What mount is this?

[Dom Jaeger]

Here's an unusual one. This mount is on a series II Cooke Speed Panchro. It resembles an Arri Standard mount, but it has those three cutouts, the dimensions are different, and there is no locating slot. The rest of the lens simply unscrews from the mount, so it's a very basic focusing design. The rabbit ear on the mount suggests that the inner lens body is held while the mount rotates in the camera (like early Arri S lenses), but there is nothing to locate the inner lens, unless something has been removed (there is an usused thread at the back there). 

It's not an Eyemo mount, or Cameflex, or CP, or Aaton, and I don't think Cooke made lenses in Russian mounts. 

The mount dimensions are imperial - the diameter of the rear protruding barrel is 1.67". In metric terms about 42.5mm compared to Arri S which is 41.0mm, or Eyemo which is 1.5" (38.1mm).

I've estimated the back-focus to be around 46mm. 

According to this list of camera flange depths  https://cameramarket.eu/data/pdf/cameramarket_Lens mounts and flange focal distances.pdf  there was a mount listed as "20th Century Fox/ .125 Ring" which has a depth of 1.820" (46.2mm), but I can't find any other information about it.

Anyone seen one of these, or have any ideas?

 

 

 

[Simon Wyss]

Early Mitchell S 35 ? Mitchell standard mount FFD is 1.695". If you add 0.125" you have 1.82".

[Dom Jaeger]

Thanks Simon, yes it seems likely the 20th Century Fox mount was just a spacer ring on a Mitchell, but did any Mitchell mounts look like this? 

[Simon Wyss]

What I have found:

http://www.mitchellcamera.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=48&start=10

https://cameramarket.eu/data/pdf/cameramarket_Lens mounts and flange focal distances.pdf

David W. Samuelson wrote in Motion Picture Camera Data (focal, 1979): Mitchell S35 MK II. Special three prong ‘twist-to-lock’ lens mounting system. It seems the prongs were a quarter inch wide. That leaves the mount in question still unanswered.

A CP trial?

[Charles Pickel]

Very strange. In over 30yrs in the cine camera biz, I have not seen this. All 3-lug mounting systems (CP, Aaton, Mitchell Mk-II) have lugs that protrude radially beyond the mount barrel. This mount has three lugs, but they appear flush with the mount barrel. The mount looks like an Arri std mount that was modified for reasons known only to those who did it. If you have a precision vernier caliber, measure the mount barrel (just forward of the lugs) . If it measure 41mm (or 40.95mm etc) It is Arri Standard. The cuttouts I cannot account for. Hope this helps. -Charles

 

[Frank Wylie]

I was beginning to wonder if that wasn't a lens mounted for a USSR Rodina 35mm camera but it has 4 lugs on the mount.

[Dom Jaeger]

3 hours ago, Charles Pickel said:

Very strange. In over 30yrs in the cine camera biz, I have not seen this. All 3-lug mounting systems (CP, Aaton, Mitchell Mk-II) have lugs that protrude radially beyond the mount barrel. This mount has three lugs, but they appear flush with the mount barrel. The mount looks like an Arri std mount that was modified for reasons known only to those who did it. If you have a precision vernier caliber, measure the mount barrel (just forward of the lugs) . If it measure 41mm (or 40.95mm etc) It is Arri Standard. The cuttouts I cannot account for. Hope this helps. -Charles

 

It is strange isn’t it? I’ve never seen one in my 25 years dealing with vintage lenses either. 
The barrel diameter is about 42.5mm, so it’s not a modified Arri Standard. The dimensions are Imperial, so it’s either American or British.

It’s a MKII Speed Panchro, dating it to the mid to late 50s. I suspect it’s for some fairly rare model of Vinten or something like that.

[Charles Pickel]

Could be a "ruggedized" mount for military/aerospace use. Fastax, Fairchild and I believe Photosonics all had proprietary special use mounts ruggedized for high-G environments. 

[Philip Forrest]

Perhaps a lens for an aerial recon camera? 

Phil Forrest

[Dom Jaeger]

I believe this is a Newman & Sinclair mount.