CIA Museum Gadgets & Devices: Cameras

Eastman Kodak Matchbox Camera

The Eastman Kodak company developed a very useful hidden camera device that was small enough to fit in a box the size of a matchbox. The matchbox itself could be disguised by the addition of prints from the countries that the camera would be used in.

Cigarette Pack Camera

This tiny Tessina 35mm Camera was concealed in a modified cigarette pack. Miniaturisation of such items became a very useful way of equipping agents with lightweight easily concealed devices.

Tobacco Pouch Camera

A variation on the cigarette pack, this time the 35mm camera is concealed in a leather tobacco pouch. It is understandable that spies are heavy smokers, it's a very stressful job.

Pigeon Camera

This may sound too good to be true, but it is. Yes, a Pigeon Camera.
A camera small enough to be fitted to a homing pigeon was absolute genius. Surveillance photographs from aircraft were from thousands of feet, from satellites they would hundreds of thousands of feet, but a pigeon would not only be undetectable in a flock of common birds flying over a target, but the low heights that they flew would reveal detailed photographs. The camera technology enabled the timer to be set on a delay so that times could be worked out for exposure settings. The pictures remain classified to this day - maybe it didn't work. Perhaps we will never know.

Subminiature Dual Use Camera

A relatively simple but nevertheless high tech camera. The size of 4.7cm x 2.3cm x 1.5cm makes it barely bigger than the size of the film cassette. The dual use aspect of the camera enabled it to take photographs of documents up close and distance shots.

Minox B Camera

This well well made, advanced camera was seen in numerous films during the 1960s, including the 1967 Casino Royale and On Her Majesty's Secret Service.
Walter Zapp's first prototype of the camera came in 1936. It could fit in the palm of a hand, took high quality photographs and was considered a brilliant piece of camera technology. When Minox launched the Subminiature Camera it was capable of taking 50 exposures from a film a quarter of the size of a standard 35mm film.