The Victor Cine Camera Model 3 is a 16mm spring-driven motion picture camera manufactured by the Victor Animatograph Corporation and introduced in 1927. The company was founded in Davenport, Iowa in 1910 by Swedish-born inventor and showman Alexander Victor. Victor’s career began in 1894 when he joined the show of traveling magician “The Great Stephanio”. […]
Victor Animatograph Co. Model 3 16mm Camera Read More »
Acme’s Model 6 camera was the mainstay in optical printing, animation, and matte painting composite photography work for decades. The Acme Tool and Manufacturing Company began as a contract machine shop in the late 1920’s and entered the motion picture camera manufacturing business in 1930 when they were approached by Walt Disney to modify a
Acme Model 6 Rackover camera Read More »
From the sets of DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” and Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”, we are delighted to present this complete Mitchell Vista Vision camera package. This “Elephant Ear” VistaVision camera, MVV-6, was masterfully restored by my friend Mark Mervis, who collected, restored, and documented this camera and all of these accessories to create this historical camera package.
Mitchell VistaVision Camera MVV6 Read More »
In 1920, Bell & Howell introduced the Cinemotor, a revolutionary electric motor drive for their model 2709 motion picture camera. Research suggests that Bell & Howell was the first to introduce an electric camera motor that incorporated a centrifugal governor and a rheostat in order to achieve constant speeds at variable frame rates. For its
Bell & Howell Cinemotor Read More »
Today I wanted to share a very interesting restoration project I completed shortly before we moved. This is a Technicolor camera, serial #7, and is from the 2-strip era of the Technicolor process. Briefly, the 2-strip process shoots 2 simultaneous images, 1 above the other, on a single strip of black and white film, through
Restoring Technicolor no. 7 Read More »
We had so many interesting comments on last week’s trip down memory lane, I thought I would show another interesting solution to a problem we ran into while shooting space ships. Budget always being a problem, I had to devise a way to get close enough to the miniatures to give the illusion of the
Mitchell Underslung Magazine Adapter Read More »
Taylor, Taylor, and Hobson, makers of the famed Cooke lenses, was founded in 1886 in Leicester, England by brothers William and Thomas Taylor. The company originally produced optical instruments and did not begin making photographic lenses until 1894. Dennis Taylor (no relation to the Taylor brothers), optical manager of the York-based astronomical telescope maker T.
Taylor, Taylor and Hobson Cooke Speed Panchro Lenses Read More »
Now that we are finally settled in our new home, we seem to have an extraordinary amount of time on our hands as a result of the current health crisis. We have been using this time to go through the many boxes of lenses that we have brought into inventory and not yet had time
Collection of Bausch & Lomb Baltar Lenses Read More »
About three years ago, I bought the contents of a storage unit, mostly to acquire a Stein two strip color camera and some vintage lenses. Included in this purchase were what I thought were three 1920’s vintage pan tilt heads. None of them had wooden legs on them at the time of purchase. Among those
Motion Picture Apparatus Co. Precision Ball Bearing Tripod Top Read More »
I have seen and used a number of Mitchell chronograph cameras over the years without really knowing much about them. A few months back I shared an interesting camera I had recently acquired that featured a shutter mounted on the main shaft of the camera movement. Not knowing exactly what this was used for, Erin
Mitchell Type A and Type B Chronograph Cameras Read More »
