As a present for completing the SSC examination, Nihalsinghe's father veteran journalist D.B Dhanapala presented him with a 16mm Bolex cine camera.
Hundreds of light and relatively compact Aeroscope cameras were used by British Army combat cameramen on the battlefields of World War I and later by newsreel cameramen until the late 1920s, when more modern spring cameras like Eyemo and later Bolex took over.
Unfortunately, Watt left shortly afterwards, and Grigsby was then offered a job as a studio cameraman, which by his own admission was very dull, but gave him a chance to purchase his own 16mm Bolex camera.
His first films, none of which survive, were shot in 35mm, but he soon went to 16mm format becoming a dedicated fan of the Swiss made Paillard Bolex cameras.
He started making films in 1958 as part of the San Diego Amateur Moviemakers Club using a 16-millimeter Bolex camera.
The film was shot on a Bolex camera which did not have a sound sync and could only record forty seconds at a time.
Bolex |