A figure of merit, called the Transfer Efficiency, may be calculated or measured for any camera based upon the exposure and the radiance of the subject required to produce a density of 1.0 on the film. The Transfer Efficiency of a camera serves to calibrate it so that the luminosity of events may be determined from measurements of film density. It also allows one to know in advance which experiments may be instrumented with a particular camera. Basic photometric units and measurements are discussed. The Transfer Efficiency is calculated for several representative cameras, including a Kerr cell camera, a rotating mirror camera, and the STL Image Converter Camera.

Testing the ejection and inflation of an Echo A-12 passive communication sphere in space was monitored at an altitude of nearly 200 miles by a photo instrumentation system designed and tested by Douglas Aircraft Company for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and carried in a 850 miles high non-orbital ballistic trajectory by a Douglas Thor Vertical Test Space Vehicle. Four hundred feet of film taken from the camera in the ejected and recovered space capsule hole the key to the balloon's sudden rupture. The paper describes the needs and problems anticipated during the various phases of the mission of Project "Big Shot" as follows: Boost; free-flight and photo mission; re-entry; aerial recovery; saltwater impact; and flotation and retrieval. It explains the design criteria to be met for the film camera to record the anticipated event with the highest possible image quality and for the film to survive the mission environment. The paper closes with a description of the two-part test program consisting of the environmental qualification of two test cameras and the flight acceptance tests of three flight cameras.

Stable Camera Platforms remove excessive camera motion, thereby preventing image blur while holding the camera steady and positioned in space to a desired attitude. The various cost factors involved in stable camera platform design are discussed.

This paper describes the use of 35mm Full Frame Fastax Cameras installed on a small missile range to aid in providing film data on missile displacement and velocity. The application of these cameras to metric photography posed many problems which include lack of resolution, time synchronization and insufficient field of view. In order to overcome these faults an array of twenty 35mm Fastax Cameras was installed in a line parallel to the flight path of an object and aligned by first order survey methods. The cameras along with strategically placed target boards provided information on object velocity, position and displacement.