One of the most unique and sought-after sound era production cameras is the Twentieth Century-Fox Cine-Simplex camera. Camera number 109 was a key part of John Hora’s camera collection and will be my next major restoration project. Some of the key features that made the Cine-Simplex stand out were the design of the film transport, the shutter mechanism, and the unique rackover system that made this camera “sound silent without a blimp”. John managed to collect almost every matched part and accessory that would be included in a Cine-Simplex package, including the automatic slater, the Baltar lenses, the sidefinder, and rarest of all, the pan/tilt head. In my initial survey of the camera, I was able to turn the mechanisms over by hand. The camera seems to turn over smoothly, but it has been sitting idle so long that an in depth service needs to be done before I actually try to run it. Shown is the camera assembled and in its currently unrestored state, along with most of its accessories. This is only the 2nd Cine-Simplex I have ever seen in person, and the 1st one I’ll have a chance to actually work on. Who knows, maybe I’ll shoot something with it!
