Cine 60 blimp

[GeorgeSelinsky]

I saw an ad for a Cine 60 blimp for the Arri IIc, from an old ad dating to the late 60's or early 70's (from Filmcrew magazine, where they had a collage of old ads). I saw a camera operator hand holding the camera with this big black blimp. I have only once seen this blimp on ebay and it was being sold for parts only (some guy tried to mod it unsuccesfully). This is obviously not the classic S120 blimp that weighs like a tank. Can anyone comment on this particular model? It has a black handle on top of it that looks like it's part of the mag, and the blimp is made of a synthetic like material.

 

Thanks,

 

- George.

[Mitch Gross]

The Cine60 blimp was made of fiberglass to reduce weight. There were two designs, although I'm not sure if the other was actually from Cine60. The first is as you describe, and looks much like the classic Arri blimp. It weighs a lot less but was still difficult if not impossible to handhold. I don't think I'd attempt it in anything but an emergency. The Cine60 was also not as successful in keeping down the camera noise. The other model was made of white fiberglass and used a special long-throat mag to put the film mag vertically behind the operator's shoulder. This made the camer much better balanced for handholding, and the rig worked reasonably well. It still was not quiet enough to indoor sync shooting, but you could get away with it in exteriors and the rig was fairly small and lightweight. But when the BL-1 became widely available it was far quieter and lighter so it pretty much ended the career of that design. These were custon designs from small companies, so there weren't many made. Cine60 used to be in the Film Center Building on 9th Ave. until they closed down a few years ago. There's a restaurant there now. I think Laumic in the same building (are they still there?) bought whatever stock they had left. But that was mostly monitor rentals and battery belts (Haven't we all seen Cine60 battery belts? They used to be the industry standard.), but it's possible there was still a blimp or two around.