New arrivals: From the Rocco Gioffre collection is a small cache of wonderful items, including some fascinating ancient Cinema Engineering relics I built long ago. In the back row you see a single frame animation motor with a motion control interface box, an RCA friction head with pan handle, some Baltar lenses, some Cooke Speed […]
New: From the Collection of Rocco Gioffre Read More »
Another frequently asked question I get, along with how to thread a camera, is how exactly to get the magazine ready for shooting. I hope I am not boring you all to death with these how-to posts, but I want to make sure to answer some of the more interesting questions I have been getting.
How to Prepare a Mitchell Magazine for Loading with Film Read More »
Recently we noticed a glaring omission from our website. Somehow we never listed this lovely Tandberg reel-to-reel cine tape recorder! Terrible! This unit was serviced by the late Dennis Buhrmann, a master audio technician. The Tandberg was an alternative to the Nagra location recording system and includes many of the same features. Available now! https://bit.ly/3vncZS8
Tandberg Model 11P Reel-to-Reel Tape Recorder 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
I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving holiday, ours was nice and restful. Now that we’re back, I have spent the week hunting everywhere for a suitable replacement grease to finish my work on the Freehead. According to the camera manual, the original grease used in the hydraulic damper for the Freehead was water pump
Good Grease Hunting Read More »
As I am feverishly trying to bring the Fox camera back to shooting condition, a few items remain unfinished. The pan tilt head is stalled while I try to remove the rest of the stubborn screws, wait for rubber hand grips to arrive, and as I machine the pan handle extension locking lever. I have
Powering the Fox Cine Simplex Camera Read More »
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
Fox Cine Simplex Sidefinder Mattes Read More »
I am hoping the people that are reading these posts find this relic from John Hora’s collection as interesting and amazing as I do. Shown here is an original 3-panel slate from the epic western adventure “How the West Was Won” (1962) shot in Cinerama. For those unfamiliar with it, Cinerama was a widescreen format
Production Slate from “How the West Was Won” Read More »
From the collection of Jim Danforth comes another breathtaking piece of equipment, one of the very few surviving ARKO Background Projectors designed and built by Harry Cunningham for Willis O’Brien to create the visual effects for “Mighty Joe Young” (1949). Jim’s early career earned him the reputation of being an extraordinary stop motion animator, sculptor,
ARKO Background Projector Read More »
I have had Parvo #34 in my inventory for some time and have admired the camera, tripod, and pan tilt head since I got it. It was finally time to remove the ancient grease, dirt, and grime, and get everything in working order again. I started with the pan tilt head because, at first glance,
Debrie Parvo Tripod and Pan Tilt Head Read More »
