From around mid-1964 to the end of 1969, Ilford acted as UK distributor for a range of equipment from the Elmo Company Ltd, claimed to be the oldest-established cine manufacturer in Japan. Mostly the equipment range consisted of cine cameras and projectors, but included at least one 35mm still slide projector. The Elmo factory was situated at Nagoya, and had 1,000 employees, 30% of whom were responsible for inspection and quality control. Ilford set up their own UK inspection and servicing department at their Basildon factory, both for new sales and also to honour all existing guarantees.

Elmo produced a wide range of cine equipment, much of which was made and imported into the UK both prior to, and after termination of, Ilford's involvement.

During 1962, a firm called Rosley Ltd; of 31, Webley Hill Road, Wembley, Middlesex, advertised Elmo equipment regularly in Amateur Photographer (AP) magazine and so were presumably the UK distributors at that time. In the 18th September 1963 edition, Rosley are also claiming to be 'Sole Importers and Trade Distributors' for the 'Argus Automatic 8' cine camera, which appears to be a rebadged version of the Yashica 8-ES cine camera.

Whether the move by Rosley away from Elmo and towards Argus signals that Ilford were, by 1963, getting involved as the new UK distributors for Elmo, is unknown, but in the 3rd June 1964 edition of Amateur Photographer, Ilford are advertising for a 'Cine Camera Repairer' "....to repair and service cine cameras, projectors and sound equipment, for a new Section, recently formed..". The Ilford Elmo slide projector appears in AP's 9th September 1964 'Enlarger and (still) Projector Guide'.

By AP's 7th April 1965 edition (which includes their annual Cine Guide), Ilford Ltd are named as distributors for a range of Elmo equipment, branded Ilford Elmo (the hyphenated Ilford-Elmo name sometimes appears, but mostly it is written without the hyphen). No Super 8mm cameras or film (or Fuji Single 8) are mentioned in the April 1965 Guide, so it must have been published prior to the 1965 launch by Kodak of their new amateur Super 8 (and Fuji Single 8) format.

Bill Smith tells me that although the majority of Elmo cine cameras were sold through the dealer network, they were also sold as prestige items in promotional markets, mainly as corporate gifts. An Ilford-Elmo 16mm projector (from 1967) was widely sold to industrial and scientific users, including the Jodrell Bank telescope site.

Clive Lunn e-mailed to say "Reading your Elmo page reminded me of winning a competition (as a dealer) and being taken to New York and Niagra for 7 days with Bunny Austin - the Ilford Elmo representative at the time. I was only in my early 20s so you can imagine the impression I have of that".

From 1st January 1970, Ilford announced that Elmo cine equipment would, in future, be distributed and serviced by C.Z.Scientific Instruments Ltd, 93/97 New Canvendish St, London, W1A 2AR (best known for being sole UK agents for the Pentacon - Praktica camera range, imported from VEB Pentacon, Dresden, GDR. In the period 1976-1984, Paul Godfrey recalls C.Z’s sales representative was Eddie Overy). Responsibility for servicing of previously sold Ilford Elmo equipment was also transferred to C.Z.Scientific. This decision coincided with Ilford's decision to also cease distributing the last of their still cameras, in particular the Ilfomatic 126 cartridge camera range.

Rosley Limited, the UK Elmo distributors prior to Ilford, advertised (in AP magazines during 1962) three of the items listed as being Ilford Elmo in 1965. Rosley distributed the Elmo 8SS and Elmo 8EE cameras (much the same apart from the SS being spring powered while the EE relied upon four 'penlight' batteries) and the FP 'silent film' 8mm projector. Between the 1962 Rosley adverts and the 1965 AP Guide showing the same equipment badged as Ilford Elmo, prices dropped significantly. The two cameras had been reduced by over 18% and the projector by over 25%.

The black & white pictures below are taken from the 1962 Rosley Ltd. adverts.

August 1967
Click the image for an enlarged view.

Ilford Elmo 8C-A.
A relatively simple battery driven standard 8mm camera with a fixed focus non-zoom lens.

The lens cap of the Ilford Elmo 8C-A reads ILFORD ELMO

AP magazine for June 1968 carried an Ilford advert for the Elmo Super 104, being a Super 8mm camera with f1.8 8.5mm to 34mm zoom lens. Battery powered zoom, camera drive motor and exposure control.

Click here, or the image for an enlarged view of the advert, plus pictures of an actual camera.

December 1967
Click the image for an enlarged view plus also see pictures of actual Ilford Elmo CS projectors taken from the ebay auction site (with my acknowledgement.)

A simple and compact domestic colour slide projector. Claimed "for all 2"x2" slides", so presumably capable of optically 'covering' 4cmx4cm slides (as obtained from 12 on 127 roll film cameras) as well as 35mm.