What are Moviecams?
Moviecam is a motion picture equipment company specializing in movie camera systems for 35 mm film. Originally started in Vienna as an in-house project of Fritz Gabriel Bauer and Walter Kindler’s Moviegroup film production company in the late 1960s, the amount of research and development needed to create a new and modern motion picture camera system from scratch led to the formal creation of Moviecam as an independent corporate entity in 1976. Although only three camera models (SuperAmerica, Compact, and SL) were produced in significant quantities for international usage, the high quality camera design, simplicity of usage compared to the contemporary models of Arri and Panavision, and integration of modern and pioneering camera features led to widespread usage in the film industry.
Moviecam in the 1990s
Arri subsequently bought the company in the 1990s. At Arri, Bauer developed, together with Walter Trauninger and their camera development team, the Arricam System, which combined the basic movement and design of the Moviecam systems with the precision electronic parts and complement of camera accessories already designed by Arri. The Arricam cameras were released in 2000 and remain the flagship camera line of Arri’s 35 mm products. Despite the fact that Moviecam cameras have not been manufactured for almost ten years, their quality and features have kept them in service to meet their consistent high demand by feature film shoots.
Moviecam Compact
Moviecam Compact is a movie camera product line created by Moviecam in 1990. As such, its potential applications are widespread, and thus it is regularly used on music videos, commercials, second unit work on features, special effects work, and motion control, among other usage. It is currently considered to be the most popular 35 mm movie camera in usage, due to its wide range of production adoption, intuitive design, high reliability, and retail availability. In recognition of the achievements of the Compact system, AMPAS awarded Moviecam a Scientific and Engineering Academy Award in 1993.
