Cameras used to film TOS (BTS)

[Just a Bill]

I've been trying to figure out exactly which camera(s) were used on TOS. A thread from over 16 years ago ("Type of film camera used on TOS?"), included some speculations that, when mixed with other tidbits I've been able to find, I would summarize as follows:

• Desilu probably used the cameras they had already been using for other shows such as I Love Lucy. These appear to have been most likely Mitchell 35mm BNCs.
• Desilu may have had a deal with Panasonic for Panavisions sometime in the early 60s.
• The cameras seen on screen in Bread and Circuses were not the show's filming cameras.

I think I saw what looked like Panavision(s) in some BTS shots for the motion pictures, but every TOS shot I can find seems to use something more in line with Mitchells. I'm hoping somebody can identify exactly which model(s) are seen here, as it has not been very straightforward for me to align these shots with camera images I've been able to google, partly because the search results are not always consistent. It might be that some commenters/chroniclers know generally what a Mitchell is but aren't sure exactly which camera is which model; I certainly am not knowledgeable.

It's probably obvious that the first four shots show Plato's Stepchildren and the fifth is from The Cage. The next two after that are in Trelane's home, and the last two (stacked vertically) come from Billy Blackburn's home videos of production on The Paradise Syndrome and/or Arena. (You can click to enlarge some of them somewhat, but not by a lot.)

These crops have been trimmed from sources gathered around the web, and should be non-commercial/educational "fair use." In every case I snapshotted or cropped so as to show only the fraction of the source image or video needed to show the camera and maybe provide a hint of context. I think the majority of these can be found in their full form on www.startrekpropauthority.com in the rare TOS photos & videos sections of the site.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

The second photo section in The Making of Star Trek has an excellent look at the camera being used in the Briefing Room scene from "The Man Trap."