Mitchell Camera

The Mitchell Camera Corporation was founded in 1919 by Americans Henry Boger and George Alfred Mitchell as the National Motion Picture Repair Co. 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).

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 pin-registered background plate projector with a carbon arc lamphouse which was synchronized with the film camera. One of the first MPRPPs (Mitchell Pin Registered Process Projector) was used in Gone with the Wind. Two- and three-headed background projectors evolved for VistaVision effects.

George Mitchell received an Academy Honorary Award in 1952. The Mitchell Camera Company received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement in 1939, 1966 and 1968.

Models

• Mitchell Standard - The original Mitchell camera, introduced in 1920
• Mitchell GC - High-speed camera system able to run 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 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 its larger negative while avoiding costly 65mm special-effects shots.
• Mitchell FC/BFC ("Fox Camera"/"Blimped Fox Camera") - 65mm version of NC and BNC, introduced with Fox's improved Todd-AO system (South Pacific, 1957, and later)
• Mitchell R35 - a pin-registered, hand-holdable and tripod-mountable reflex 35mm camera with multiple magazine mounting positions and an available sound blimp. Proprietary R35 lens mount. Succeeded by the R35R (industry-standard BNCR mount) and the R35RC (BNCR mount and crystal-controlled motor).
• Mitchell NCR/BNCR - Reflex version of NC/BNC
• Mitchell 16 - a pin-registered 16mm camera with the versatility of the Standard, and the high speed of the GC
• 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. The single-system model incorporated a Davis (tight) Loop drive system, unique in all single-system production 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.

Licensed Derivatives

Certain early models were licensed to Newall in the U.K.

Unlicensed Derivatives

Certain models were copied in whole or in part by the U.S.S.R., mostly models which were intended for filming animation or special effects process plates, or for high-speed filming. In a few cases, the U.S.S.R. added spinning mirror-shutter reflex focusing and viewing, thereby deleting the Mitchell-designed rackover focusing mechanism and the Mitchell-designed side viewer.

Though the Eastern Bloc standard for camera film is Kodak Standard perforations, that standard was rejected by the very Bloc which proposed it. U.S.S.R. professional cameras consequently require film stocks that are incompatible with Western Bloc camera film, which always uses Bell & Howell perforations.

Eastern Bloc (KS) camera film will pass undamaged through a Western Bloc professional camera, but the images will not be registered properly. Conversely, Western Bloc (BH) camera film will not pass undamaged through a U.S.S.R. professional camera, as the perforations used for registration will be damaged.

16mm and 65/70mm films were standardized late in the standardization cycle so these U.S.S.R. cameras are indeed compatible with Western Bloc camera films.

Legacy

Production (sound) models in 16mm, 35mm (4- and 2-perf) and 65mm (5-perf) served as a basis for early Panavision cameras in those gauges.

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