I played a lot of catch-up this week, getting several cameras finalized and ready to be listed on our website. Work is now complete on the VistaVision Butterfly camera, as well as the ARRI BL2, and the ARRI BL 4S is currently on the workbench undergoing a final inspection. All 3 cameras are now available for sale at long last. Excitingly, the BL 2 includes a set of three Cooke Speed Panchro lenses, a 25mm Series III, a 50mm Series II, and a 75mm Series II. With work done on these cameras, I am contemplating my next project. I have an Auricon Super 1200 in very, very clean condition and running ..read more

After countless interruptions, numerous wrinkle paint failures, much choking on magnesium dust, and stripping and re-foaming all of the original cases, the VistaVision Butterfly camera and all of its accessories is finally ready to find a new home! This updated Mitchell VistaVision “light-weight hand-held” production camera features a Nikon lens mount; a crystal motor with 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, and 32 fps as well as variable speed control; Fries Engineering spinning mirror reflex system; NTSC video tap; four 1000’ magazines; four 400’ magazines; a CP swing-away matte box; a clip-on matte b ..read more

The new shelving unit is completed at long last! And the original shelving unit has been painted to match (somewhat). We have spent the last couple of days toting barges, lifting bales, and lugging cameras to and fro as we attempted to reorganize the showroom. It’s still a work in progress, but we are too tired to do anymore this week. I didn’t realize I had so many Nagras! Some of these pieces haven’t been cleaned and serviced yet, but they are all still looking for good homes. If you see something of interest, feel free to make an appointment to stop by ..read more

I know I said back in January that I was going to work on a new set of shelves for the showroom, but I have been swamped with so many other things since then and am only now getting a moment to start that project. In the meantime, this lovely Moviecam SuperAmerica has returned after being revived by my good friend Arnold Peterson. Previously, it would turn on, and then refuse to turn off, running on and on at about 3fps. Not ideal. But it’s fixed now! Additionally, the Showscan CP65 cameras have returned so I can service the movements, modify one of them so it uses conventional fasteners, and ..read more

Some 40+ years ago, I had the privilege of being one of the engineers and cameramen at the Universal Studios Hartland visual effects facility. One of the many things I designed and built there was a 3-axis motion control model mover. My friend Peter Anderson rescued part of one of these model movers and kept it in his collection for lo these many years. As you have seen in several of my other posts, I have been involved in an ongoing project doing restoration of the Dykstraflex motion control camera crane for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In preparation for the upcoming May ..read more

I am glad that so many of you feel as warm and fuzzy toward the Arri 35 BL series of cameras as I do. As I dug deeper into the many, many cases that came from Lucky Brown’s collection, I discovered that the BL2 also has the extension viewfinder, three Cooke Speed Panchro lenses, lens focus and stop tabs, focus and stop strips, a zoom lens blimp for an Angenieux 20-120, and a motor variable speed control. With the addition of these accessories, I will have to rethink what I am asking for the camera. While searching for my next restoration project, I stumbled over this lovely Arri 35 BL 4S that ..read more

I am a big fan of the ARRI 35 BL series of cameras. The movies I shot for Lucky Brown I shot with an ARRI 35 BL 4S as the first unit camera. At the time, it was very affordable, and it had all of the features I was looking for. When I took in the equipment from Lucky’s estate last year, this ARRI 35 BL 2 was one of my top priorities to clean up as I know it was one of his prized possessions. Because of the way it was stored, and the amount of time it sat unused, this camera needed a lot of help to bring it back to life. First order of business was to remove and clean off all the tape goo that ..read more

Last week’s brilliant solution to modify the Fries 3×65 15-perf pull-across camera was partially unsuccessful when the camera was run at speed. Join me as I rethink the problem with the pull-down assembly on this Fries 3×65 camera movement ..read more

You might remember this Fries 3×65 IMAX format camera from the repairs I did on the movement last spring. The owner brought to my attention that people who have shot with this camera in the past were concerned with the way the pull-down claw and registration pin assemblies were held in place. Their feeling was that they were not secure enough to prevent sprocket hole or film damage. I was asked to come up with a better method of retaining the pull-down claw and the registration pin to their cams. The original design of this movement took inspiration from the Mitchell Standard or GC high speed ..read more

Last week someone asked if I could show the basic care and feeding of a Unit “I” Shuttle and where the major oil points are. I originally showed the Unit “I” Shuttle as I was preparing to install it in this Acme Model 6 camera, so I thought I would give an overview of my work to this point. The Acme Model 6 is a successor to the Bell & Howell 2709 and incorporated into its design the most requested features of animators and optical printer camera operators. Among these improvements are a built-in through-the-lens viewfinding system that includes registration pins for precision line-u ..read more