Arnold & Richter Kinarri
Kinarri 35mm Motion Picture Camera
One hundred years ago, the very first Arnold & Richter Cine Technik motion picture camera was produced, marking a significant and remarkable milestone in the long history of filmmaking. Clearly inspired by the distinct shape and innovative design of the earlier Akeley Pancake Camera, the Kinarri was introduced almost seven years later in 1924, and this was just the beginning of an impressive journey for the company we now know today as simply Arri. This journey would span an entire century, showcasing a legacy of excellence in camera design and technology that has profoundly influenced the film industry.
“The attractive, handy device has a round shape based on the model used by American filmmakers and is extremely light. The film strip is guided in such a way that it cannot get caught anywhere; a smooth, non-jerky movement of the film strip is guaranteed. The device’s noiseless operation is remarkable. ”
Robert Richter and his first camera
Arnold & Richter
August Arnold and Robert Richter were childhood friends who met in their teens in 1913. They shared the same interests in movies and mechanical apparatus and eventually worked together in a bicycle repair shop and later at a local electrical company.
August Arnold and Robert Richter founders of Arri in 1917
In 1915, they met Martin Kopp, a Newsreel cameraman. The friends started working as Kopp’s assistants on his newsreels. They spent much of their time in the film lab experimenting and eventually they established a reputation as freelance cameramen. Fascinated with animated pictures they purchased an Alfred Darling designed Urban 35mm camera and began producing short films. This work led to experimenting and modifications to the camera and eventually to designing their own camera.
Arnold & Richter began as Filmmakers
August and Robert were successful filmmakers in Germany first when they founded Arnold & Richter Cine Technik in 1917 in Munich, Germany. They started with the production of an early motion-picture film printer built in 1917 with a small Lathe Richter received for Christmas from his family. It took nearly 7 years before they introduced their first camera, the Kinarri 35 and soon after they opened a film lab and began servicing European and American filmmakers and studios.
“Fine mechanics, electrical devices, arc lamps, film apparatus, film printers, camera operating and projection.”
The Kinarri was named by combining the word Kino, German for cinema with the first two letters of each founders name. Their company would later be shortened to Arri, and for the next 100 years Arri would be a dominant player in the film industry.
August Arnold and Robert Richter move into a small shop at Türkenstrasse 89 on September 12, 1917.
“Arnold & Richter, Munich, Türkenstrasse 89 (Platz 128), caused a certain sensation at the Leipzig Autumn Fair by bringing out a new amateur cinema camera, the “Kinarri”. The light and small device holds around 15m of standard film. A round metal housing encloses the two film reels. The housing has a diameter of 17cm and is 7cm thick. The film is transported in the image window by a one-sided gripper. The lens for the “Kinarri” is an “Arrinar”, an anastigmat with a focal length of 40mm and a relative aperture of 1:2.7. The lens has a revolving aperture, into which the required aperture for the lighting conditions is engraved for the layman. Next to it is the setting scale for different distances. The shutter is unusual for the camera, An endless metal band, which is provided with several slots, rotates between the cylindrical double walls of the gripper. These slots slide past the exposure window close to the film and cause the exposure, the duration of which would be equivalent to that of a rotating aperture with a 180° opening.”
Kinarri 35mm Motion Picture Camera
Pre-Production model
Kinarri 35 Pre-Production example
The earlier pre-production cameras were very similar to the final design with only small modifications to the final production model, which started delivery in late 1924.
The Kinarri 35 was designed by August Arnold as an amateur camera, a compact hand-cranked model housing 50 feet of standard 35mm film. Robert Richter wanted to test the first model in the US and, if possible, sell it there. It was completed in early 1924 and shipped to Richter in Hollywood, where he was learning about the American film business. However, during a rough ride through the Grand Canyon, the mechanism fell apart. Back in Munich, Arnold quickly made some modifications to the camera and it was introduced to the public on August 26, 1924 at the Leipzig Autumn Fair.
“Fig. 6 shows the film path in the “Kinarri.” Its unique design keeps the camera completely vibration-free, even on a standard wooden tripod. The “Kinarri” typically uses film reels with 15 meters of film instead of cassettes. Kinarri was designed for ‘standard’ film’ (35mm), making it possible to display the negatives with home cinema systems and large theater projectors. ”
The shutter is unique, like the Akeley it rotated around the body, but thats the only similarity. The Kinarri has a double wall inner aluminum drum with four cutouts that form the shutter as described in a trade publication shortly after the final design was presented:
“The “Kinarri” cinema camera has now found its final form. Its metal housing consists of a round leather-covered aluminum drum, between whose double wall a sheet metal drum with four slots rotates in the opposite direction to the gripper pull. This compensates for the slight vibrations caused by the intermittent transport of the film; a Kinarri camera suspended freely on a thread, which is fed with film and driven by a motor, remains completely immobile in its position once it has been swung out. The sheet metal double cassette has a four-tooth drum inside between the feed and feed slots, which is already brought into engagement with the film in the darkroom. The camera can therefore be fed with a new cassette and fresh film in just a few seconds. The cassettes hold 25 m. The camera has the well-known “Arri” double gripper, a film meter that can be set to zero, a Newtonian viewfinder and either an “Arrinar”, 1:2.7, with a 35 mm focal length or any other lens on request.”
The iris is a simple metal disk mounted behind the lens with the outer edge exposed thru a slit in the side cover, allowing the operator easy access to exposure adjustments.
Kinarri 35
The very first Arri camera was not a huge commercial success and despite only a small number of Kinarri cameras being produced it nonetheless established the two partners as successful leaders in a relatively new industry. It was in these early years that Arnold and Richter realized that renting their cameras to colleagues between jobs could be as profitable as selling them. This along with the manufacture of lighting equipment and film printers established a model that made Arri successful for the next 100 years.
“In the ten years of its existence, the Arnold & Richter company in Munich has made a name for itself in film technology circles.
It is characteristic of them that all their technical designs arise directly from their own practice, because the production of numerous instructional and advertising films, which are completed in their own copying facility, provides the precision mechanics workshop with all those valuable documents that are based on their own work experience...”
The Ariel Cinematographica Register- ACR 016
The Kinarri is extremely rare today, with less than a dozen known examples. Its not known how many cameras were originally produced, but among all the known examples none have a serial number with more than two digits and the highest serial number this collector has seen in 40 years of searching is No. 11. Each was hand built, and each of these known examples have subtle build differences. My example featured here is not numbered, it is one of the early test models built prior to adding serial numbers.
Kinarri with travel case
Minor variations between known examples
Row 1- Handle mounts- Production models have a single post with a split ring, earlier pre-production models have a machined aluminum bar with two attachment points on each side.
Row 2- Lock for side panel, all examples have a single center mount except the example in the Arri Collection which has two locks.
Row 3- Examples No. 7, 8 and No. 11 have Kinarri engraved on the front of the base plate, pre-production models do not.
Row 4- Lens mounts- Pre-production models have 2 screws securing the lens to the body and production models have 4 screws.
Row 5- Rear side finder sight is larger on some examples.
Arnold & Richter Kinarri No. 11, 1924
Gallery of known production models
Kinarri No. 7
Kinarri No. 8
Kinarri No. 11
Provenance
Michael Rogge with his Kinarri 35mm camera
My pre production Kinarri came from the Michael Rogge collection. I met Michael nearly 30 years ago when his website first appeared on the World Wide Web, it was the first site to feature information on early cinema cameras and he generously shared his knowledge with me over the years. Unfortunately Michael passed away in early 2024 at the age of 94 but his website and Youtube channel live on to inspire future filmmakers and collectors.
LITERATURE:
Photographische Chronik, January 6, 1925
Histoire du Cinématographe de ses origines jus’a nos jours, G.M. Coissac [1925]
Photofreund Jahrbuch 1925/1926, Herausgegeben von Fr. Willy Fererk [1925]
Technik fur Jedermann, Nr. 31 [1926]
Kino-Taschenbuch, Hans Schmidt [1926]
FilmTechnik, A. Kraszna-Krausz, Berlin [1927]
50 Jahre Arnold & Richter KG München-Vom Hobby zur Weltfirma, Arnold & Richter K.G. [1967]
Ariel Cinematographic Register, Band 1, no.016., Peter Ariel [1981]
Arri- Arriflex Camera Systems [1993]
History of ARRI in a Century of Cinema, Film and Digital Times [September 2017]
If you own or know of another Arri Kinari not listed here, please shoot me an email. Link in upper left corner of this page.
