Prestwich
The Prestwich Manufacturing Company of Tottenham (London) made cine cameras, and made several basic innovations in them. The company was founded by John Alfred Prestwich (1874-1952) in 1890, according to the BFI,[1] or 1895 according to the London Project.[2]
Prestwich's Model 4 was the first cine camera to have detachable film magazines;[3] an auction listing at Westlicht also states that it was the first to have interchangeable lenses.[4] In the Model 5 camera, the film magazines are enclosed inside the body.[5] Albert Steeman's International Encyclopedia of Cinematographers states that Frank Hurley used a Prestwich camera on Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica in 1914.[6]
The Prestwich company made a number of films itself, including documentary films of great events in London. These include a controversial film of the launching of a battleship, HMS Albion, at which the wave created by the launching led to the drowning of many spectators.[7] The company also distributed other films.[8]
Notes
- ↑ Prestwich company listing at the British Film Institute.
- ↑ Prestwich company listing at The London Project.
- ↑ Prestwich Model 4 cine camera at the National Media Museum, Bradford, UK.
- ↑ Prestwich Model 4, serial no. 208, dated to 1898, with Dallmeyer two- and three-inch lenses. The camera was owned by Gaumont and supposed to have been used to film the funeral of Queen Victoria and the 1908 Olympic Games. Offered at the November 2012 Westlicht Photographica Auction in Vienna.
- ↑ Prestwich Model 5, serial no. 1390, dated to 1900, with a Cooke Cinema two-inch f/3.5 lens, sold at the May 2004 Westlicht auction.
- ↑ Classic motion picture cameras A-P at Albert Steeman's International Encyclopedia of Cinematographers.
- ↑ The Launch of HMS Albion at Blackwall (1898) at BFI Screenonline.
- ↑ Prestwich company listing at IMDb
