Beaulieu R16 alt battery rig and test footage with Pentax TV primes

[Mark Eastman]

I recently bought a Beaulieu R16 camera body from a seller on eBay that was “untested”.

The camera was in good shape, an ASA dial missing and original handle battery dead. Applying power to battery grip handle pin terminals and the DIN plug revealed it would run (hooray!).

Based on a battery set-up by RotarySMP on YouTube of his R16 battery setup:
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pv4CzyTmZjw&t=487s>

I adapted a Sony 7.4v video camera battery as a power supply with a similar Small Rig rail set-up and this worked well, though a bit klunkier than the original battery handle grip.

Here is a unedited scan test roll I shot on Kodak Vision 3 50D color negative film with this camera and Pentax 12.5mm (with and ND4 filter) and 25mm TV lens primes. This was shot at a local community car show event in Redwood City, CA

(Google photos)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Yjfc2FXW29PNaW8W8

Exposure was manual with a separate hand-held meter. The built-in camera meter was functioning, very handy for shooting in changing light situations (sunlit to shade), but I had no ref without the ASA dial.

You can see some stretched out distortion with the Pentax 12.5mm but not bad.

I’ve been mostly using wind-up 16mm cameras (Pathe, Bolex Rex 4 and Bell & Howell) so the Beaulieu R16 is a very nice electric set-up and fairly lightweight to use with primes.

Attached is a photo of the battery rig I used (but showing a different 12.5-75mm Angenieux lens).

Mark Eastman
Palo Alto, CA

Edited October 4, 2024 by Mark Eastman

[Dr. Thomas Faehrenkemper]

Nice footage and congratulations to your new R16. I have 3 of it, and all are working flawlessly. The finder is bright and clear, much nicer than a Bolex that I own as well, and the motorized film transport is very comfortable to work with. The spring driven Bolex typically stops at the decisive moment...

To calibrate the meter without the ASA ring  just take an external one, set 1/60 for 25 fps transmit the f stop of your hand held meter to the T-scale of your lens and adjust the needle in the finder turning the ASA dial so that the needle in the finder is in the middle of the reference cross. VOILA.

Wittner Cinetec in Germany offers the ring as a spare part, but the price is astronomic.

 

 

 

Edited October 4, 2024 by Dr. Thomas Faehrenkemper

[Mark Eastman]

Thank you for the R16 ASA dial tip!

Best,

Mark

Mark Eastman

Palo Alto, CA