Today I wanted to share a very interesting restoration project I completed shortly before we moved. This is a Technicolor camera, serial #7, and is from the 2-strip era of the Technicolor process. Briefly, the 2-strip process shoots 2 simultaneous images, 1 above the other, on a single strip of black and white film, through a specially coated prism. From this original, 2 prints are made, 1 becoming the blue-green record and 1 the violet-red record. The 2 strips are aligned and cemented together back to back to simulate color when projected. When this camera arrived, it would not pull film. I carefully disassembled the camera, beginning at the drive section. The drive on this camera is a Geneva-type, likely selected to facilitate the fast 8-perf pull-down cycle and to lift the pressure plate and prism at the same time. The major problem was that the main drive shaft had sheared in 2 places, at the drive gear, and at the square motor coupling. Luckily, the breaks were clean enough that they could be fit back together in the original orientation. To restore the original drive shaft, I had the 3 pieces EDM machined so they now had holes bored exactly through their centers. The pieces could now be fit on a precision ground shaft, chemically welded, and micro pinned in place. The camera was cleaned, lubricated, reassembled and timed, and tested by hand cranking film through it. Now a working camera once again, it is currently in the Fotokem collection.
