In 1949 Hans Hass filmed his classic movie Under the Red Sea with this camera. Kurt Schaefer, who had collaborated with Hass on earlier cameras, built the camera specifically for Hass in Austria.
Under The Red Sea won the top international film prize for a long documentary at the 1951 Venice Film Festival. It is considered to be the first full length feature film of the post WWII scuba diving era, pre dating Cousteau’s Silent World by five years. Hass published his experiences in his 1952 book Under The Red Sea, which was published as Manta in the USA.
This historic housing, complete with camera with film still in it, was part of the Jack McKenny Collection. Leslie Leaney acquired it for the ISDHF collection. Hans Hass and Jack McKenny are both inductees in the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame.