Newman Sinclair stop motion camera

Made:
1930-1950 in London
maker:
Newman and Sinclair Limited

A Newman Sinclair stop motion outfit, camera body no. 647 mounted with motor on a baseboard with an f/3.8 24-240 Angeniuex lens and a Bell and Howell magazine. Used at the animation studio of Bob Bura and John Hardwick.

This camera was purchased by the owner in 2016 from an auction of the effects of the creator of The Trumptonshire Trilogy, (Camberwick Green (1966, the first children’s programme in colour on the BBC)), Trumpton (1967) and Chigley (1969) - Gordon Murray, who died in June 2016. Bob Bura and John Hardwick were the animation team that brought Murray’s ideas to life. They had used stop motion animation on adverts and animated inserts for children’s television programmes as well as working on BBC children’s series Mary, Mungo & Midge (1969), Captain Pugwash (1974/5) and The Adventures of Sir Prancelot (1972) as well as The Trumptonshire Trilogy.

Newman Sinclair autokine cameras were first introduced in the 1920s and had a wide range of applications, particularly news, documentary and natural history filming. Compared to other 35mm cameras of the time, it was lightweight and so easier to use in different locations with pre-loaded film cassettes. It was expertly machined making it very reliable and extremely robust (Stanley Kubrick famously threw one off a roof several times to get a shot in A Clockwork Orange and even though the lens was broken the camera continued to work perfectly).

Details

Category:
Cinematography
Object Number:
2017-5015
Materials:
glass, metal (unknown) and plastic (unidentified)
type:
cine camera