Company History

For the past 50 years Spectra products have made a significant contribution in the field of light measurement for motion picture and television industries. We are very proud of the fact that Spectra Products have received numerous International recognitions including Six Technical Achievement Awards from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the Design, Development and manufacture of technically superior products that are important to the motion picture lighting industry. Spectra also won a Primetime Engineering Emmy Award from the Academy Of Television Arts And Sciences and an Outstanding Achievement in Engineering Development from the American Society Of Lighting Designers.

In 1941 Mr. Karl Freund, world's foremost Academy Award Winning cinematographer, founded Photo Research - parent company of Spectra Cine. Freund was the designer of the original Spectra Professional "CLASSIC" exposure meter, this meter was based on the Incident hemisphere principal, a patented technology. During that time Freund engaged Mr. James K. Branch to set up the manufacturing facility for these meters. Together Freund and Branch developed several products that greatly improved the quality of the photography in the motion picture and television industries. In 1978 Mr. Nasir Zaidi joined Mr. Branch and continued developing products for the motion picture industry.

Once the patent for the Incident Hemisphere principal expired in mid-60's, the other manufacturers from Japan and Germany started manufacturing meters based on this principal. Almost all the films made during this period were shot with the help of Spectra light meters and there are over 100,000 Spectra meters in use today.

Highlights of Spectra products during the leadership of Mr. Freund, Mr. Branch and Mr. Zaidi are featured below:
 

• 1971- Technical Achievement Award for the development and introduction of the film-lens balanced Spectra Three Color Temperature Meter from The Academy of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences.
   

• 1972- Scientific and Technical Achievement Award from the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences for the development and introduction of Spectra Film Gate Photometer, designed for the motion picture film printers used in the film processing laboratories.
   

• 1976- Scientific and Technical Achievement Award for the engineering and manufacture of the Spectra Film Balanced Tricolor Meter from the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences, it was the first commercially available three-color temperature meter designed for photographers.
   

• 1979- Technical Achievement Award for the development of Spectra Series II Cine Special Exposure Meter from the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts And Sciences. The Series II Cine Special Exposure Meter is a durable instrument which may be programmed to read instantly the optimal f-stop for any scene. Stable solid-state circuitry achieves increased sensitivity and accuracy at low light levels.

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• 1986- Branch and Zaidi, executives of the company (Photo Research), acquired the photographic product line and formed Spectra Cine, a new corporation named after its products.
   

• 1988- Spectra Cine designed and developed the Spectra Cinespot One degree Spotmeter with the help and cooperation of the Society of Motion Picture Television Engineers (SMPTE) Screen brightness measurement committee.
   

• 1989- The company was honored with the Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the design and development of the Spectra CineSpot One degree Spotmeter. The CineSpot is economical, compact easy to use for making simple yet accurate screen brightness measurement and other field measurements.
   

• 1992- Spectra Professional IV digital exposure meter was introduced at the American Society Of Cinematographers Club house. The first ever digital meter designed to measure foot-candles, lux and f/stop on a backlit lcd.

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• 1993- The company received Award of Outstanding Achievement in Engineering development from the American Society of Lighting Designers for the design of Spectra Professional IV meter technology.
   

• 1995- Spectra Professional IV-A the Advanced Digital Exposure Meter  was introduced, is the most comprehensive, technologically advanced, and reliable meter. Spectra Professional IV-A is first meter ever designed to measure f/stop, foot-candles, lux- contrast ratio, f/stop difference and average.
   

• 1997- Web site launched to assist our dealers and customers.
   

• 1999- The Company was honored with the Technical Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences for the design and development of the Spectra Professional IV-A advanced digital exposure meter.
   

• 1999- The Company was honored with the Primetime Engineering Emmy Award from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the 51st Annual Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony for the best design and development of the new Spectra Professional IV-A advanced digital exposure meter.

• 2001-

From the days of Freund/Branch and at present with Mr. Zaidi, Spectra Cine has been dedicated to providing the light measurement industry with the most accurate, reliable and the highest quality products available. That is the reason why Spectra Products have remained the STANDARD in the motion-picture television industries throughout the world.

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