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CAPTION: Technicolor’s three-color camera weighed 200 pounds and cost in excess of $10,000 to manufacture. George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: Technicolor’s cameras were manufactured to specification by the Mitchell Camera Corporation. In total twenty-nine were made between 1933 and 1950. George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: Research engineer J. A. Ball devised the principles behind Technicolor’s three-strip camera and its sophisticated beam-splitting prism (pictured here, ca. 1939). Courtesy of Bison Archives Photographs Collected by Marc Wanamaker, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

 

CAPTION: Blueprint for “Model D three-color camera,” drawn by S. R. Kish, November 20, 1936. George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: The three-color prism split light entering the camera down two paths. George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: Blueprint for “Model D three-color camera prism assembly,” drawn September 7, 1937. George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: The camera exposed three strips of negative film simultaneously to capture red, green and blue color separations onto black and white film. George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: The beam splitting prism divided light down two paths. The red and blue films were sandwiched together in “bipack.” George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: Color separation negatives (cyan, yellow and magenta) from The Wizard of Oz (1939). George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: Early three-color camera test, ca. 1932. George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: Locking up the valuable Technicolor camera overnight, ca. 1950. George Eastman House.

 

CAPTION: As motion picture cameras were loud, it was common practice to enclose them in a soundproof box or “blimp” to dampen the sound. George Eastman House.