I only regret how long it has taken me to get this camera and tripod cleaned up and restored, for they are both excellent examples of fine early motion picture equipment. The Pathé camera has a long history of being copied by other makers, like the Lubin camera and the Wilart, because of its wonderful […]
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 »
A client asked me to inspect 2 more Fries 15-perf pull-across 3×65 IMAX-format movements. At first, this looked like it would be a simple project as I rebuilt a similar movement to these recently. However, no simple repair is ever as simple as it seems, and during my initial examination of the first of these
It has been a long and rainy week here in Los Angeles, but I did finally get a chance to run film through the Pathé Professional camera! This journey began with me questioning myself about how I was going to put film in these magazines. A few of the cameras I have worked on that
I Finally Got a Chance to Run Film Through the Pathé Read More »
This week turned out to be really busy, so I didn’t get to try running the camera with film as I had been hoping, but I still made good progress on getting the camera ready to run film. This Pathe has a number of interesting stock features and aftermarket modifications. These include a through the
Continuing Work on the Pathé Professional Camera #1124 Read More »
I had a break in my schedule this week to focus on the wooden Pathé hand crank camera I introduced last October. I have been looking forward to working on this camera since it arrived in the shop. When the Pathé got here, it was in very nice condition, with only a few minor problems
Restoring Pathé Professional Camera #1124 Read More »
Last week, this gorgeous Pathé Cinematographe came into the shop to be cleaned and serviced before being offered for sale to some lucky person. I have only had time to do a quick walk around to take a closer look at the incredible engineering and amazing forethought that this camera represents. This Pathé is housed
A First Look at an Amazing Pathe Cinematographe Hand Crank Camera Read More »
One of the most outstanding pieces of film gear from Lucky Brown’s collection was this complete Twentieth Century-Fox Cine Simplex camera. This camera came with all of the accessories, including the matte box, eyebrow, sidefinder, magazines, the full set of Baltar lenses, automatic slating device, eyepiece, follow focus, and pretty much all of the other
Twentieth Century-Fox Cine Simplex no.114 – Off to a New Life! Read More »
After countless interruptions, numerous wrinkle paint failures, much choking on magnesium dust, and stripping and re-foaming all of the original cases, the VistaVision Butterfly camera and all of its accessories is finally ready to find a new home! This updated Mitchell VistaVision “light-weight hand-held” production camera features a Nikon lens mount; a crystal motor with
VistaVision Butterfly Read More »
Some 40+ years ago, I had the privilege of being one of the engineers and cameramen at the Universal Studios Hartland visual effects facility. One of the many things I designed and built there was a 3-axis motion control model mover. My friend Peter Anderson rescued part of one of these model movers and kept
A Visitor from the Past – the Hartland 3-Axis Model Mover Read More »
