As I am still working on the movement from the Fox Camera, I thought I would answer the questions I have received regarding oiling the movement. While in use, the movement would obviously be in the camera, but it is far easier to show the oil points with the movement out of the camera. If […]
Servicing the Fox Camera Movement Read More »
There are 2 things I thought would be interesting to share this week. Back in the mid-1980’s, I was buying equipment from a fellow who lived in Sacramento, and one of the things that was included in the pile of stuff was a set of the shop blueprints and handwritten notes from the Twentieth Century-Fox
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We acquired Mitchell Standard #532 in 2021 from the camera inventory of John Lemmon Films, Inc., a studio based in Charlotte, North Carolina who specialized in clay animation. The camera was originally purchased by the United States Army Signal Corps in 1943. When the camera arrived in our shop, I found that the variable shutter
Mitchell Standard sn. 532 Read More »
At the heart of the Fox Cine Simplex camera is the film transport. The differences between the much loved Mitchell NC and BNC style movements and the Fox movement are very difficult to describe in words. The answer seemed to be a short video demonstrating the unique features of the Fox camera’s pulldown and registration
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In my last post, I talked about the soundproofing material I found inside the Fox Cine-Simplex camera. As I dig deeper, I am more and more impressed with the lengths the designers went to in their efforts to isolate all of the moving parts from the body of the camera to make it as quiet
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The deeper I dive into servicing the Fox Cine Simplex camera, the more fascinating engineering choices I find. As I was checking lubrication for the main drive, shutter shaft, and sprocket drive, I discovered the camera cavity was full of what looks like wool. A terrific early insulation, the wool would enhance the sound-proof nature
Continuing the Disassembly of the Cine Simplex Read More »
While I have seen Cine Simplex cameras in the past, this is the first opportunity I have had to examine one in depth. Like the many cameras I have worked on, the movement is the heart of the beast, so that is where I have started my service on this one. The movement on the
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Before I started to clean up the Cine Simplex camera, I took some time to clean and service John Hora’s Mitchell Mark II. Like much of the equipment John collected, this camera has been tweaked and modified to meet his exacting standards. This camera features a Cinema Products BNCR hard front (modified from the original
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My dear friend Peter Anderson raised an interesting question about the drop-in sidefinder mattes, so I went back and looked at them more carefully. This camera has 2 sets, one marked TV and one unmarked, but probably for feature films. These are transparent acetate slides that have precision cutouts to match the field of view
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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,
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