by guy bagnall » Tue Feb 05, 2019 6:58 am
Hi Ed - I have a Mitchell Standard #125, bought Oct 4th 1928. It ended up in England as a stop-motion camera but still has certain parts that are missing on other similar-age cameras.
It was bought by the Cinematographer Norbert Brodine, who was working at RKO and Paramount from that time and, possibly using that camera, shot films for William Wyler, Raoul Walsh, Frank Borzage, Lloyd Bacon, Gregory La Cava, WS Van Dyke and Roy Del Ruth, as well as a Buster Keaton picture, The Paranoid Plumber (1932).
It has a Newall 400' mag, which '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 it off.'
The lacing mechanism has the matching 125 number and the turret bears the number 751. I noticed the Mitchell badge is the plain brass one, although slightly later cameras of the same year had the black and silver version.
I have been told most Mitchell Standards were bought by the government and relatively few were found in the studios, let alone bought by an eminent and highly-regarded Cinematographer. I had this camera in the cupboard for years, given to me by an animator friend, and I am slightly ashamed to have only found out anything about in the last day or so! I had to clear out the cupboard and aim to sell stuff to reclaim the space, but this feels like finding a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow in the garage!
Regards
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Hi Ed - I have a Mitchell Standard #125, bought Oct 4th 1928. It ended up in England as a stop-motion camera but still has certain parts that are missing on other similar-age cameras.
It was bought by the Cinematographer Norbert Brodine, who was working at RKO and Paramount from that time and, possibly using that camera, shot films for William Wyler, Raoul Walsh, Frank Borzage, Lloyd Bacon, Gregory La Cava, WS Van Dyke and Roy Del Ruth, as well as a Buster Keaton picture, The Paranoid Plumber (1932).
It has a Newall 400' mag, which '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 it off.'
The lacing mechanism has the matching 125 number and the turret bears the number 751. I noticed the Mitchell badge is the plain brass one, although slightly later cameras of the same year had the black and silver version.
I have been told most Mitchell Standards were bought by the government and relatively few were found in the studios, let alone bought by an eminent and highly-regarded Cinematographer. I had this camera in the cupboard for years, given to me by an animator friend, and I am slightly ashamed to have only found out anything about in the last day or so! I had to clear out the cupboard and aim to sell stuff to reclaim the space, but this feels like finding a Rolls Royce Silver Shadow in the garage!
Regards