As a prelude to some work I will be doing in the next week or so evaluating the Mitchell 205, I was hoping to begin this week by taking a deep dive into some history of this camera. However, after many hours of searching, we are no more informed about the history of the 205
Mitchell 205 35mm Silent Studio Camera Read More »
Ok, so there was one further delay with me demonstrating the rebuilt TechniCraft sync sound motor on Mitchell BNC Rackover #357, but it’s ready now! While every detail of this camera has not yet been fully examined, I did the basic service to make sure that nothing would be harmed while demonstrating the motor. I
TechniCraft Motor Running Test: Mitchell BNC Rackover 357 Read More »
A brief post this week as we have spent much of the last week and a half unburying the collection of my dear friend Ewing Miles “Lucky” Brown. I’m sorry I forgot to take a picture of the disaster that was the storage space where Lucky’s equipment has been living for the past few years,
Digging for Treasure at the Remains of MovieTech Studios Read More »
A quick recap since my last update on this camera back in March: I have been restoring an original rackover Mitchell BNC (#357), but ran into some difficulties with motors. I first tried the TechniCraft motor that came with the camera, but the motor would not find sync, it just ran wild. Then I tried
A Motor Update for Mitchell Rackover BNC #357 Read More »
Way back in 2019, I was asked to rebuild the missing sections from the Dykstraflex camera moving system so that a working Dykstraflex could be demonstrated at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Galactic Innovations event. This project happened on a tight schedule, and in the middle of me moving my business across
Further Adventures with the Dykstraflex Read More »
A friend of mine pointed me toward an estate sale of a former USC professor last week and I found a couple of interesting relics that begged me to bring them home. This home in Westwood, CA had the most amazing and eclectic collection of just about anything you could think of, from a player
Estate Sale Finds! Read More »
Last week’s experiments with Showscan lenses got me thinking about the Showscan equipment I have left around the shop. Among these leftover pieces is this CP 65 camera body that lacks most of its electronics and its movement. The camera casting is serial no. 101, and as I looked it over, I thought it would
Revisiting CP 65 Showscan Camera sn. 101 Read More »
I have shown you my recent work repairing the Fries Ultra 70 3×65 IMAX format camera. The owner of this camera doesn’t have lenses that were made specifically for it, but it occurred to me that the lenses that were built for the CP65 Showscan cameras “might” work in this situation. This week I experimented
A Lens Mount Experiment Read More »
Continuing on from my work last week replacing the belts in the ARRI 35 BL 4S, this week I set out to repair the broken video tap. The damage was likely caused by someone mistakenly picking up the ARRI camera by the video tap. I have seen this on a number of other cameras from
Finishing Repairs on the Arri 35 BL 4S Read More »
A few weeks ago, a dear friend of mine called with a slight amount of panic in his voice to tell me his venerable Arri 35 BL 4S had stopped working. After a little detective work over the phone, we concluded that the problem was likely with the drive belts, an unfortunately common problem with
Arri 35 BL 4S Drive Belt Replacement Read More »
