I am still slowly working on reorganizing the showroom between projects, and I thought I would share with you all this neat stopwatch I keep walking past. The stopwatch was retailed by Birns & Sawyer, a legendary Hollywood equipment rental and manufacturing company, and made for them by an historic German watch maker called Hanhart. […]
Birns & Sawyer Hanhart Studio Stopwatch Read More »
Arriflex 35 II B spinning mirror reflex 35mm camera with standard three position turret featuring ARRI standard lens mounts and sitting on a Birns & Sawyer flatbase with a variable speed motor. The camera comes complete with a matte box and a non-reversible 400’ magazine. So influential was the Arriflex 35 series of cameras, that
A fascinating new Mitchell camera came into my shop last week. It’s in absolutely horrendous condition, but I have saved cameras in worse shape. This camera is a Mitchell Standard with the silenced gear on the movement and a phenolic bull gear. The camera turned out to be #356, and some quick research told us
A Fascinating New Mitchell Camera – Mitchell Standard #356 Read More »
All of the parts for the first six ARRI S/ST power cables have been printed, and the copper electrical ferrules and cable assemblies have been made. I only had time to assemble and test one of them, but here you can see it connected to an ARRI ST and powering the camera. Success! This was
Assembling and Testing the Replacement Power Cable for the ARRI S/ST Read More »
Anyone who has owned an ARRI S camera of any variety knows that the factory power cable has a long, but limited lifespan, and once it’s no longer usable, it quickly becomes unobtainable. I recently acquired 3 ARRI S cameras, and of course, none of them had power cables. As it was high time for
The Elusive ARRI S Power Cable Read More »
The Mitchell KF8 is a 35mm aircraft reconnaissance camera built for the United States Navy in the 1950s. The camera body is based on the design of the Mitchell GC/Standard but adapted to capture high speed reconnaissance motion pictures from the nose cone of an aircraft. The viewfinder and L-base were omitted from the design,
Mitchell KF-8 Aircraft Reconnaissance Camera Read More »
These two ARRI 16 S cameras come from the collection of five-time Emmy Award winning photojournalist, author, and owner of video rental firm Videosmith, Steven Trent Smith. These early ARRI 16 Ss, variously nicknamed the “flat door ARRI”, feature the older style viewfinder optics and door castings. You can see in later examples of the
Two ARRI 16S Cameras – Now Available! Read More »
Now that I am fully back in work mode, I thought I would share with you a little more of what work had to be done to bring this Camera Equipment Company Gyro Head back to working condition. Originally, this gyro head had some sort of threaded center axle that did a couple of jobs:
A Camera Equipment Company Gyro Head Read More »
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
A Road Trip and a Gyro Head Read More »
A future project, fresh from the warehouse! This Mitchell BNCR has been waiting patiently for its turn to be cleaned, lubricated, and restored. Recently it has been moved into our showroom and we hope to start work on it in the coming months. It is a wonderful example of a spinning mirror reflexed Mitchell BNCR
An Upcoming Restoration Project: Mitchell BNCR 306 Read More »
