The very first camera ARRI built was the 35 mm KINARRI in 1924. Neither it, nor its 9.5 mm and 16 mm siblings, were made in large quantities, so surviving examples are museum exhibits. They did, however, establish a precedent of ARRI cameras being painted black, which continued for many years.
The historic models featured on this page are (almost) all ‘black’ cameras and date back to the ARRIFLEX 35 in 1937. Many are still used today, and the purpose of this page – as well as the page featuring more recent, gray-painted analog cameras – is to share information from the ARRI archive that we hope will be of interest and perhaps even of practical use to enthusiasts.
