Are there any Mitchell camera people out there?

[Ed Johnson]

I see that there are not any recent posts about these iconic cameras. I am a restorer/collector with a few of these cameras looking to gain more knowledge of them.

Currently I have a set of videos in progress about some of my cameras posted on mitchellCamera.com in the "members articles" section. As a result of a research project, I have also published a series of Mitchell production charts on that site that give serial numbers of Standards, BNC' s and NC' s by year ends that may be of interest to some of you here. ED.

[Aapo Lettinen]

try the "Motion Picture Technology" Facebook group, there is lots of people there who have Mitchell knowledge :)

[Aapo Lettinen]

I personally only have a self-blimped highly modified Soviet copy of the Mitchell bncr, very different camera than the original but some things like the movement and aperture plate are approximately similar

[Gregory Irwin]

I'm one of those Mitchell cameramen still standing! When we used A Mitchell Fries for VFX work on THE HANGOVER, I was the only one who knew how to use it! Times have changed.

 

G

[Dom Jaeger]

I still remember my first 'proper' job as a service tech beginner checking over a Fries Mitchell attached to a motion control rig belonging to an animation company back in the mid 90s. Amazing how these cameras were still the gold standard for animation and VFX even into the new millennium. And a direct evolution to the Panavision film cameras still being used today.

 

In a previous workplace we had a fully blimped Mitchell NC in the lobby, which I often examined with curiosity. Beast of a thing, must have taken two strong men just to mount it on its geared head!

[Doyle Smith]

A BNC on a Worral head was moved by inserting two steel rods in brackets on the head and a stout grip on each side moved the head and the camera to the next setup.  See item 10324 in the link below

http://www.cinemagear.com/parts.html

As we transitioned to lighter cameras like the Panaflex, the rods were no longer necessary and the head and cameras were moved by grasping the rocker rails on the bottom.

The Mitchell movement was a thing of beauty and never really bested in motion picture technology. The electronics were improved greatly but the mechanics had already been perfected.

[Aapo Lettinen]

my Soviet copy camera is actually pretty lightweight, something like 12 to 14 kilos or so without a motor. So one can definitely use the same base design without it weighting too much for one person to carry it ? the soviet copy is self blimped enough to allow sync sound shooting without additional blimping (there is rubber sound insulating material added to the insides which is extremely effective, so effective actually that I suspect it might contain asbestos though it was never tested for it... I can't explain why it would otherwise be so great at insulating sound... 

I will build a crystal sync motor for the camera sometime next year when having more time. it is KS perf movement so it is limited to shooting some Fomapan stills film, print film and such but will still be very neat for arts stuff ?

[David Sekanina]

24 minutes ago, aapo lettinen said:

.. I suspect it might contain asbestos though it was never tested for it... I can't explain why it would otherwise be so great at insulating sound...

 

The four most commonly used sound dampening materials I came across were:

Wool felt (main body) and PU foam with a perforated PU cover (body door)

Diamond pattern embossed bitumen based sheets (mags)

perforated lead sheets (main body)

the heavy bitumen and lead sheets are good for canceling out the low frequency noise of a camera, not great for building light weight cameras ?

Edited July 8, 2022 by David Sekanina

[Aapo Lettinen]

the stuff in the Soyuz-US3N looks like this... it is kind of rubbery but has a bit weird feeling to it and insulates the sound way too well to be just plain rubber. I think it might be rubber with embedded mineral fibers (maybe asbestos, maybe something else) but don't know because there is no documentation of that camera at all

Notice the Soviet craftsmanship when they cut the material to correct dimensions! ? 

[David Sekanina]

1 minute ago, aapo lettinen said:

Notice the Soviet craftsmanship when they cut the material to correct dimensions! ? 

The perforated lead panels inside my LTR were also cut by hand from the looks of them ?

Thanks for the image - I can't tell though.