This week we began bringing Mitchell BNC 224 back to life. This camera got put on the shelf when we moved and is now being brought out of hiding. When we acquired it, the camera had not been well maintained and was missing many parts. Years of neglect took their toll on this camera, so […]
Mitchell BNCR sn. 224 Read More »
The Fox Film Corporation made just 4 feature films in the Grandeur process. Raoul Walsh’s “The Big Trail” was the final film, and the only one to use the Grandeur format to its full potential. Arthur Edeson’s masterful cinematography took full advantage of the 70mm film format to fill the frame with grand vistas and
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The motion picture industry was in a period of transition in the late 1920s. Sound films were set to remake the previously silent industry, changing everything about how movies were made and exhibited. As the popularity of movies rose, bigger theaters were built to accommodate the ever increasing audiences. The Roxy Theater in New York,
Mitchell FC 70mm Grandeur camera, sn. 8 Read More »
As the sound era became a reality, William Fox recognized the need for better quality images in his movies. His Fox Case Corp. team, led by engineer Earl Sponable, developed the 70mm Grandeur photographic process to solve this problem. The Mitchell Camera Corporation was contracted to build a 70mm version of their successful Mitchell Standard,
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From the sets of DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” and Hitchcock’s “Vertigo”, we are delighted to present this complete Mitchell Vista Vision camera package. This “Elephant Ear” VistaVision camera, MVV-6, was masterfully restored by my friend Mark Mervis, who collected, restored, and documented this camera and all of these accessories to create this historical camera package.
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One of the finest examples of Panavision’s legendary engineering, the PSR was introduced ca. 1967 and met with immediate success across the movie making world. Based on the Mitchell NC and BNC cameras, the Panavision PSR was smaller, lighter, quieter, and easier to use than the Mitchell BNC or BNCR. Under the guidance of Robert
Panavision SPSR Super R200 sn. 160 Read More »
While I had the movement out of a Mitchell GC, I thought I would demonstrate the lubrication points on the movement for those who have never worked with one of these cameras. 1. Movement removed from camera 2. Working from top to bottom, 1st is the cam that operates the registration pins. A drop of
Lubricating a Mitchell GC Camera Movement Read More »
As we were going over the 3 Blanke cameras we showed last week, we found that the 2 GCs were missing their flywheels, and all of the cameras desperately needed to be serviced after sitting unused for so long. These cameras were previously used to shoot time lapse sequences, and it was common to remove
Mitchell GC sn. 903 Read More »
New arrivals! After many twists and turns with Fedex, we finally took delivery of equipment from the collection of Gunnar Blanke, a filmmaker from the Denver, CO area. Lots of neat stuff in this collection, including a Mitchell NC that was purchased by Lookout Mountain in 1959, two Mitchell GCs, an Akeley Gyro Head, a
An Estate Purchase Out of Colorado Read More »
It’s alive! The FC friction head restoration is finally complete! Here, you can see the friction head supporting Mitchell FC camera sn.8. Mitchell friction heads have a surprising number of parts that all had to be reconditioned or remanufactured in order to make this unit complete again. The casting hides 10 steel friction plates, 14
The Mitchell FC Friction Head Is Complete! Read More »
