Guest The Cardboard Company Posted September 23, 2006 Share Posted September 23, 2006 Hi all -- I am the proud owner of a Bell and Howell 240EE. As many of you know, this camera is non-reflex and has a fixed 20mm lens and a fixed 20mm viewfinder. When looking through the viewfinder I can see two triangular cutouts on the top and bottom of the left-hand side of the viewfinder, and a smaller rectangular cut out on the right hand side that extends the viewing area of the viewfinder. Does anyone out there know if this is a kind of "built in" adjustment to help correct the parallax error from the camera? Does anyone have the maunal for this camera and, if so, does the manual mention anything about the marks on the viewfinder? Thanks for your help, Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ronney Ross Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 Hi: I have the exact same camera along with the 2X telephoto lens. The two triangular points cant be adjusted but are there the help when shooting closeups. I don't have my manual with me right now but maybe Cohen Phillips can send you a .zip file of his to explain how it works. This is an great camera that shoots extreme steady pics. -Ronney Ross Hi: I have the exact same camera along with the 2X telephoto lens. The two triangular points cant be adjusted but are there the help when shooting closeups. I don't have my manual with me right now but maybe Cohen Phillips can send you a .zip file of his to explain how it works. This is an great camera that shoots extreme steady pics. -Ronney Ross sorry remember I had it saved to my harddrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ronney Ross Posted September 24, 2006 Share Posted September 24, 2006 I cant seem to post the file myself so I can email it to you. ronney_ross@yahoo.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Cardboard Company Posted September 25, 2006 Share Posted September 25, 2006 Interesting... Have you used these guides and, if so, how effective are they? Thanks, Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cohen Phillips Posted September 27, 2006 Share Posted September 27, 2006 Hi Aaron, Great to hear you got a B&H 240EE! They really are great cameras that produce great images as Ronny said. I've had mine for over a year now and have had super great results steady picture, pin sharp images ect. The two little triangles are the edge of the "real frame" or the edge of what the lens sees. These are just a guide to help you not cut anyone off or to make your subject center in the frame ect. Once you get use to them it comes like 2nd nature. Not sure if Ronny emailed you the manual but I uploaded it for you(and others) to download. :) http://download.yousendit.com/DB4F7F440C319B4D If you got anymore questions about the camera I'd be happy to pass on more of my experience I've had with the camera. Happy shooting! B) -Cohen Interesting... Have you used these guides and, if so, how effective are they? Thanks, Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Cardboard Company Posted September 27, 2006 Share Posted September 27, 2006 Thanks for passing the manual along. That's exactly what I was looking for. I'd love to hear any tips/tricks you have about shooting with this camera -- especially about shooting closeups with that 20mm lens, but any info you can offer will be really helpful. Thanks again, Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Charles MacDonald Posted October 11, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted October 11, 2006 As It happens I recently bought one of these (on ebay) and am impresed- for a home movie camera it looks quite good. The unit has a selfloading feature, and the curved guides that form the loops swing out of the way when the lid is put in place. I am not thrilled that the film comes out right beside where it goes in to the main sproket, as I could see a poible place where the film might rubb against itself. The Camera also has an Arm that rests on the supply spool to run the film available indicator, again this might allow scratches, I would rather that they had it only touch the film in the sproket area. AS advertised the Camaera is lighter than a Filmo, and does seem to run longer on a winding. The wind crank is also much more finger friendly. The finder On the one I have is adjustable for a lens of 20mm to about 4 inches, by sliding a thumb tab on the top.. The lens mount is unusual as the lens can be set for a film speed of 10 or 32 ASA, and your favorite FPS, and you can select Cloudly-bright or whatever on a scale. If you take the lens off, their is a C mount hidden away behind it, . The camera also will do single frame, and can be set to run at speeds up to 32FPS. All in All no replecement for a Filmo, but it looks like a competent little unit, and slightly more robust than a Keystone. The leather cover is a nice touch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Cardboard Company Posted October 23, 2006 Share Posted October 23, 2006 Thanks for the further information. I was able to finally get out and shoot with the camera and I like it a lot. I'm used to Bolexes (Bolexi?) and found this camera to be an interesting second to an H16. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Freya Black Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 The finder On the one I have is adjustable for a lens of 20mm to about 4 inches, by sliding a thumb tab on the top.. The lens mount is unusual as the lens can be set for a film speed of 10 or 32 ASA, and your favorite FPS, and you can select Cloudly-bright or whatever on a scale. If you take the lens off, their is a C mount hidden away behind it, . The camera also will do single frame, and can be set to run at speeds up to 32FPS. How do you take the lens off??? I always assumed it was fixed because of the electronic eye needing to operate the apeture? Mine goes up to 48fps and 50asa. Would love to get a hold of the manual but the link has expired. :( love Freya Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Cardboard Company Posted October 27, 2006 Share Posted October 27, 2006 Would love to get a hold of the manual but the link has expired. :( I'll see what I can do about reposting the copy that was forwarded to me. Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Charles MacDonald Posted October 28, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted October 28, 2006 How do you take the lens off??? I always assumed it was fixed because of the electronic eye needing to operate the apeture? THere are two versions of the 240, The one I go is the manual one, I shyed away for the electric eye version as I have a couple of "auto" cameras in my "can't use" drawer, just because the elecric eye is set up for film that was last made in the year of my birth. ASA 10 Kodachrome anyone? The manual lens has a ring which unscrews, and attahces using an outside thread, the lens has a keyway that ensures that it can only be mounted in one position sothat the expousure calculator will line up. INDIDE the ring that the lens connects with is a c Mount! BTW, I recklessly shot 100 FT of 7245 of my dog fetching a frisby as a test to see if this unit was working. It just came back from Niagra Custom lab today, and it looks Great on my old Pagent. Sharp and steady! I will have to get out the microscope on teh weekend to get a better look. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cohen Phillips Posted October 28, 2006 Share Posted October 28, 2006 THere are two versions of the 240, The one I go is the manual one, I shyed away for the electric eye version as I have a couple of "auto" cameras in my "can't use" drawer, just because the elecric eye is set up for film that was last made in the year of my birth. ASA 10 Kodachrome anyone? I just bypass(don't put a battery in) the EE and set the F-Stops manually. :) BTW, I recklessly shot 100 FT of 7245 of my dog fetching a frisby as a test to see if this unit was working. It just came back from Niagra Custom lab today, and it looks Great on my old Pagent. Sharp and steady! I will have to get out the microscope on teh weekend to get a better look. Awesome that the footage came back great for you. The camera really does deliever in the sharpness and steadyness deparment. Here is another link to the manual. This link should stay up longer than the other one guys. ;) http://rapidshare.com/files/1081732/240man.zip Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Charles MacDonald Posted October 29, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted October 29, 2006 I just bypass(don't put a battery in) the EE and set the F-Stops manually. :) The ones in my "can't use drawer are consumer cameras, mostly regular 8, and some have a seleium cell. (no bateries) and don't really have a place to set the stop manualy. I have one Regular-8 a eumig, that has a scale from A to H to set the film speed. So I have not played with it because without a manual I am in the dark. I think I have also put one there that only takes film up to 25ASA. Hard to get that these days in Regular 8. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Lance E Posted October 30, 2006 Share Posted October 30, 2006 Does anyone have a manual for the B&H 240 that I could download? I just picked one up this weekend and I want to be fully informed before I go out and test my first roll. Does anyone have any links to footage shot with this camera online? Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Cardboard Company Posted November 5, 2006 Share Posted November 5, 2006 Does anyone have a manual for the B&H 240 that I could download? I just picked one up this weekend and I want to be fully informed before I go out and test my first roll. Does anyone have any links to footage shot with this camera online? Thanks! If you click through some of the links on this thread you should find what you're looking for. I waited a long time before I used my 240 because I was worried about image steadiness, film jamming, etc and I didn't have a copy of the manual. I needn't have worried. These are good "go-to" cameras, not pro by any means but they will definitely get the job done if you pay attention to what you're doing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Charles MacDonald Posted December 31, 2006 Premium Member Share Posted December 31, 2006 I am the proud owner of a Bell and Howell 240EE. As many of you know, this camera is non-reflex and has a fixed 20mm lens and a fixed 20mm viewfinder. When looking through the viewfinder I can see two triangular cutouts on the top and bottom of the left-hand side of the viewfinder, and a smaller rectangular cut out on the right hand side that extends the viewing area of the viewfinder. Does anyone out there know if this is a kind of "built in" adjustment to help correct the parallax error from the camera? Does anyone have the maunal for this camera and, if so, does the manual mention anything about the marks on the viewfinder? I think I can officaly call myself a camera collector. THis thread prompted me to get an EE version of a B&H 240 to go with my single lens manual version. Still in the wild are a two lens manual and a three lens manual from e-bay sales I got outbid on. The One I just got does even have a manual, so I can give some authratative answers. The Triangles are for shots closer than 6 feet with the fixed 20MM lens. They mark the left habd of the useable frame, and presumably the right hand extends a bit past what is visible. The EE function is suposed to take two mercury bateries so I will have ot dosome research to see if I can figure a way to fake it out. Mercury batteries are now considered enviromental hazards and so are effectivly made of Unubtainium. The camera can have the appature set manualy with no bateries, so unlike some of the EE cameras, the ee version is quite useable. Mine came with a 2X front of the lens teleconverter attachment, which the e-bay seller just left under the little strap that the case provides for it. The mail stream caused it to become loose in teh package and so the back elemnet has MANY chips. It is perhaps not salvageable. This comera came with a 20MM filmo style finder, and a 40mm finder to interchange - for use with the 2X converter. My manual 240 has a slideing finder like the older filmos where you select the focal lenght of your lens on a scale. The 20mm lens is FIXED, and the probaly very rare converters are the only way to change focal length on the auto veriosn. Their apperently was a wide angle attchemnet also. The teleconverter has "series 4.5" threads on the back and so it attaches where the filter ring attches to the lens. It has its own series 7 (VII) filter ring. The light meter is set up for film as fast as ASA 50. so their is actually ONE curent film that is useable if you can fake out the batteries. Too bad reformulated Plus x is now 100. The anature staus of the camera is confirmed by the manual's recomendation to use 16FPS, although the camera does have a setting up to 48FPS for slow motion. If their is anything I can look up in the users manual let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Cardboard Company Posted January 4, 2007 Share Posted January 4, 2007 The Triangles are for shots closer than 6 feet with the fixed 20MM lens. They mark the left habd of the useable frame, and presumably the right hand extends a bit past what is visible. That's what I had thought the triangles were for. I haven't set my test rolls off to the lab yet, but I'll let you know how well they work when I get my results back. Aaron Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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