I hurt my back out over the weekend, so I’ve been mostly taking it easy this week. Did a little bit of work on one of my friend Daniil’s ARRI ST Super 16 conversions, and then sat and admired this fascinating Newman & Sinclair camera that we took in a year or so ago.
This camera came from the collection of five-time Emmy Award winning photojournalist, author, and owner of video rental firm Videosmith, Steven Trent Smith. I know very little about this camera and haven’t done any restoration work on it yet, but it is a running camera, dirty, and in need of cleanup and lubrication. From the extremely basic research I have done so far, I am not certain what model this camera is, but I think it is an Autokine, possibly a Model E?
Having built several prototype cameras from the ground up out of aluminum plates, this camera looks very much like something that was completely handmade, one at a time. This particular Newman & Sinclair is a clockwork camera with two main springs and two separate winding handles. It features a fascinating, three part viewfinding system.
One part being a through-the-film viewfinder on the door that also allows you to rack the main lens over to a ground glass on the door. It also has a Newton finder with interchangeable field lenses. I am very intrigued and can’t wait to break it down, clean it up, and find it a new home.
