Mitchell NC

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With the Mitchell Newsreel Camera came the replacement of the Bell & Howell standard cinematograph camera , which had dominated almost everything up to the sound film . It was superior in two decisive points: the optics to be set no longer had to be swiveled in the turret and the function was quieter. The clattering Bell & Howell disappeared before the microphone. Specially equipped and noise-reducing Bell & Howell cameras ran as quietly as Mitchell, but the cameramen hardly went into the additional effort.

The Mitchell Camera Society was founded in 1919 by cameraman Henry F. Boeger and George Alfred Mitchell . Their first camera was the purchased patented design by John E. Leonard from 1917. The prototype was ready in 1918, in 1920 it was made known as the Mitchell Standard Camera. It contained an adjustable via planetary gear rotary disc shutter , a device for adjusting the photographing optical system, the Mitchell's proprietary Rackover, and a simple gripper mechanism unlike Leonards Paßstiftemechanismus.

Mitchell supplied the film drives for the Technicolor three-strip camera from 1932 and mechanisms for wide-film apparatus. Later there were 65 mm film cameras and the VistaVision cameras.

Mitchell also built a background projector.

George Alfred Mitchell received the Honorary Oscar in 1953, an award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for technical achievements.

The models

  • Mitchell (Standard), 1920-1924; oil-free plain bearings, film drive AA
  • Mitchell High Speed ​​or Model B, frame rate up to 128 per second, 1925; Ball bearings, film drive AB
  • Mitchell C, 1928; Plain bearing, film drive AC
  • Mitchell NC , Newsreel Camera. Improved model for the sound film, 1931–32; Plain bearings and new gear. For 40 years this camera has been the mainstay of Hollywood and film productions worldwide. Weight: 32¼ kg with 1000 feet of film
  • Mitchell BNC, (Blimped NC), 1934. Weight: 55.3 kg with 1000 feet of film
  • Mitchell S35R, 1965. Weight: 19.5 kg with 1000 feet of film. Blimp (soundproof housing) also: 42.2 kg

The NC and BNC became the source of Cinema Products Corporation XR 35, which incorporated accessories that were previously separately available.

  • Mitchell VistaVision camera for sound film based on Paramount's VistaVision process from 1954 (The Ten Commandments 1956), earlier VistaVision productions worked with converted stone and / or converted Technicolor cameras.
  • Mitchell FC / BFC (Fox Camera / Blimped Fox Camera), 65mm version of the NC and BNC, in use since Fox's improved Todd AO system (South Pacific, 1958)
  • Mitchell NCR / BNCR, reflex versions of NC / BNC
  • Mitchell 16, announced November 1945, for delivery a year later; Weight: 19 kg with 400 feet of film. Blimp to it: 20.4 kg
  • Mitchell S (ingle) S (ystem) for 16mm film
  • Mitchell R 16, a relatively quiet camera in a single and double system for reporting and newsreels. This expensive apparatus was mainly used in CBS '60 Minutes , for which it was built.

literature

  • United States Patent 2,088,715 A
  • Ira B. Hoke: Mitchell Camera Nears Majority . In: American Cinematographer . December 1938, p. 495 f.
  • L. Sprague Anderson: Mitchell, the Standard . In: Society of Camera Operators Magazine . [1]
  • Verne & Sylvia Carlson: Professional Cameraman's Handbook. American Photographic Book Publishing, 1970 f.
  • Laurence J. Roberts: The Mitchell Camera: The Machine and Its Makers. SMPTE Journal 2-1982