Record Sound on Bolex EBM

Paulo Mauro · August 18, 2006

Hi Everyone,

Is there any way that I could record sound on the Bolex EBM without any problems? Does the Bolex company

have any solutions? I know about the blimp but I heard that does not work very well either. I s there any other

hightec sound proof material out there? another question is what if I decide to buy a brand new one from the Bolex company are they silent enough to record sound?

Thank you,

Paulo

August 18, 2006

Hi Everyone,

Is there any way that I could record sound on the Bolex EBM without any problems? Does the Bolex company

have any solutions? I know about the blimp but I heard that does not work very well either. I s there any other

hightec sound proof material out there? another question is what if I decide to buy a brand new one from the Bolex company are they silent enough to record sound?

Thank you,

Paulo

firstly no film camera records sound in it if thats one question.

you can get sound deadening material and make a blimp. it will look ugly and look impractical but it wont get in your way much.they can work very well.

Tim Carroll · August 18, 2006

Hi Everyone,

Is there any way that I could record sound on the Bolex EBM without any problems? Does the Bolex company

have any solutions? I know about the blimp but I heard that does not work very well either. I s there any other

hightec sound proof material out there? another question is what if I decide to buy a brand new one from the Bolex company are they silent enough to record sound?

Thank you,

Paulo

If you are considering shooting a film where you would like to have synchronized sound, a Bolex EBM is not the camera I would choose. It is extremely noisy. We tried to make a short film with one (against all the advice I had gotten on this forum) and we learned first hand why it doesn't work. We had a Bolex barney on the camera and it made it somewhat quieter, but it went from being as noisy as five power tools running in the same room to four power tools running in the same room. So it did not make much difference. And we tried many different software solutions to try to remove the camera noise in post, and none of them really did the trick.

-Tim

August 20, 2006

If you are considering shooting a film where you would like to have synchronized sound, a Bolex EBM is not the camera I would choose. It is extremely noisy. We tried to make a short film with one (against all the advice I had gotten on this forum) and we learned first hand why it doesn't work. We had a Bolex barney on the camera and it made it somewhat quieter, but it went from being as noisy as five power tools running in the same room to four power tools running in the same room. So it did not make much difference. And we tried many different software solutions to try to remove the camera noise in post, and none of them really did the trick.

-Tim

ive actually seen and 'heard' a homemade barney. it made it as quiet as a BL.it was amazing.it was ugly,and looked bulky..although it really wasnt just looked odd and ugly more than anything

Hal Smith · August 20, 2006

ive actually seen and 'heard' a homemade barney. it made it as quiet as a BL.it was amazing.it was ugly,and looked bulky..although it really wasnt just looked odd and ugly more than anything

I have an old 1930 ASC Annual that has pages of photos covered up with horse blankets, blimps that look like refrigerators, cameras in separate rooms, etc. Don't feel bad about an ugly barney - Hollywood also looked pretty stupid in the beginning sound years - but it worked for them and it'll work for us.

Bernie O'Doherty · August 20, 2006

Hi Everyone,

Is there any way that I could record sound on the Bolex EBM without any problems? Does the Bolex company

have any solutions? I know about the blimp but I heard that does not work very well either. I s there any other

hightec sound proof material out there? another question is what if I decide to buy a brand new one from the Bolex company are they silent enough to record sound?

Thank you,

Paulo

Hi, Paulo,

You can make your own barney using fiberglass insulation between lead foil sheets. Compress the insulation between the lead sheets and cover in canvas (or even better, a goose-down winter jacket--the lens pokes through the sleeve). This would be the raw material to enshroud your camera and would reduce the noise considerably.

The more minute capillaries there are between the noise of the camera and the exterior of the studio, the more the sound will be dampened. Sound emitted from the camera bounces around a million ways trying to get through this tiny forest of hairs. The dissipation of the sound waves is what reduces the noise level, so the more capillaries/fibers/hairs there are, the better. Experiments were done in Berlin in the 40s with two rabbit skins placed furry-side in over a camera, and apparently this worked wonders. The fiberglass acts like a lot of capillaries/fibers/hair much like the rabbit fur, and of course lead foil (the type used in alarm systems) helps to block out the remaining sound. I think this could make quite a difference for you.

Cheers,

Bernie O'