Aerial cameras

[QuietOne]

I was in the Warhawk Museum proper last weekend. They have a number of aerial cameras, lenses, filters, cleaning kits and other accessories on display. That section of the displays are a bit crowded, so I was limited in angle - the overhead lights were going to show in the one picture no matter what. I had the ISO bumped to ridiculous because the hangar doors were closed. Still, they didn't come out too badly.

The smallest of the cameras on display and its viewfinder.
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This lens is actually pretty large. The size made it possible for me to get something resembling detail.

[Mad Aussie]

Here's a thread we let slip by unnoticed ...

I read a book about the desert campaigns in WW2 about the recon Spitfires which were painted in sky blue with no weapons, only cameras.

This is cool to see some of that type of equipment. Thanks for that

[QuietOne]

Hello all, this is Mike.
There were quite a number of photo recon Spitfires, they were used in all theaters of the war.
Some Spitfires had extremely long range due to fuel tanks in the leading edge of the wing that more than doubled the fuel capacity. The cameras used were similar to the ones pictured above, they would be located in pods in the wings or behind the pilot in the fuselage. These Spitfires were also used for high speed research, in 1944 a MK XI Spitfire reached a true airspeed of 606 mph in a dive. The engine over-sped and the prop flew off the front of the plane. The pilot successfully glided 50 miles back to base.
This may have been the highest speed ever reached by a propeller driven plane. Later recon Spitfires had pressurized cockpits, post war they penetrated defenses at 54,000 ft.
A truly marvelous airplane!

[Mad Aussie]

Thanks Mike ... VERY interesting. 606 MPH holy crap that's fast! Faster than we were doing in the Embrarer 190 Jet airliner to Tasmania last week.