Arriflex 35BL


The Arriflex 35BL is a 35mm motion picture camera released by ARRI in 1972.

Function

The Arriflex 35BL was the first silent 35mm camera. It uses a fixed butterfly reflex shutter, which gave the cinematographer an exact representation of the recorded frame. It recorded up to 100fps, which was revolutionary to document sport events. It uses a dual registration pin system. Further it has an odometer styled analogue footage counter. The camera uses both 400ft and 1200ft magazines.

History

The development of the 35BL began in 1966, since there was no handholdable, silent, reflex 35mm camera at that time. The release of this camera, together with the in 1975 released Panaflex Lightweight changed the filmmaking process profoundly and made big camera setups like the Mitchel BNCR obsolete.
The Arriflex 35BL was released just in time to document the 1972 Summer Olympics, in Arri's hometown Munich. This led to a huge boost in popularity of this camera. It was also one of Arri's longest running product lines, being produced from 1972 till 1990, when the Arriflex 535 took over.

Models

Arriflex 35BL I