If you are a nerdy kid today, you have your choice of wondrous gadgets and time wasters. When we were nerdy kids, our options were somewhat limited: there was ham radio, or you could blow things up with a chemistry set. There were also model rockets. Not only were model rockets undeniably cool, but thanks to a company called Estes, you could find ready-to-go kits and gear that made it possible to launch something into the heavens, relatively speaking. But what about photographic proof? No live streams or digital cameras. But there was the Estes AstroCam 100. [Bill Engar] remembers the joy of getting film from your rocket developed.
Of course, photography was another nerdy kid staple, so maybe you did your own darkroom work. Either way, the Astrocam 110 was a big improvement over the company’s earlier Camroc. In 1965, if you wanted to fly Camroc, you had to cut a 1.5-inch piece of film in a darkroom and mount it just to get one terrible black-and-white photo. Or, you could buy the film canisters loaded if you had the extra money, which, of course, you didn’t.
You might think it would be easy to strap a consumer-grade camera to a model rocket. The problem is, the rocket is moving fast. A regular camera of the era would give you a nicely exposed blur, but that’s about it. You had to send your little 1.5-inch film to Estes, who would use special processing methods to account for the fast shutter speed.
By 1979, the company came out with the Astrocam, and it took a standard but small 110 film cartridge. This gave you lower resolution, but was easy to shoot, easy to develop, and — even better — in grainy ASA 400 color. By 1993, the camera had upgrades and could use 200-speed film.
[Bill] treats us to plenty of pictures of his boyhood neighborhood. He also mentions that you can still get 110 film if you look for it, so if you pick up a camera on eBay, you could still fly it. Or, 3D print the latest from Estes. If you want to mount some serious cameras, maybe try liquid fuel.
