Moviecam SuperAmerica

SOLD
Item #C14533

The Moviecam SuperAmerica is an extraordinary 35mm sound silent motion picture camera. This particular camera is offered with two 1000' magazines, extra main drive boards, the diagnostic module, power cords, and cases. When it was introduced in the 1980s, the Moviecam SuperAmerica (and its successor the MK 2) represented a seachange in the design and functionality of professional motion picture cameras. The design of the original SuperAmerica camera was far more user friendly, and incorporated much more modern electronics and advanced engineering than its contemporaries. The SuperAmerica MK 2 was the next generation of this groundbreaking design, featuring improvements pulled directly from feedback given by actual users of the camera. The popularity of the MK 2 led to Moviecam's acquisition by Arriflex in the 1990s, and culminated in the introduction of the ARRICAM.

This Moviecam SuperAmerica was part of Bruce Taylor’s inventory and came to me for some tlc and to find it a new home. Mechanically, this camera is in fine condition, but it had a couple of minor electronics problems when it arrived. The run switch on the back of the camera was not working, the footage and frame counters needed some work, and the camera, once it started, would not stop running. My friend Arnold Peterson, genius that he is, was able to diagnose and repair these three problems and bring everything back to proper working order. While Arnie did a deep dive into the video tap, the electronics there are so out of date, they were not economically repairable. The existing video tap optics can work as a pass through to a monitor, but the imaging tube is old and the image quality is marginal. Otherwise, this is now a great working camera. The SuperAmerica series offers a number of terrific features, as it is sync sound quiet, is reasonably lightweight, so it can be used handheld or on a pan tilt head, and it has a nice bright orientable viewfinder. Sadly I don’t have the top magazine adapter for this camera, but as you see it, it is a great production tool. The extra main drive boards have also been serviced.