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 »
A friend of mine pointed me toward an estate sale of a former USC professor last week and I found a couple of interesting relics that begged me to bring them home. This home in Westwood, CA had the most amazing and eclectic collection of just about anything you could think of, from a player
Estate Sale Finds! 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 »
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 »
It’s alive! The FC friction head restoration is finally complete! Here, you can see the friction head supporting Mitchell FC camera sn.8. Mitchell friction heads have a surprising number of parts that all had to be reconditioned or remanufactured in order to make this unit complete again. The casting hides 10 steel friction plates, 14
The Mitchell FC Friction Head Is Complete! Read More »
After much struggle, hammering, prying, wiggling, pushing, and pulling, I was finally able to completely disassemble this much abused unit. It is shown here in its current state, all the pieces cleaned for rust, petrified grease, and stripped of the old, crumbling paint. I still need to make a couple more parts before everything gets
An Update on the Mitchell FC Friction Head Read More »
A pan/tilt head for our John Wayne Grandeur camera! My friend Michael Geiger came across this partial original Mitchell FC friction head and was nice enough to sell it to me. It arrived missing the top plate, tie-down screw, castle nut, handle attachment plate, and the telescopic handle. But, it has an original Mitchell FC
Mitchell FC Friction Head Restoration Read More »
Originally introduced in 1946, the Mitchell 16 professional motion picture camera incorporated the features and design that had made Mitchell’s 35mm cameras so successful. The Mitchell 16 was advertised as a more compact package, well suited to 16mm cinematography. Alongside the camera, Mitchell introduced a full complement of accessories, including a sidefinder, tripod, and friction
Mitchell 16mm Friction Head Read More »
