Film for Bell & Howell 200 EE

[Sarah O Donnell]

Hi,

My roomate bought a Bell & Howell 200 EE "Electric Eye" from a thrift store. It seems to be in good working order, and I'd like to try and find out what type of film it uses. I read in another forum that it requires film to be loaded in a magazine. Is film still produced this way? I have to apologize for my extreme lack of knowledge on this subject. I've never used a film camera before so it's all greek to me.

 

Would it be possible to find a film for this camera, and if so how does one go about getting the film developed?

 

Thanks for any help! I'm excited to have this camera and now i just hope I can find out how to use it!

 

Sarah

[Bernhard Zitz]

and I'd like to try and find out what type of film it uses.

The camera was build around 1955, I guess it's runs with single perforated 16mm film. That's still todays standard for 16mm film.

 

I read in another forum that it requires film to be loaded in a magazine. Is film still produced this way?

16mm film comes in 100ft, 200ft and 400ft rolls. Looks like the magazine might take 100ft but no idea how to load it...

 

look here:

 

http://www.cinematography.com/forum2004/lo....php?t6473.html

 

 

cheers, Bernhard

[Patrick Cooper]

I hope your room mate doesn't mind you stealing his/her camera!

[Guest Michael Carter]

Revere 50 foot thread

 

Film sources are listed in this thread.

 

Michael Carter

[Clive Tobin]

T...I guess it's runs with single perforated 16mm film. ...

Wrong on just about all guesses. The 16mm 50 foot magazines require double perf film, single perf will NOT work. Loading it into the mags is a pain. There is no longer a good selection of film made in double perf.

 

Unless the original poster wants to spend hours of drudgery in total darkness trying to load the tricky film path inside mags, assuming they can even find any empty ones, instead of shooting film, you should save the lenses, use the camera as a paperweight, and buy a spool loading camera instead. Mis-loaded mags will jam and lose loops, resulting in useless footage. You cannot tell yourself if the mag has been abused and will give soft focus on everything. The frameline can shift between one mag and the next, needing a projector framing adjustment when showing the film.

[Guest Michael Carter]

Wrong on just about all guesses. The 16mm 50 foot magazines require double perf film, single perf will NOT work. Loading it into the mags is a pain. There is no longer a good selection of film made in double perf.

 

Unless the original poster wants to spend hours of drudgery in total darkness trying to load the tricky film path inside mags, assuming they can even find any empty ones, instead of shooting film, you should save the lenses, use the camera as a paperweight, and buy a spool loading camera instead. Mis-loaded mags will jam and lose loops, resulting in useless footage. You cannot tell yourself if the mag has been abused and will give soft focus on everything. The frameline can shift between one mag and the next, needing a projector framing adjustment when showing the film.

Load film may be put into a small can and a length left out to daylight load the magazine. Then in a bag the film in the can is inserted onto the post in the mag.. I've loaded them with dummy film and never had a jam and that was even at 64 fps.. It is tricky but can be done.

Spool loading cameras are way easier for sure. However, there is something about using these magazines that intrigues me.

[Charles MacDonald]

Load film may be put into a small can and a length left out to daylight load the magazine. Then in a bag the film in the can is inserted onto the post in the mag.. I've loaded them with dummy film and never had a jam and that was even at 64 fps.. It is tricky but can be done.

 

HUMM.. The mag has a film path that takes the film off the special small core, over a sproket, through the gate, past a long metal spring, around a loop in free air, and back arround the first sproket, and then into the special small take up core. The sproket drives the core for takeup.

 

It is uterly ingenious, but also more complex than even some of the sound cameras. and then you only have 50 feet to play with. I agree, it is a chalenge and all but you got to ask yourd=self is your time better spent actually making images.

 

I can see if you need a helmet camera or simalar where it might be worth the hastle. Alan Gordon used to sell loaded carts for about 50 bucks each, with a deposit on the mag so that they would get it returned within 30 days.

[Guest Michael Carter]

When you don't have nothin, this system is pretty good. No job, no money, but lots of time, it could be a start.

I had lots of fun making it go. True, I didn't actually load film that I shot, but I shot negative someone else loaded, then I unloaded it and put it all onto spools, 5 in all, had a timed print made and kept the magazines for future loading.

After you learn how to do it, it takes about as long to load as when you first tried to load a normal camera. That was frustrating and I still can't load my Bolex very well.

In order to acutally load the little cores, someone made me a thingie to insert into the core tabs and that fits onto a small old 8mm film winder. It works better than my plastic high-lighter pen thingie does. It needs to be put together with a board that is painted smooth, and fixed with a film stop at the correct diameter so cores may be loaded in a bag from a large magazine like a 1200 foot Auricon one.

The cameras DO fit into a pocket! as long as you have only one small lens on it and not all three with viewfinders that is. Another pocket can hold several magazines. Then, you're good to go. Shoot focused at 25 feet and F8 or so and wide angle and you don't need to think. Just shoot. And it's 16mm.