CinemaGear – Page 2 – CinemaGear

Images from the “Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema” exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

A Preview of the “Color in Motion” Exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

October 11, 2024 / Cameras

On Saturday, October 5th, my family and I had the privilege of attending a preview of the new “Color in Motion: Chromatic Explorations of Cinema” exhibit at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. I was pleased to find a fairly comprehensive exploration of the history and evolution of color in motion pictures. The exhibit opens […]

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Resurrecting Beginner Friendly 16mm Cameras: ARRI 16 ST, Bolex H16, Krasnogorsk-3

Resurrecting a Bunch of 16mm Cameras: ARRI, Bolex, Krasnogorsk

October 4, 2024 / Cameras, Restoration

I have a bunch of 16mm cameras that came into my inventory along with other things and have been lounging, neglected, for quite some time. As 16mm is having a little bit of a resurgence, it seemed reasonable to try to find homes for these beginner friendly cameras. The star of this week’s labors are

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Fries 35R3 spinning mirror reflex motion picture film camera with PL, Nikon, Panavision, and BNCR mounts, Lynx Robotics crystal motor and battery eliminator, video tap, and magazines

Lens Mounts for All Occasions: The Versatile Fries 35R3

September 27, 2024 / Cameras

I acquired this Fries 35R3 camera as part of a retired cinematographer’s kit and held onto it for a while to play with it as it just had so many lens mounts! Now that my curiosity is satisfied, I began to go through the camera to make it ready for sale. The interesting thing I

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Arriflex SR 16mm motion picture film camera with magazine and Zeiss Vario-Sonnar 10-100mm zoom lens.

ARRI SR: Back and Better Than Ever!

September 20, 2024 / Cameras

Late last year, I acquired a hoard of 16mm cameras, and this ARRI SR was a part of that group. At the time, I sold the camera, unrestored, to a friend. Now it has come back to me as part of a trade, having been fully serviced, the belts replaced, and the rear footage indicator

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Two photos of a group of five 35mm Arriflex II B and II C cameras on a table. A caption at the top right reads “Cleaning and servicing five Arriflex 35 IIB & IIC Cameras”. A caption at the bottom left reads “All cameras were all disassembled, deep cleaned, lubricated, reassembled, the timing was set, motors were installed, and the cameras were run with film. All are now ready to shoot film once again.”

Catching Up On Some ARRI 35 2B and 2C Camera

September 13, 2024 / Cameras

Alongside time spent with the Dykstraflex team evaluating the condition of the crane after its move out of the museum, I devoted some time this week to servicing and repairing as many of the ARRI 2B and 2C cameras I have in stock as I had time for. Among this group of 5, two cameras

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Arriflex 35 BL 4S – Back in Action

September 6, 2024 / Cameras

I have been holding onto this Arriflex 35 BL 4S camera until I could really dig into the inner workings and make sure everything is in good working order. This is one of the two BL 4S cameras I used to shoot features for Lucky Brown at his MovieTech Studios. When I purchased the remaining

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A visit to the Walt Disney Family Museum in the Presidio area of San Francisco, a model of Disneyland, and Mitchell GC #1048 with underwater housing used to film the underwater sequences in the 1954 film “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea”.

Visiting the Walt Disney Family Museum

August 30, 2024 / Cameras, Company Updates

One of my daughters had an event to attend in San Francisco, so I decided to take a few well earned days off and join her. The 400 plus mile drive up highway 101 was pleasant and uneventful. My wife and I visited relatives while our daughter went to her event, but the highlights of

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Repairing an ARRI Follow Focus 2 for an ARRI 35 BL 4S motion picture camera

Repairing the ARRI BL 4S Follow Focus

August 23, 2024 / Accessories, Restoration

I am taking a couple of days off this week, but before I do, I wanted to go through the accessories that come with the ARRI BL 4S camera I began repairing last week. The first thing I looked at was the follow focus unit, which would not … follow focus? What I discovered was

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Replacing the main and shutter drive belts in an ARRI 35 BL 4S motion picture camera

ARRI BL 4S – Finally on the Bench

August 16, 2024 / Cameras, Restoration

As I suspected, and you can see clearly in the attached pictures, the camera and shutter drive belts on this ARRI BL 4S had shredded and desperately needed to be replaced. Replacing the belts in these BL cameras is a monumentally difficult task. The BL 4S is one of my very favorite cameras, but it

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Twentieth Century-Fox Cine Simplex camera no. 114

Twentieth Century-Fox Cine Simplex no.114 – Off to a New Life!

August 9, 2024 / Cameras

One of the most outstanding pieces of film gear from Lucky Brown’s collection was this complete Twentieth Century-Fox Cine Simplex camera. This camera came with all of the accessories, including the matte box, eyebrow, sidefinder, magazines, the full set of Baltar lenses, automatic slating device, eyepiece, follow focus, and pretty much all of the other

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