Bolex International S. Originally Bol , the company was founded in by Charles Haccius and Jacques Bogopolsky aka Bolsey or Boolsky , the company's name having been derived from Bogopolsky's name.
He later designed a camera for Alpa of Ballaigues in the late s. Paillard-Bolex cameras were much used by adventurers, artists, as well as nature films, documentaries, and are still favoured by many animators. While some later models are electrically powered, the majority of those manufactured since the s use a spring-wound clockwork power system. The 16 mm spring-wound Bolex is a popular introductory camera in film schools.
Charles Haccius invested , Swiss francs in the company. The society did not produce any cameras. As of , the Longines company no longer wished to produce the cameras. Soon Paillard realized that the cameras and projectors were not in fact the exceptional products promised by their partners, and after two years Jacque Bogopolsky was no longer welcome in Sainte-Croix. The traditional version of the story tended to present the situation rather simply: Bolex is the name of a brand produced by the Paillard company, a brand represented mainly by a camera that was invented by Jacques Boolsky another of Jacques Bogopolsky's names.
In fact, the alleged inventor of the Bolex did not invent anything about the camera, which as early as would become known under this name. With the patents sold by Boolsky proving unusable and the machines defective, Paillard had to start from scratch to invent a Bolex which had only kept the name of Boolsky's "invention".
The Bolex as we know it is the invention of the engineers at Paillard. In , Marc Renaud, a young engineer, inspired by the products of Paillard and assisted by Professor Ernest Juillard, [ who? In , the H 16 camera was put on the market, the 9. The H 16 was highly successful. Paillard-Bolex introduced the L 8 for the market of pocket 8 mm film cameras. With the postwar boom in home movie making, Paillard-Bolex continued to develop its 8 mm and 16 mm ranges with the H16 increasingly adopted by professional film makers.
