Wollensack Fastax

The Wollensak Fastax 16mm camera is a high speed camera that is capable of shooting 5600 frames per secocond. 100 feet of film goes through the camera in a couple of seconds. Camera winds up to speed almost instantly. It makes a loud almost screeching noise when the motors are to speed.

There are two 120VAC motors that run the camera, one for the main drive sprocket and the other for the take-up spool.

The camera takes 100' daylight load spools and requires double perforated film.

Instead of a rotating blade shutter the camera employs a rotating four sided prism. This system allows the film to move with out the intermitant movement used in regular film cameras that generally shoot 24 frames per second.

The lens mount for the camera is a Fastax mount. It is a kind of three pin bayonet mount that has to be twisted to lock the lens into position.

The camera often comes with a "goose" but it is not required to run the camera. The goose is used to synchronize the camera with triggered events and run the camera at different speeds, or bring the camera up to speed at a determined rate. This is where the term "goose" comes from. The voltage applied to the camera would goose it to speed.