Not to be confused with bollocks.

Bolex is a Swiss company (Bolex International S.A. of Yverdon) that manufactures motion picture cameras and lenses, the most notable products of which are in the 16 mm and Super 16 mm formats. The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky (a.k.a. Jacques Bolsey or Bolsky) in 1927. Bolex is derived from his name. He had previously designed cameras for Alpa. Bolex cameras were particularly important for early television news, nature films, documentaries and the avant garde, and are still favoured by many animators today. Whilst some later models are electrically powered, the majority of those manufactured since the 1930s use a spring-wound clockwork. The 16 mm spring-wound Bolex is a popular introductory camera in film schools.

Today, the Bolex factory in Switzerland continues to produce new 16mm and Super 16 film cameras and also can convert Bolex H16 reflex models to super 16mm.

The Bolex company was initially founded by Jacques Bogopolsky (a.k.a. Jacques Bolsey or Bolsky) in 1927 under the name of Bol. Bolex is derived from his name. He had previously designed cameras for Alpa. In 1930 Jacques sold the company to the Paillard Company who retained his services until the mid 1930s. The 1935 H-16 camera is a development of the Auto Cine B model. 9.5mm and 8mm versions followed. The H-16 was highly successful and Paillard Bolex introduced the L-8 for the market for a smaller 8mm camera. With the post-war boom in home movie making, Paillard Bolex continued to develop its 8mm and 16mm ranges with the H-16 increasingly adopted by professional film makers. The company also made a successful range of high end movie projectors for all the film making gauges.