The ‘Rotadon’ darkroom camera from Monotype’s subsidiary, Pictorial Machinery Limited, is a revolutionary, new camera made for photographing, enlarging and reducing, and creating photo positive and negatives for photographic reproduction and printing.

It is so revolutionary that it allows the operator to STAY PUT and not have to move anywhere compared to old and outdated copy cameras (which is hilariously acted out by a chain-smoking, bumbling operator).

The camera has a vacuum back for creating exposures on plates, films, and papers with a mirror setup and easy adjustment for enlarging and reducing images and illustrations to any size needed for film output. Lots of obscure buttons, switches, and gauges are on display along with diagrams and darkroom shots to show how the system works.

Year: 1955

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