by winston_cornwall » Wed Aug 27, 2014 3:24 pm
How do you do. There is quite a bit of information on the Newall Camera at the page dedicated to Hammer Films in England. I have included some excerpts below and lastly, a link to the main page for the full commentary. I hope this will clear up some confusion regarding the Newall and its connection to the Mitchell Camera Corporation of America. Text follows:
In 1959 Hammer acquired a Newall NC, a British made version of the American Mitchell rack-over NC developed in the late 1940s. The Newall has four 1000' mags, a studio motor and a 24v motor, but wasn't reflex or, due to Hammer's notorious stinginess, even endowed with a parallax viewfinder. Hammer mainly used it for reverse, stop frame, high speed or wild (non sync) exterior shots, where they couldn't use the 3-phase mains Arri.
Hammer used the Newall for model and effects work right up to the early 70s, then with the demise of Hammer as a production company the camera, like most of their assets, went under the hammer at an auction held at Bray Studios.
The pictures show it as it is today, with the original motors, standard Cooke Panchro lenses and Edmunton dolly. It is unusual that a camera of this age is still original and complete, with none of the after market camera conversions that usually happen to cameras as film technology advances. It is still used occasionally for model animation work and exhibition.
Mitchell were unable to satisfy world demand and for several years a copy was made under license by Newall Engineering Ltd. in Peterborough, England. The Newall's were built with noticeably different looking film mags, that were both heavier and quieter than the American models, more suited to film sets than newsreel or military uses, they use an elegant quick release mechanism on the mag door, rather than the Mitchell screw action which sometimes needed a hammer to get them off!
http://www.filmcentre.co.uk/hammer.htm
Winston
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How do you do. There is quite a bit of information on the Newall Camera at the page dedicated to Hammer Films in England. I have included some excerpts below and lastly, a link to the main page for the full commentary. I hope this will clear up some confusion regarding the Newall and its connection to the Mitchell Camera Corporation of America. Text follows:
In 1959 Hammer acquired a Newall NC, a British made version of the American Mitchell rack-over NC developed in the late 1940s. The Newall has four 1000' mags, a studio motor and a 24v motor, but wasn't reflex or, due to Hammer's notorious stinginess, even endowed with a parallax viewfinder. Hammer mainly used it for reverse, stop frame, high speed or wild (non sync) exterior shots, where they couldn't use the 3-phase mains Arri.
Hammer used the Newall for model and effects work right up to the early 70s, then with the demise of Hammer as a production company the camera, like most of their assets, went under the hammer at an auction held at Bray Studios.
The pictures show it as it is today, with the original motors, standard Cooke Panchro lenses and Edmunton dolly. It is unusual that a camera of this age is still original and complete, with none of the after market camera conversions that usually happen to cameras as film technology advances. It is still used occasionally for model animation work and exhibition.
Mitchell were unable to satisfy world demand and for several years a copy was made under license by Newall Engineering Ltd. in Peterborough, England. The Newall's were built with noticeably different looking film mags, that were both heavier and quieter than the American models, more suited to film sets than newsreel or military uses, they use an elegant quick release mechanism on the mag door, rather than the Mitchell screw action which sometimes needed a hammer to get them off!
http://www.filmcentre.co.uk/hammer.htm
Winston