Mitchell Camera

Mitchell Camera Corporation was founded in 1919 by Henry Boger and George Alfred Mitchell. Their first camera was designed and patented by John E. Leonard in 1917, from 1920 on known as the Mitchell Standard. Features included a planetary gear-driven variable shutter (US Patent No 1,297,703) and a unique rack-over design (US Pat No 1,297,704).

George Mitchell received the Academy Award for Technical Achievement in the early 1950s.

Mitchell supplied camera movements for Technicolor's Three-Strip camera (1932), and movements for others' 65mm and VistaVision conversions before later making complete 65mm and VistaVision cameras (normal and high speed).

Mitchell also made a moving pin registered background plate projector with a carbon arc lamphouse and synchronized with the film camera shutter. A three headed background projector evolved for Techncolor three strip process. All used negetive pitch film. One of the first MPRPPs (Mitchell Pin Registered Process Projector) was used in "Gone with the Wind"-serial number two. After serial number two the movements were standardized and inter-changeable. Hansard Projection and Associates and Ferren used this process well into the 1990's when it was still competitive with blue/greenscreen compositing.

Models

• Mitchell Standard - The original Mitchell camera, introduced in 1920
• Mitchell GC - High speed camera system able to go at variable speeds up to 128 frames per second
• Mitchell NC/BNC ("Newsreel Camera"/"Blimped Newsreel Camera") - Improved model designed for production sound shooting, introduced in 1932. This camera became the de-facto standard for Hollywood Production for the greater part of the century. Mitchell NC and BNC camera heads became "donors" for Cinema Products Corporation XR35 cameras, which incorporated many of CP's improvements to the basic Mitchell production sound camera, and which were formerly available as separate features from CP.
• Mitchell SS - Single-system camera - Used mainly by the U.S. Army Signal Corps units during WW-II; was a highly modified NC
• Mitchell VistaVision - Production camera for sound shooting using Paramount's VistaVision process (The Ten Commandments (1956 film), 1956 and later; earlier VistaVision productions used converted Stein and/or converted Technicolor Three-Strip cameras). VistaVision was used by George Lucas in Star Wars for it's larger negetive for better composites.
• Mitchell FC/BFC ("Fox Camera"/"Blimped Fox Camera") - 65mm version of NC and BNC, introduced with Fox's improved Todd-AO system (South Pacific (film), 1957 and later)
• Mitchell NCR/BNCR - Reflex version of NC/BNC
• Mitchell 16 - a pin-registered 16mm camera with the versatility of the Standard
• Mitchell R16 - a pin-registered reflex 16mm camera which was relatively silent and was available in double-system (Model R16DS) and single-system (Model R16SS) models for newsgathering and newsfilm production. This relatively expensive model found use mainly with CBS's 60 Minutes, for which it was originally made. The single-system model incorporated a Davis (tight) Loop drive system, unique in all single-system cameras. The double-system model simply eliminated the Davis (tight) Loop drive system, and the lower sprocket, thereby reducing the complexity of the internal gearing and lowering the camera's acoustic noise signature.

Literature

• Ira B. Hoke: Mitchell Camera Nears Majority. In: American Cinematographer, December 1938, page 495 f.
• L. Sprague Anderson: Mitchell, the Standard. In: Society of Camera Operators Magazine. www.soc.org/magazine.html

References