A few weeks ago, an up-and-coming cinematographer wrote to me and asked if I had any 16mm animation cameras. He was planning to shoot a table top animation short subject. As I don’t currently have any 16mm Acme or Oxberry cameras, the next camera that came to mind was this lovely 16mm Mitchell Pro. The […]
A New Life for a Mitchell 16 Pro Read More »
With all good intentions, today I was going to show you Mitchell BNC #357 running to demonstrate how nice and quiet it is. However, the motor that came with the camera is a TechniCraft synchronous motor, and it did not come with the power cable. The only thing I could find about this motor was
Motor Struggles: Mitchell BNC #357 Read More »
A friend and fellow collector called me and asked about the Mitchell BNC rackover camera that I just acquired (serial #357). So this is the first of the collection I decided to take a look at. Surprisingly, this camera is in remarkably good condition. The camera turns over smoothly, there is little or no rust
Restoring Mitchell BNC Rackover #357 Read More »
I couldn’t wait to go through and look more closely at the Super Baltar lenses, so I spent some time this week doing just that. What I have here is a set of 6 Bausch & Lomb Super Baltar lenses in Mitchell MK II mount with BNCR adapters, in 20mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm, 75mm, and
A First Look at the Super Baltars Read More »
This post comes a day later than our habit as we have spent much of the last week lifting, carrying, opening, and sorting a treasure trove of Mitchell camera equipment and lenses. (My back does not forgive me for this!) After several days of negotiation, I acquired a storage unit filled with absolutely wonderful movie
A Mitchell Camera Haul! Read More »
As we continued our search to find the proper name for the Mitchell geared head, which we still have not found, we came across this charming advertisement that Mitchell placed in “American Cinematographer” magazine in March 1931. In the ad, there are two camera operators, one using a geared head and one a friction head.
Trivia About the Mitchell Geared Head and Friction Head Read More »
An interesting question was posed recently to the committee I serve on at the Academy of Motion Picture Art and Sciences asking about the history of geared pan/tilt heads. The questioner was only aware of the Worrall geared head, so many of us contributed our experiences with other styles and manufacturers of geared heads that
Mitchell Geared Heads Read More »
As we continue our quest through the backlog of tripods, I happened upon this cute wooden unit that lacks any identifying labels. The wooden legs are robustly made, but the integrated pan/tilt head was clearly designed for a smaller camera. This tripod features a cast aluminum pan/tilt head which is joined to the wooden legs
Mystery Wooden Tripod Read More »
As we continue our trek through the forest of tripods, we rediscovered these Peter Lisand studio pedestals and were once again impressed with the engineering that went into designing and building them. A few years back we bought out the remaining inventory of the Peter Lisand Machine Corporation from the daughter of the founder, and
Peter Lisand Studio Pedestals Rediscovered Read More »
You know how you have that one thing that you are always meaning to do, but you just never get around to it? And the longer you put it off, the larger the thing gets? Well, tripods have become that thing for me. I keep meaning to make time to photograph them and list them
A Forest of Tripods! Read More »
