It's interesting to note that even when Mitchell cameras were available
and the production company had more than enough money to buy a Mitchell,
a Bell & Howell was still preferred. A Bell & Howell with
Mitchell accessories was normal in the early 1920's. The Bell &
Howell had the steadiest image of any camera ever made. My bet is
that a good Bell & Howell is still the steadiest movement of all.
It's simply the mechanical process of moving the film and making the
image steady that made Bell & Howell so popular for so long. Today's
cameras are as steady as they need to be and the Bell & Howell
movement can't be used to shoot a sound picture. There just isn't
any way to make the mechanics of this camera quiet. If it could have
been made quiet it would still be in production. The advent of the
sound picture wasn't only hard on stars careers, it killed the career
of the best camera of it's day too. This 2709 has an attempt at sound
deadening with the inserting of a thick felt pad in the camera door.
It is very rare to have a 2709 with this feature. What this means
is that this camera was one of those that went into the huge sound
proof booths that cameras and camera men were subjected to in the
very beginning of sound pictures.
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