My family and I went on a much-needed weekend road trip to two of the most spectacular places in California this week, Yosemite and King’s Canyon, just to take a little break. One of the projects I started before we left was the restoration of a Camera Equipment Company Gyro Head. I had never seen or heard of this particular pan tilt head before, my experience with gyro heads has all been with the various Akeley gyro heads. For those unfamiliar with a gyro head, it is the great grandfather of the fluid head. A fluid head basically uses oil, or some other viscous fluid, to smooth the pan and tilt axes. A gyro head uses a gear train to do the same. It’s an amazing set of complicated clockwork gear boxes, one for pan and one for tilt. This particular unit came in a trade from my good friend Michael Madden as it needed much more machine work than he could do in his small shop. I’ll go more in depth on this project next week when I have time to finish it. Here are a few pictures of how I began the restoration, and some of the breathtaking sights we saw at the National Parks.
