Kodak Magazine Cine-Kodak Eight Model 90 8mm movie camera: Captain Roderick Frank Arthur Strang, Australian Army Medical Corps

Eastman Kodak 'Eight' model 90 magazine movie camera with an f/1.9 anastigmat lens. The black leatherette covered body is made from nickel plated steel. A small circular window with a film meter showing the number of feet left unexposed in the magazine appears on the left hand side of the case, along with a thin metal plate displaying an exposure guide (referred to as the Cine-Kodak Universal Guide in the manual). On the right hand side of the camera there is a winding key, an exposure lever, a speed dial (displaying 16, 24, 32 and 64) and a loading lock (displaying the positions LOAD and RUN).

The upper edge of the camera displays manufacturing and patent information as well as a knurled wheel for matching the lens size - a small window next to the wheel shows the lens chosen. A carrying handle bound in leatherette is situated here. At the rear of this is the view finder. In the front of the camera is the lens, with a sliding switch for removing or replacing it. The bottom of the camera is provided with a screw fitting for a tripod. The camera is hand engraved 'Capt. R.F.A. Strang' along the topside of the body. With an Australian-made leather camera case. The film taken with the camera is held in the audio visual collection at F03435.

Camera owned and operated by Captain Roderick Frank Arthur Strang, Australian Army Medical Corps. Strang, born in Croyden, NSW on 27 April 1915, was living in Victoria when he enlisted on 7 January 1941, and served in Egypt, Lebanon and the Western Desert before being transferred to New Guinea, where he served at Buna, Gona and Sanananda with 2/11 Australian General Hospital.

Writing to the Australian War Memorial in 1987 when he offered this donation, he noted: 'I enclose the camera and films. The short film shows the Wirraway patrolling the beach after we had taken Gona and the two officers on the beach are Major Sublet and Captain Christian. Sublet said 'put the glass on the plane' which was coming around Sanananda Point, as it did not look like a Beaufighter. As we watched, the Wirraway climbed and shot the Zero down. The film shows a Zero hitting the water...Later Major Herman swam out to the wreckage and the pilot had been shot in the head.'

Captain Strang had earlier shot footage of the AIF ski School in Lebanon in 1941. The footage is a mixture of black and white and colour.