Beaulieu R16 Question

[Zachary B.E.]

Hello everyone

I recently purchased a Beaulieu R16 and have had two failed attempts at shooting rolls already. When I opened up the camera to unload the first roll after shooting, the film was a mess, folded up all around itself. The second attempt I loaded much more carefully, paying close attention to the directions in the manual. This roll unloaded without any problems but when I got it back from processing, only faint flickers of light over darkness came out! While shooting both attempts my view from the viewfinder was flickering, leading me to believe there was a problem with my loading. I bought the camera from a photographic equipment store and it was guarenteed to work... Any advice on loading the Beaulieu would be great! I noticed that while loading, the lower loop would not maintain its loop shape but become tight around the bottom mechanism. I'm thinking this could be part of the problem, possibly something I have to do when threading through the gate...???

 

Thanks

Zachary

[Patrick Cooper]

Although I have never used a Beaulieu R16, I have heard from some users of this camera that it's really critical to seat the gate properly when loading film. Otherwise, all your footage will be jumpy. However, I'm not sure if this 'faint flickers of light over darkness' that you are experiencing is the same thing. It sounds like it could well be a different problem altogther. Perhaps the movement of the rotating shutter is not synchronised properly with the claw pull down. The flickering you are seeing in the viewfinder while you are filming is normal. The shutter has a mirrored surface and reflects the image coming through the lens on to the viewfinder when the shutter is closed. When the shutter is open, no light passes to the viewfinder and so the viewfinder image goes black. Hence the flickering image.

[salt-sg]

Please run the R16 without lens.

And see inside of the lens mount.

Can you see the pressure plate or film surface while driving?

 

The mirror of R16 is combining the shutter, and moves up and down.

I guess that the stroke of mirror might be too short.

[Mike Rizos]

Yes, the mirror is itself the shutter and moves up and down. It's linked by a cam to the puldown claw, which makes it pretty difficult to go completely out of alignment, unless the linkage breaks, so I don't think this is the problem. Flicker in the finder is normal as explained.

I strongly supect that the problem is misloading. Maybe you missed the the lower sprocket and did not place the film on the upper side of it. Without going through the sprocket, you've had no lower loop at all and the film got dragged through the gate.

I suggest you load a dummy roll and observe the loops and the gate from the front as decribed. The loops should remain the same size throughout. Pay particular attention to the route the film takes on the outline inside the camera. Do this before you place the daylight spools in, because the spool themselves, once in place, will cover the drawing.

[James Erd]

I bought the camera from a photographic equipment store and it was guarenteed to work... Any advice on loading the Beaulieu would be great!

Zachary

 

My advice is to go back to the place you bought the camera, and here's the sneaky part.... :ph34r: get them to load the camera for you while you watch. Then shoot the roll they loaded rite there on their premisses. If the role comes out bad and they can't say your doing something wrong, they'll have to honor their guarantee. On the other hand watching them load the camera you might see that you did something wrong. Either way you win. :D