Photo camera of the rolling of Alycha.

Camera rolling Cherry plum.

Camera rolling «Cherry plum& #187;
1959 — 60

In the 50s, one of the most original Soviet cameras, the «Alycha», was developed and released for copying documents using contact scanning or optical scanning across the frame — this is what this type of photography was called in those years. The design of the «Alycha» was so original that it fit entirely into a small standard notebook, which, when placed on a desk or in a jacket pocket, did not arouse any suspicion among those around.

Having come to the attention of Western specialists after yet another spy scandal, «Alycha» caused a real sensation. To this day, there is an undisproven legend among photo professionals-veterans that the company «Xerox» copied the scanning principle from «Alycha» for use in the first models of their world-famous copying machines.

The basis of the camera «Alycha» is an original mirror-prism system, which, together with the lens, successively transfers the image of the text onto the film as the camera moves (rolls) over the document. This is where the slang name for this type of photographic equipment comes from — «katalki» in Russian and «rollover» in English. By the way, to this day «Alycha» has no Western analogues and is therefore a unique creation of Soviet photo designers.

To illuminate the copied document, «Alycha» had an autonomous lighting device with a special electric lamp several millimeters in diameter and 10 cm in length. Imported DEAC batteries were used as power supply.

The «Alycha» was brought into working condition by pressing the lock hidden in the end of the «notebook». In this case, the «book» flaps opened to extend small rubber rollers. One roller performed the function of contact with the surface of the paper and turned on the camera's lighting device. The other two rollers, moving along the document during shooting, set in motion the entire tape-drive mechanism of the camera, including the film cassette.

Copying of documents «Alycha» was made on standard photographic film 45-60 units GOST, which was pre-cut into strips 8.2 mm wide using a special cutter. The cassette could hold up to 1.6 meters of film, which made it possible to shoot 25-30 pages of a document, provided that each sheet was rolled three times to ensure a high-quality copy. The film was loaded into a special triangular cassette, in which both the receiving and feeding cassettes rotated simultaneously. The text image was projected through the lens onto the moving film through the frame side slit of the cassette. «Alycha» had a frame counter, each division of which corresponded to 10 cm of film.

Immediately after its appearance, «Alycha» began to be actively used for high-quality and secret copying of documents, including those with rare languages. Later, the operating principle of the «Alycha» camera was repeatedly implemented in other «rolling» cameras. The last model of this series, «Zagar», was released in the late 80s for working with 35-mm film. «Zagar» already had an electric film transport drive and allowed up to 400 frames to be taken on one cassette.

There was also a commercial version of the «ridecart» intended for open sale. However, such equipment was not in demand, except for fanatical collectors who bought up a small commercial batch of this «ridecart». One of them was even sold at a photo auction in Singapore.

Technical specifications