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Snagged this Mitchell off Ebay.


Paul Bruening

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Hey fellow Mitchellonians!

 

I recently picked up what is essentially a GC, but it's placarded as a "Mitchell Chronograph"

 

The main difference seems to be a facility for adding some kind of data imprinting to the gate. The turret also looks a bit more like a 2709 in that it's round (but still mounted on a flat-back standard)

 

It also has a slightly different shutter lever than the stock GC, and has a built in tach on the back of the camera.

 

It has a high serial number (10xx) but I wonder if that many were actually made, or the first numbers refer to the model?....

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Hey fellow Mitchellonians!

 

I recently picked up what is essentially a GC, but it's placarded as a "Mitchell Chronograph"

 

The main difference seems to be a facility for adding some kind of data imprinting to the gate. The turret also looks a bit more like a 2709 in that it's round (but still mounted on a flat-back standard)

 

It also has a slightly different shutter lever than the stock GC, and has a built in tach on the back of the camera.

 

It has a high serial number (10xx) but I wonder if that many were actually made, or the first numbers refer to the model?....

 

 

Sounds like a "Mitchell Chronograph" that is a cross between a GC and a SS.

 

Does it have a second indicator dial sticking out near the film plane or just a plugged hole?

 

The government used these quite a bit with very long lenses and in conjunction with thedolites for missile and rocket tests.

 

If you look at the cameras from the old Nasa launches there are always a number of them.

 

They are even shown in "Close Encounters".

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Hi Marc-

 

It has the plugged hole: here's (I'll try at least) a terrible photo (from the original seller):

 

 

That turret hole on top looks like it might be a Nikon mount conversion. That little tab sticking out on the top looks like a lens release lever which you would have to press to release the lens. The Bell & Howell 2709 is a fixed pin shuttle movement as opposed to the Mitchell sliding pin registration type movement.

 

Chuck

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Quite right about the Nikon mount, it also has a quick-set mount on one port which is handy for the Mitchell-mount lenses.

 

My reference to the 2709 was more about the shape of the turret, I've never seen a Mitchell with this 2709-ish turret. I've only seen the more common round disc set into the square standard. I suppose this turret design accommodates the data port.

 

The other cool thing is the tach, which is part of the shutter-angle control assembly on the rear. Although it does interfere with the mounting of the standard ac/dc variable speed motor (the motor's tach bumps into the shutter lever if it's set anywhere above 50-degrees or so) My solution was to just remove the tachometer from the motor, although this camera will be used primarily for hand-cranking fun, so the on-camera tach is handy for that! I'm finding that the 2-turns/sec for 16fps is pretty easy to hit and maintain though :)

 

I'd love to see a B&H movement up close and in action; the guts of any Mitchell are just awe-inspiring in their precision and simplicity!

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Quite right about the Nikon mount, it also has a quick-set mount on one port which is handy for the Mitchell-mount lenses.

 

My reference to the 2709 was more about the shape of the turret, I've never seen a Mitchell with this 2709-ish turret. I've only seen the more common round disc set into the square standard. I suppose this turret design accommodates the data port.

 

The other cool thing is the tach, which is part of the shutter-angle control assembly on the rear. Although it does interfere with the mounting of the standard ac/dc variable speed motor (the motor's tach bumps into the shutter lever if it's set anywhere above 50-degrees or so) My solution was to just remove the tachometer from the motor, although this camera will be used primarily for hand-cranking fun, so the on-camera tach is handy for that! I'm finding that the 2-turns/sec for 16fps is pretty easy to hit and maintain though :)

 

I'd love to see a B&H movement up close and in action; the guts of any Mitchell are just awe-inspiring in their precision and simplicity!

 

This is a fun site.

 

http://www.cinematographers.nl/CAMERAS1.htm#bell

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Look what showed up on eBay today.

 

Mitchell On eBay

 

Can anybody shed some light on all that is there??

 

I am not the seller and don't know the seller.

 

Hi,

 

Looks rather expensive today, in 1993 one would expect to pay $6000 for a body to reflex, they were still in great demand for VFX units.

 

Stephen

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We are in the process of moving Mitchell camera, which was not part of the equipment sale to Panavision. We still have all the records and spare parts stored.

My goodness, this thread gets better and better. JDC in the house and Linwood Dunn's ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linwood_G._Dunn ) personal Mitchell to boot! All we need now is Martin Hill wading in.

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We are in the process of moving Mitchell camera, which was not part of the equipment sale to Panavision. We still have all the records and spare parts stored.

 

Thank you for entering the discussion! I would love to find out how to access the Mitchell records, especially anything pertaining to Mitchell Chronograph #1074, to be specific! :)

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http://www.cameraguild.com/index.html?inte...htm~top.main_hp

 

Down the page a bit you'll find Russ Alsobrook's 5-part "Machines that Made the Movies" series. Good stuff!

 

Though his description of a Cinerama camera in Part 3 sounds like the later Cinemiracle camera.

 

 

The original photography was accomplished by a set of three Mitchell cameras rolling six-perf 35mm film at 26 frames- per-second through a trio of matched 27mm lenses.

 

The Cinerama camera used three Wall movements, modifyed to 6-perf, in a single body.

the Cinemiracle had three NC cameras shooting into mirrors in order to eliminate parallex between the cameras.

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