A

Paillard Bolex L8 8mm camera

​

Type: Movie Camera

​

Manufacture :   Paillard-Bolex

​

Production Date :  Manufactured in 1946

​

Acquired at :   Long Island New York, Garage sale

​

Acquired Date :   2000

​

​

 

​

Bolex International S. A. is a Swiss manufacturer of motion picture cameras based in Yverdon located in Canton of Vaud founded in 1814 by Moise Paillard to make watch parts. 

 

Soon thereafter production concentrated on music boxes, which were quite popular.  The logical continuation of music boxes came with the invention of the phonograph, and this became the principal business for Paillard.  They also ventured into manufacture of typewriters and radios. 

 

Meanwhile, Jacques Bogopolsky (later Bolsky and Bolsey) had founded his own company BOL S.A. for the manufacture of cine cameras.  After the 1929 stock market crash, when many small companies were failing and markets were weak, Paillard had the strength to buy Bol S.A. and its patents. 

 

This resulted in the Bolex line of cameras.  Bogopolsky continued to develop cameras, including the well-known Bolex H-16 and the Alfa (still Camera) before ge emigrated to the USA to found Bolsey Camera Co.

​

Paillard-Bolex cameras were much used by adventurers, artists as well as nature films, documentaries, and are still favoured by many animators. Over the years, notable Bolex users and owners include: Andy Warhol, Peter Jackson, Steven Spielberg, Jonas Mekas, Jean-Luc Godard, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, James Dean, David Lynch, Marilyn Monroe, Edmund Hillary, and Mahatma Gandhi.

​

​