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Auricon CM 72 what´s that?


Guest Ole Dost

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Guest Ole Dost

Dear all,

I just won an Auricon CM 72 on Ebay.... ar, without knowing what that really is. O.k., it´s a 16mm Cam, and that´s why I bought it, but I don´t know anything about it´s reputation, what kind of Mags to use, lens mount, finder-system...

Any information is wellcome!

OLe

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Guest Ian Marks
Dear all,

I just won an Auricon CM 72 on Ebay.... ar, without knowing what that really is. O.k., it´s a 16mm Cam, and that´s why I bought it, but I don´t know anything about it´s reputation, what kind of Mags to use, lens mount, finder-system...

Any information is wellcome!

OLe

 

If memory serves, this was the model that accepted only 100-foot internal loads and recorded magnetic sound on striped film (no longer available, but you can use regular 16mm film). Designed for TV news interviews (the 100' load was just about right for a quicky interview) and such. This same model was often modified by chopping off the top and fitting a plate to accept 400 foot Mitchell magazines (hence the term "chop top Auricon"). The camera was a non-reflex model accepting C-mount lenses. Typically used with a Pan-Cinor or Angenieux zoom lens with a built-in reflex finder. Has a transport mechanism that is somewhat tricky to thread. This same mechanism formed the basis for the later Cinema Products ("Blair Witch Project") and Frezzolini cameras. Extremely rugged and reliable, although an older camera may need lubrication or new belts.

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Guest Ole Dost
Thank you for the informations about the camera and thank you for the link to the offered manual on EBay -both was a graet help!

OLe

 

There´s a foto that shows the Ebay item I won. The item number is 330032778092 . It looks as there´s something missing. Is the Mag included? If not: Where can I get one?

Best regards,

Ole

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There´s a foto that shows the Ebay item I won. The item number is 330032778092 . It looks as there´s something missing. Is the Mag included? If not: Where can I get one?

Best regards,

Ole

 

 

I've never seen one with only one side of the magazine on top like that.I'm guessing that it's a 100 foot only model and that the other half of the mag is inside the camera.There's a handle on the side where the other half of the mag should be,soI'm guessing that it's complete.There's no lens there,most folks using Auricons used zoom lenses with a dog leg viewfinder.Pan Cinor and Angeniuex both made such.I'm sure they can be found on ebay fairly cheaply.

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I've never seen one with only one side of the magazine on top like that.I'm guessing that it's a 100 foot only model and that the other half of the mag is inside the camera.There's a handle on the side where the other half of the mag should be,soI'm guessing that it's complete.There's no lens there,most folks using Auricons used zoom lenses with a dog leg viewfinder.Pan Cinor and Angeniuex both made such.I'm sure they can be found on ebay fairly cheaply.

 

One can easily see where the magazine mounts.

That housing is too narrow to narrow to hold 16mm. Since there's a pulley for the magazine take up on it, it probably houses a flywheel.

 

also note that it has a heftier motor attached.

The AC motors on these models were not sync and were meant to piull only 100'.

Adding a new motor was part of the conversion process.

 

This is most probably an AC motor.

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Guest Ole Dost
One can easily see where the magazine mounts.

That housing is too narrow to narrow to hold 16mm. Since there's a pulley for the magazine take up on it, it probably houses a flywheel.

 

also note that it has a heftier motor attached.

The AC motors on these models were not sync and were meant to piull only 100'.

Adding a new motor was part of the conversion process.

 

This is most probably an AC motor.

 

 

Thank you for all the helpful information. I´m curious whart will arrive when the parcel with this camera has crossed the ocean. And I hope I´ll get all missing parts as the Mags. It seems to me as Auricon cameras have never been very common in Europe as most Auricon-sellers on EBay are based in the U.S. ...

John -as you mean the camera has been converted to take bigger Mags -do you think it takes Mtchell-Mags?

Best regards,

Ole

 

 

 

Thank you for all the helpful information. I´m curious whart will arrive when the parcel with this camera has crossed the ocean. And I hope I´ll get all missing parts as the Mags. It seems to me as Auricon cameras have never been very common in Europe as most Auricon-sellers on EBay are based in the U.S. ...

Leo -as you mean the camera has been converted to take bigger Mags -do you think it takes Mtchell-Mags?

Best regards,

Ole

 

 

Thank you for all the helpful information. I´m curious whart will arrive when the parcel with this camera has crossed the ocean. And I hope I´ll get all missing parts as the Mags. It seems to me as Auricon cameras have never been very common in Europe as most Auricon-sellers on EBay are based in the U.S. ...

John -as you mean the camera has been converted to take bigger Mags -do you think it takes Mtchell-Mags?

Best regards,

Ole

 

 

Sorry, Leo -it was you who wrote about a conversion of the Auricon...

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Thank you for all the helpful information. I´m curious whart will arrive when the parcel with this camera has crossed the ocean. And I hope I´ll get all missing parts as the Mags. It seems to me as Auricon cameras have never been very common in Europe as most Auricon-sellers on EBay are based in the U.S. ...

John -as you mean the camera has been converted to take bigger Mags -do you think it takes Mtchell-Mags?

Best regards,

Ole

Sorry, Leo -it was you who wrote about a conversion of the Auricon...

 

Yes, the conversions take Mitchell mags. The bigger models the 600 and 1200 take their own mags.

 

I didn't realize tou were in Europe. The AC motor is most likely 60 cycle.

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I have an Auricon "chop top" conversion (by Sollen? or Yollen?) that has some similarities to yours. But lots of shops were doing conversions of Auricons in the 60's, and it's hard to guess what your camera's peculiarities will show until you open it up and look around. Mine appears to be a "Cine-Voice" conversion, it has a 120V synchronous 60 Hz AC Baldor motor, which allows for sync shooting. Its "chop top" is laid out differently than yours - mine takes a Mitchell mag, but the mounting is non standard - the Mitchell mag itself was modified to fit the camera(?). Although yours clearly takes some sort of magazine, I don't think that's a Mitchell mount, though you may be able to modify it to fit a Mitchell mag. I hope you're ready and willing to open it up to see how it works. The lens mount is a standard "C" mount, so find a dog-leg Pan Cinor or Angenieux zoom lens for an appropriate match.

 

Other than some persistent light leaks my Auricon works fine and with its Pan Cinor 17-85mm lens takes remarkably good images. It's not as sophisticated as a CP-16R, but it works.

Edited by Robert Hughes
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Guest Ole Dost
I have an Auricon "chop top" conversion (by Sollen? or Yollen?) that has some similarities to yours. But lots of shops were doing conversions of Auricons in the 60's, and it's hard to guess what your camera's peculiarities will show until you open it up and look around. Mine appears to be a "Cine-Voice" conversion, it has a 120V synchronous 60 Hz AC Baldor motor, which allows for sync shooting. Its "chop top" is laid out differently than yours - mine takes a Mitchell mag, but the mounting is non standard - the Mitchell mag itself was modified to fit the camera(?). Although yours clearly takes some sort of magazine, I don't think that's a Mitchell mount, though you may be able to modify it to fit a Mitchell mag. I hope you're ready and willing to open it up to see how it works. The lens mount is a standard "C" mount, so find a dog-leg Pan Cinor or Angenieux zoom lens for an appropriate match.

 

Other than some persistent light leaks my Auricon works fine and with its Pan Cinor 17-85mm lens takes remarkably good images. It's not as sophisticated as a CP-16R, but it works.

 

Thank you, Robert for these informations and the encouragement. It´s good to know about the c-mount... Do you think it will take an extra motor for the Mag? Anyway -I´m curious to open it. But I will have to wait some weeks until it arrives in my hands, because airmail seemed to be too expensive for me. And shipping by ship takes some time..

Best regards,

Ole

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Dear all,

I just won an Auricon CM 72 on Ebay.... ar, without knowing what that really is. O.k., it´s a 16mm Cam, and that´s why I bought it, but I don´t know anything about it´s reputation, what kind of Mags to use, lens mount, finder-system...

Any information is wellcome!

OLe

Ole,

This camera is a sound-on-film camera. They can be capable of recording optical or magnetic sound on film; with a mag or optical record head; or both; in the camera.(Magstriped film is no longer available). In order to record optical sound with this camera; you need to have an optical sound recorder; called a Galvanometer; in the camera. The galvanometer has an exciter lamp that records sound on the film by exposing sound waves on the film as light pulses. You also need to have an Auricon optical film recording amplifier and a 50 ohm microphone that plugs into the camera that allows the galvanometer to work. You must use 1R"B" wound(single perf. film) if you want to record optical sound. The amplifier and microphone are probably available on EBAY, but the Galvanometer may be hard to find if it is not included with the camera. These cameras are self blimped and run extremely quietly for recording live sound. Obviously you can shoot silent if you choose. I hope this helps! Roger.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Guest Ole Dost

Hi,

Once again it´s me with my Auricon from EBay...

It finally arrived. I opened it -and what I found was much different from what the seller discribed as "clean". A mapple seed inside the compartement makes me assume that it has been laying outside for a certain time. The sound recording unit is completely missing and I can´t see anything looking likely to a pressure plate.... the transport axis is movable. When turned by hand the shutter disk is moving quite smoothly...

Do you think it makes any sense to have it repaired? Or better throw it away?

THank you for any reply. And thank you for all the informations you have already been writing me.

Ole

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  • Premium Member
Hi,

Once again it´s me with my Auricon from EBay...

It finally arrived. I opened it -and what I found was much different from what the seller discribed as "clean".

Do you think it makes any sense to have it repaired? Or better throw it away?

Ole

sound like some of the 16mm projectors I have bought!

 

Get another one or two of the same madel, and you might have enough to put together a working one.

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Sorry to hear about the condition. I have one a CM-72 as well, with the recording amplifier. It's quite interesting! There's a wooden battery box under the vacuum-tube recording amp that I loaded up with 6V lantern batteries and a string of 9V batteries to power the tubes up. The camera itself came with a "vibrator-type" 12VDC-to-120VAC inverter, which I discarded immediately since there are such inexpensive and lightweight inverters available at even Target now. The camera has a clock motor which runs on 120VAC, so presumably with some electronics knowledge one could operate it at a multitude of speeds by varying the frequency! I have no idea how much the mechanics would tolerate high or ultra-low speeds, but it sounds like an inexpensive way to experiment. 8^)

 

At any rate, it's my guess that this type of camera was used by the Saturday Night Live crew when making their extremely humorous old "talkie"-style black and white movie segments years ago. The edits on those were quite deliberately cut directly on the sound track so that voices would disappear for a second or appear too early during scene changes as a result of the displaced optical track which appears on the film a certain number of frames before the image.

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  • 2 years later...
  • 12 years later...
On 10/1/2006 at 3:00 PM, Guest Ole Dost said:

Dear all,

I just won an Auricon CM 72 on Ebay.... ar, without knowing what that really is. O.k., it´s a 16mm Cam, and that´s why I bought it, but I don´t know anything about it´s reputation, what kind of Mags to use, lens mount, finder-system...

Any information is wellcome!

OLe

It has been a while, but do you still have this camera?  I am in the US.  I am looking for documentation on this camera.  I also have a little bit of knowledge about it.  IF you open the door where the film runs, I can tell you if you have a mag sound pickup head in the camera and/or a galvo for optical sound.

jack

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  • 7 months later...
On 9/2/2022 at 8:51 PM, James Honeycutt said:

It has been a while, but do you still have this camera?  I am in the US.  I am looking for documentation on this camera.  I also have a little bit of knowledge about it.  IF you open the door where the film runs, I can tell you if you have a mag sound pickup head in the camera and/or a galvo for optical sound.

jack

dear jack,

are you still around ?

just found this conversation by chance and you seem to be a expert...

may i ask, could you have a look at this camera and tell me, if it is able to record sound?

ebay 313727970318

thank you so much!

best, gerald

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well, it LOOKS like a complete setup.  the Optical sound Galvo is present.  The nameplates on the amp are not readable to confirm that they amp matches the Camera.  BUT the chances are reasonable that the setup Might be complete.

expect that the Electronics Might need some tweaking, but in theory It should be able to record Optical sound.  If Jack sees the post he may have other things to add.

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Hello,

I have included some links below, the Auricon optical sound group is the best bet, Jack is there too.

Auricon Optical Sound group: https://groups.io/g/AuriconOpticalSound
A web site devoted to all things Auricon, very active, helpful members, a wealth of knowledge regarding using Auricon cameras in the modern age.
 
A wealth of information on the Auricon cameras and history of the factory.
 
A must visit to learn about the Auricon cameras and history.
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14 hours ago, Gerald Kerkletz said:

dear jack,

are you still around ?

just found this conversation by chance and you seem to be a expert...

may i ask, could you have a look at this camera and tell me, if it is able to record sound?

ebay 313727970318

thank you so much!

best, gerald

Hello Gerale,,,,

That camera has been on ebay for over a year and never sold.  That is because it is greatly overpriced.  I suggest you keep looking.  A working Cinevoice can be had for around $350.  You can buy some of the small RA amps in that sale for around the same price or less. 

Join our free group on Auricon and optical sound for more information.  We never ask for any money...

https://groups.io/g/AuriconOpticalSound

jack

 

 

 

 

 

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