OConnor camera support

10. Nov 2010

OConnor fluid heads, tripods and camera support and more...

Company founder Chadwell O’Connor developed the Fluid Head pan and tilt system in the late 1940s while tinkering in his garage. His goal had been to solve the problem of panning smoothly while he pursued his passion of filming steam locomotives. O’Connor’s invention only became a marketed product when the famed Walt Disney himself saw Chad O’Connor using that Fluid Head, and placed an order for 10 of them. OConnor Engineering Laboratories was born

Disney was so happy with his first OConnor head that he immediately ordered 10 more. His film, The Living Desert, won the first Academy Award for Documentary Feature in 1953. Through the years since that date, first in his garage, then in his small first factory in Pasadena, OConnor kept working, inventing, and improving his products. When he had time, he would go out on location with camera operators, watching them using camera support equipment from his own firm and others. He saw and heard the challenges they faced, and tried to develop a solution back at his “engineering laboratory”.

By 1969 OConnor Engineering Labs was so successful that OConnor left his “day job” at Pasadena Power and Light to work full time on camera heads and steam engines at O'Connor Engineering. He enjoyed working with cameramen, by inventing solutions for their needs. He produced thousands of OConnor fluid heads and legs, from the ever-popular O’Connor 100, so renowned for its ruggedness that it is still a staple of camerawork worldwide, to the new OConnor 120EX, which was made to complement today’s high-end film and television production.

Today, OConnor specializes in fluid heads, tripods and camera accessories, and though the founder has passed on, OConnor employees all over the world continue to observe the art and craft of cinematography, and invent, innovate and improve products to further the art and help ease the craft.

OConnor Engineering specializes in heavy-duty fluid heads, tripods and camera accessories. As a Vitec Group brand, OConnor has a large dealer networking spanning the United States and in more than two dozen countries across six continents.