Some time back, we acquired some military surplus Mitchell KF8 camera bodies and accessories. Only one of the cameras was complete, but each camera arrived with a case of 3 to 6 lenses in giant housings. Upon further inspection, we discovered that these were mostly Bausch & Lomb Baltar 50mm, 100mm, and 152mm lenses, along […]
A Bounty of Baltars Read More »
The camera is all back together and, as you’ll see in the video, it is amazingly quiet. I hope you will forgive the road noise in the background, but frankly I just couldn’t drag the camera back upstairs where it is quieter. At the end of the video is a demonstration of the unique rackover
A Penultimate Update on the Fox Camera Read More »
My disappointment was palpable, though not unexpected, when I turned the camera on for the first time and heard the terrible sound of the shutter scraping against the innards of the camera. The journey now returned to taking the camera apart again, and removing the camera from the rackover cradle so I could get to
Oxidation Troubles with the Fox Camera Shutter Read More »
After powering up and running the camera for only a few seconds, I noticed that the camera was producing a horrible scraping noise. The noise was very similar to what you get on a Mitchell camera when the shutter blades scrape against the forward-most light trap. This, unfortunately, was a sign that I needed to
Not So Silent, Silent Camera Read More »
New This Week: An Angenieux 25-250mm T3.9 zoom lens in Arriflex Standard mount with the bracketry for a J4 zoom motor. I may have to pull a J4 out of my parts inventory and fit it to this lens. https://bit.ly/3qCzlg7
Angenieux Zoom Lens Read More »
While I was struggling this week with a strange shutter noise on the Fox camera, I helped a private collector from back East to transfer these two amazing cameras to another private collector here in Los Angeles. The first camera is a 1910 Debrie Le Parvo Special, which is unique in that the camera housing
Two Beautiful Hand-Crank Cameras, ca. 1910 Read More »
New to the site this week are a variety of prime lenses from brands like Kinoptik, Cooke, Bausch & Lomb, and Astro Berlin. More lenses to come!
New for the week of 1/11/22 Read More »
Happy new year everyone! A brief progress report on the Freehead for this first Friday of the new year: It’s as finished as I have time to work on it. Because this project is so interesting, it has gone way over the time I had set aside to finish it. There is still some air
Fox Freehead Restoration Complete! Read More »
One final check in before we take a few days off for the holidays. The Fox Freehead is now about 90% repaired. I have been working on the frozen tilt axis for the last week; it is another remarkable piece of engineering. The tilt axis is made up of a two-part casting that houses the
A Final 2021 Update on the Fox Freehead Read More »
I wanted to share one more truly amazing item from John Hora’s collection before the end of the year. John was involved in a project in 2012, along with fellow cinematographer Douglas Knapp and director David Strohmaier, filming a three-panel Cinerama travelog about Los Angeles in the original Cinerama style. Additionally John was part of
