Shooting a B+H 603T in 2026 - is it possible?

[Kevin Cobley]

I have acquired (for near zero investment from a boot fair) a B+H 603T, which is a very pretty thing. It has a TTH Serital 1in F/1.9 lens in tip top condition and I have now fully stripped it down, cleaned and lubricated the mechanism and restored it to full function. It runs about 22-23seconds on a wind and the governor is now working properly and calibrated. In short it works OK and looks great.

Now, I'm not a cinematographer (yet) and I started to look into if its possible to make a short film with the camera. I'm used to still photos in B+W from 35mm to LF and dev and scan myself with a hybrid workflow (on account of not having space for a LF darkroom 🙂 ).  I started to look into how to load and shoot this camera and found fairly immediately that magazines are now completely dead technology, and even if I managed to re-load a cassette and shoot it that I might have trouble getting a lab to develop it.

TLDR?

I have two options: 

• Climb the mountain to load shoot unload develop, splice and project double perf 16mm film magazines - having to do all of that myself
• Sell the Camera on and buy a Double 8mm rig to get me started (perhaps a C8 to get going), but probably still doing my own dev.

It should be said that I'm crazy enough to prefer the full analogue route, as shooting a Canon 8mm and having the film lab deve'd and scanned is too close to using my phone and some post processing 🙂

Thanks for entertaining my folly ,

Kevin.

Edited September 8 by Kevin Cobley

[Kevin Cobley]

Attached some photos, and maybe some of you might be interested to see the guts. There's a fair bit of mis info out there about how these are arranged - the mainspring, for instance is not loose wound but is in a sturdy barrel making disassembly relatively safe if the spring tension is first relieved. To relieve the tension, after fully running the camera, once the turret assembly is removed, the gears of the transport can be hand run to let down the last of the spring tension

I had to make a special spanner with a pair of pins to release the nut on the turret - it was very tight. Once that nut is off and the spring removed that is under it (dont let it join the swiss space race) then the turret face can be slid up to reveal the face plate. Four screws then remove the front face revealing the gears and the shutter disc.

Once the face is removed, the wind crank can be removed with the big screw in its centre, and the four screws that hold the cover onto the main assembly. Once that is removed, the mechanism can be inspected.

Undoing the flat internal plate with 5 or 6 screws releases most of the mechanism for disassembly. There is a spring that centres the run toggle - this fits to the end face - take note of how its mounted. Once the cover is removed, the governer can be removed next - undo the two lock screws in the main posts that secure the governor pivots - you may want to make mental note of their positions. One has an eccentric fitting that is for setting the depthing of the worm drive, the other calibrates the frame rate by setting how far the govener must move before reaching a friction plate which is what maintains the speed. Removing the long eccentirc tube with the camera set to 64fps just permites the removal of the govenor from the other end and then the main shutter gear is free to be moved.

The govenor has some pivots that need cleaning and oiling so that the motiion is smooth, and some very light oil on the sliding cone. Also light watch oil for the pivot tubes. The gears havent been oiled themselves, and some light grease for the pivots of the main gear and the spring drum pivots. Lighter watch oil for the pivots of the gears that drive the shutter and the idler that also steps the single frame.

The single frame works by using the metal slider as a fork escapement. The slider pushes up and releases the idler which then catches on the next fork of the slider, making exactly one turn less a bit, then the rest when the slider is returned to rest. This is a very simple and reliable system. The idler gear drives the scotch yoke that operates the sprocket advance slider with a pin in its top that must be made to engage the slider. This needs oilng with light watch oil but only a tiny amount. 

My camera was a bit gummed up and the govenor wasnt working right which meant slow faster speeds and wrongs speeds altogether. It also halted after about 15 seconds due to excessive drag. Now all speeds are correct and the mainspring runs for about 22-23 secs. The rate was calibrated by adjusting the govenor pivot before locking it down. The eccentic adjuster was set to give best running without slip or bind. Both are then locked down with grub screws on the main posts.

Reassembly - there is a finger on the front plate the the shutter must be fed over before putting the front plate down, so setting the angle of the shutter is a bit tricky. The spring that pushes out the sprocket drive to the magazine is also tricky to get in place whilst the splined shaft is located and the head pushed under the locking lever and through the plate.

Once re-assembled, I have an old kodachrome magazine, and it happily ran 10' without problems. Its a happy camera now, so as I said - time to work out if I can actually shoot some film with it or whther I'm going to end up with a heap of frustration.

Edited September 8 by Kevin Cobley

[Kevin Cobley]

And further pictures:

 

I forgot to mention the rather elegant felt and spring damper mechanism on the main shutter gear that handles the shock of being forced to stop so abruptly. There is a pawl not visible in the pictures which gets jammed into a ratchet tooth wheel on the back of the main shutter gear causing it to stop when the shutter button is returned. The wheel then gets a rather sharp jolt and the felt clutch takes the strain to prevent teeth parting company. Simple and effective, but take care not to leave the felt soaked with cleaner before testing.

[Simon Wyss]

I should much appreciate that you in the future adapt the format of your photographs to the subjects, above all holding the device with the longer image side parallel to the longitudinal dimension. As a cinematographer you will only have the horizontally wider aspect for pictures and that preferably accomplished on a tripod.

We like young people going after something, so be encouraged to do it all. As you’ve already learnt Bell & Howell products are well designed into every detail. The 603 is quite compact and thus always with you. Try some Ektachrome, focus diligently, rewards will come.

[Brandon Paterno]

loading isn’t as bad as people make it out to seem. if you get another camera, take the spindle claw from it and use it to unscrew the engaging gear from the mag — this will let you clean the center shaft of the magazine, which is one of the things that makes these things jam like a mf when oxidized/gooey. 

[Kevin Cobley]

Thanks Simon, I agree the photos are not great. My apologies. Its one of the quirks of my phone that it autorotates. Very frustrating. I shot the photos to help me remember where everything goes. In future I should do a proper teardown and put together set for sharing. Well designed - very much so - ingenious, and all designed with a slide rule, no CAD, no rapid prototyping - just a mk 1 brain and a tobacco pipe and pen and paper.

From my point of view this magazine camera poses some specific challenges:

• Double Perf - this limits film choices for me in the UK
• Lack of a lab processing option - at least I believe no UK lab will take a 50' roll or two 50' rolls spliced.
• Loading the magazine - I havent tried loading the mag, but its an extra hurdle, and a high probability of lost film - I can get mags for about £15-20 but I have no idea of how much wear they have. Thanks for the reassurance that this is not impossible, Brandon.

I do have a mag which is part exposed Kodachrome which I view as a mechanical test roll. I may open that cartridge and see how it loads. A bit of me wonders what is shot on the exposed part 🙂 probably something really mundane. So I could try B+W dev to negative first.

Which brings me to the developing. Assuming no lab will touch 50' of double perf, I'm left attempting to dev myself - that limits me to B+W, which is OK, and I'd probably opt for R100 reversal B+W which seems the only emulsion left in double perf. Then how to develop 50' of film? Lomo 50' tanks are crazy expensive now £250-350 on fleabay. An then there is the fun and games of trying to dry 50' of film at home. I'm out of my comfort zone and probably need advice !

Editing and projecting are then subsequent problems to solve later.

Alternatively I can turn in the camera, maybe getting enough from selling it and its lens to pay for a double 8 camera like a Bolex or B+H Viceroy - still very analogue, what with loading and reversing the reels in a dark bag - it fits the game. Obviously quality will be a compromise, but I still get the fun of planning a silent movie with short shots and probably spend a lot less finding out if I enjoy it, but without the satisfaction of shooting the camera I got first.

K.

[Simon Wyss]

On my phone I can switch the autorotate function off and on.

designed with a slide rule, no CAD, no rapid prototyping - just a mk 1 brain and a tobacco pipe and pen and paper

That’s romanticised, in reality the constructing work was broken down into single tasks solved by groups of engineers, then submitted to a chief engineer, then approved by the chief executive officer. American capitalists in the first half of the 20th century wouldn’t leave anything to hazard.

I’d endorse the 8-mm. format, still the cheapest of all. Double Eight offers literally hundreds of various cameras, viewers, projectors. Double Eight handles like 16 until you split it up, ever so practical with developing and printing in camera.

[Kevin Cobley]

Thats right about the structure of companies. Junior engineers would do calculations under guidance from seniors and often complex calculations handled by semi skilled caculation pools often with ladies using log tables and the like. Optics was certainly done like that. But the fact remains that all designs were hand calculated, engineering rules and gut feel used to manage stress calculations, prototypes lovingly hand machined in prototype workshops. When I first started as an electronics engineer it was just about left, that way of working (I'm not that young actually). We are all spoilt by design CAD, automated calculations, finite element simulations etc.

Is the quality and aesthetic value of whats produced up to the same standard - maybe, sometimes. But I think there is a lot of clever and creative work done in the early days in these fields. Enough Nostalgia.

You talk about printing in camera - please explain - I was imagining doing reversal processing to get a projectable reel.

Also, are there easier dev routes than finding a LOMO tank for 25' of double 8? Its still too long for my stills tanks, though it might fit in my old CPE2 which is languishing in the loft somwhere.

Edited September 9 by Kevin Cobley

[Brandon Paterno]

sorry to chime in again, 

double 8 also has the benefit of a finer gate. The mag 16 gates are on a little brass spring. On the full size Bolex H8 you get the benefit of independent sprockets on D8 which serve to maintain the loops with a bit more consistency. Ive been fairly impressed by a friends footage from a canon reflex zoom 8. It's a treat to watch the film move in four quadrants when projected as 16. Mag 16 does have the benefit of using a sprocket to transport the film, but the film gets butted together in a certain way that the whole thing becomes moot point. 

printing in camera = contact printing or optical printing -- depending on the double 8 camera you have you can choose a lens and therefore find a nice macro to do prints of through the gate of a projector. Contact printing you basically put unexposed film behind the exposed and run it again with a light source in front of the camera lens...

If you already have your mind set on processing reversal just do that. 

You can bucket process but the result will be poor or unusual or all of the above. Since this is a technical forum id hazard to recommend it... depends on what you're doing 

Sandy McLennan does some pretty interesting work using double 8

[Simon Wyss]

Fomapan 100 for example, Orwo UN 54, Orwo N 74 are negative stocks. Fomapan R 100 is a reversal film that ends up black after development. It needs to be reverse processed including bleach, clear, second exposure, second development.

Now you need print film and that is a bit more difficult to find. Institutional clients can buy Orwo PF 2 in Double Eight from Kahl Film in Germany. Dealers after Kahl are Re:voir in Paris, on8mil of London. Then Wittner in Lingenfeld, Germany and Dennis Toeppen in the States.

Kodak color print film can be had from Toeppen who has Wittner perforate stock.

To print in camera you wind print raw stock and the negative together on a spool, the photographic sides in contact. A 50-foot negative and 50 feet of print stock are accomodated on a 100-ft. spool. For a 25-ft. negative you need 50-ft. spools. Make sure you have an outer film loop one frame larger on each side of the gate. With black and white print film you can work in red safelight.

Many labs accept Double-Eight film to mount it in a 16-mm. batch. Note that they do two formulae only, D-96 and D-97. Tell them to not slit the processed film

[Kevin Cobley]

Thanks for the explanation - not sure how much light is needed, and what a good light source should be. What distance should the light be and where do you focus the lens (not on the lit surface or else you image the imperfections of the source?).

I have my eye on a Bolex C8 (H8s go for much more money) with a Switar 12.5 F/1.5 so may go the double 8 route anyway at that price. Maybe come back to the 16mm B+H once I have gotten some experience.

Thanks for the discussion.

 

 

 

[Simon Wyss]

A smooth white surface you put the camera up in front of, two lamps, no lens on the camera

With a good negative, it can be a short loop you run round (feasibility depends on camera), expose a series of ten steps. Vary the lamps distance or the intensity via a dimmer or introduce filters or use a lens set to infinity while the distance is, say only three feet or the frame rate or the shutter opening (depends on camera).

Note all variables. One of the ten steps will come close to the desired positive image character. From there you can further refine. Commercial labs do exactly the same, only with specialised equipment.

In case you stick with 16 mm print films are readily available, also from labs. But then you can have a lab strike copies which gives you the position of commissioner. You pay, they obey. More or less. And under their tariff.