Remote Focus Controller.... from 1939

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

Ryan Patrick O'Hara

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[h=5]Remote focus controller... circa 1939. Found in an article about camera gear written by Gregg Toland, ASC. Pictured in use by his assistant Edward Garvin. Wired, of course, but still very interesting.

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To paraphrase Orson Wells, "A "Golden Age of Movies" studio fully equipped machine shop is the best toy train set a boy ever had!"...
 
Where did you find these images? Google doesn't recognize them. I'm very curious if somebody named Preston was involved in this device.
 
nothing said:
Where did you find these images? Google doesn't recognize them. I'm very curious if somebody named Preston was involved in this device.
Click to expand...

I'd highly doubt it, but it's possible? I don't know the history of the Preston line. I got these images from an American Cinematographer magazine I own from 1939. Just took a photo with my iPhone.

I have a feeling it was made by a studio technician. Most toys were made by the studios for the studios back in the day.
 
Does anybody else think the top sections of those tripod legs look awfully spindly for a camera and head of that weight?

- Greg
 
It must have been nice to be a cinematographer with a gadget division at your disposal. Every new toy must have been a life-changing revelation in those days.
 
stefancolson said:
It must have been nice to be a cinematographer with a gadget division at your disposal. Every new toy must have been a life-changing revelation in those days.
Click to expand...

For that, I would wear a coat and tie to work everyday also!!

Yeah, the work of the studio era cinematographers leaves me in awe! They had amazing resources to be sure but they really, really did break a lot of ground in the making of their images. Take a look at a film like "Gone With The Wind". It is my understanding that the Technicolor process they used had an ASA rating (ISO) of around 12. I can't imagine how difficult it must have been to work at the light levels they did. key light with Brute Arc lights!! Amazing.
 
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