Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Australian Antarctic Division Flies Regularly to the Antarctic

07/07/2007 Skytraders VH-VHD

This aircraft is leased to the Australian Antarctic Division for flights from Hobart, Tasmania to Wilkins Ice Runway, 70km inland from Casey Station Antarctica.








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Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Film Cameras

I list here some most used and famous film cameras. The Arriflex 35 II is one of the most significant motion picture cameras of all time.




The introduction of the Arriflex 35 took place in 1937 at the Leipzig Trade Fair in Germany. It was originally designed as a hand-held newsreel camera. It had the sad task of recording the rise and fall of Hitler’s regime: the Axis pacts, the invasion of France, the Russian disaster, Musolini’s death and the Nuremberg trials. Many World War II documentaries include much German material shot with Arriflexes.

The 35IIC has no internal electronics (except for optional items such as pilotone generators). The motor mounts to the bottom of the camera and can be used as a handgrip. ARRI supplied either constant speed (24 or 25 fps) or variable speed DC motors. The motors were very simple with no control electronics.

The 35 II was one of the very few 35mm reflex hand-held cameras available at the time. As new filmmaking styles emerged in the 1950’s and 1960’s, the 35 II became even more popular. The camera was used extensively by all “New Wave” filmmakers around the world, freeing them from being tied down with heavy studio cameras such as the Mitchell BNCR, which although they were excellent cameras, required two men to lift, making handheld filming impossible.




BNCR is a lens mount developed by Mitchell for use with their REFLEX 35 mm movie cameras.It was an update of the BNC mount done to accommodate the mirror in the new reflex cameras. BNC mount lenses cannot be used in reflex Mitchell cameras as they will hit and damage the mirror! The BNC mount may also be referred to as BNC, NC, or Mitchell standard mount. The full abbreviation stands for "Blimped News Camera Reflex", which meant that it was a 35 mm camera intended for news reporting, and included a blimped housing to reduce noise and a reflex shutter to allow the camera operator to view the action through the lens while filming.

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