I don’t recall exactly which group of equipment this Gibraltar Quick-Set pan tilt head arrived with, but I couldn’t bear to just throw it away, despite the fact that it arrived with seemingly no way to mount it to a tripod, and no pan handle. I decided it would be ideal if I could make […]
Repairing a Gibraltar Quick-Set Pan Tilt Head Read More »
Amongst the remarkable antique camera haul I shared with you a couple of weeks ago was, what at first glance, looked like a very gently used Auricon tripod with friction head. When we pulled the tripod out of its shipping tube, it had been disassembled, the legs separate from the pan tilt head. At this
Mending a Slightly Wounded Auricon Tripod Read More »
I have an amazing archive of old, unrestored tripods from many different eras that have been sitting, waiting their turn to be joined with the right camera. When the clean-up of the Pathé Professional camera was complete, this tripod seemed like a match made in movie heaven. I rescued this Motion Picture Apparatus Co. tripod
A Classic Tripod for a Classic Pathé Professional Camera Read More »
I have been hard at work this week on restoring the Motion Picture Apparatus Company tripod, but in the meantime I wanted to share with you this quick project I completed while waiting for paint and parts to arrive. This Manfrotto 3066 tripod has been sitting in the shop for several years missing its quick
A New Quick Release for a Manfrotto Tripod Read More »
As part of my involvement with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences History and Technology Subcommittee, we have been hard at work getting the Dykstraflex cleaned up and ready to be exhibited at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures. This was a long and tedious process, involving a fair amount of logistics, cleaning,
Preparing for May the 4th: The Dykstraflex at the Academy Museum Read More »
Much like the high quality, all-aluminum Peter Lisand pedestals, the inventory I bought from the Lisand family included quite a few of these well thought out, well made, medium duty shoulder and body braces. I have used one with a RED Dragon and with a Canon T3i to shoot video, and they were simple to
Peter Lisand Shoulder and Body Braces Read More »
Much like the high quality, all-aluminum Peter Lisand pedestals, the inventory I bought from the Lisand family included quite a few of these well thought out, well made, medium duty shoulder and body braces. I have used one with a RED Dragon and with a Canon T3i to shoot video, and they were simple to
Peter Lisand Shoulder and Body Braces Read More »
Several years ago I bought out the remaining inventory of the Peter Lisand company, a New Jersey-based manufacturer of high quality motion picture and photographic equipment. This purchase included a number of really well designed and manufactured tripods, body braces, and these excellent studio pedestals. Most of the tripods and fluid heads went very quickly,
Peter Lisand Studio Pedestals Read More »
As we continued our search to find the proper name for the Mitchell geared head, which we still have not found, we came across this charming advertisement that Mitchell placed in “American Cinematographer” magazine in March 1931. In the ad, there are two camera operators, one using a geared head and one a friction head.
Trivia About the Mitchell Geared Head and Friction Head Read More »
An interesting question was posed recently to the committee I serve on at the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences asking about the history of geared pan/tilt heads. The questioner was only aware of the Worrall geared head, so many of us contributed our experiences with other styles and manufacturers of geared heads that
Mitchell Geared Heads Read More »
