35mm Ultracam movie camera

[Brian Drysdale]

Hi Brian,

 

As the director actually paid for the first kit, maybe it was not so bad!

 

Stephen

 

LOL Not so bad if someone else is paying!!

[Matt Kelly]

I think Martin Hill may still have a couple.  Last time I saw them, though, the doors were falling apart, and a number of capacitors were going bad on the boards.  The main problem was cheap electronic design i think.  An electronic engineer friend of mine had taken a look at one of them to try to fix, but decided it wasn't really worth the effort, and that it would almost be better to just build new electro-guts from scratch.

 

Cool looking mags tho :P

[Brian Drysdale]

I think Martin Hill may still have a couple.  Last time I saw them, though, the doors were falling apart, and a number of capacitors were going bad on the boards.  The main problem was cheap electronic design i think.  An electronic engineer friend of mine had taken a look at one of them to try to fix, but decided it wasn't really worth the effort, and that it would almost be better to just build new electro-guts from scratch.

 

Cool looking mags tho :P

 

Assuming the movement etc is in good order, it could be cost effective to do an upgrade. The USAF do it with their B52s and they could be nearly 80 years old by their planned retirement date.

[Matt Kelly]

I think I've heard about you Stephen.  You got the two nicest ones right?  Color video taps?  Are they both 4 perf?

 

Assuming the movement etc is in good order, it could be cost effective to do an upgrade. The USAF do it with their B52s and they could be nearly 80 years old by their planned retirement date.

 

Yeah it would be interesting to price it out... You would probably be better off re-engineering the electronics from scratch though, rather than copying the existing design.  From what I've seen/heard it's pretty unservicable.  The boards are literally all stacked on long screws with spacers in between them.... A friend also noted that the mid-ribs have sagged out of alignment. Could be cool though... And then fill in the "C", and replace it with a nice engraved "J" :P

[Stephen Williams]

I think I've heard about you Stephen. You got the two nicest ones right? Color video taps? Are they both 4 perf?

 

 

 

Yeah it would be interesting to price it out... You would probably be better off re-engineering the electronics from scratch though, rather than copying the existing design. From what I've seen/heard it's pretty unservicable. The boards are literally all stacked on long screws with spacers in between them.... A friend also noted that the mid-ribs have sagged out of alignment. Could be cool though... And then fill in the "C", and replace it with a nice engraved "J" :P

 

 

Hi Matt,

 

Mine are both 4 perf #259/60. I have never seen any other ones so I don't really know! My Pal Video taps are color but home made.

 

The electronics on both cameras are working OK, I also have a spare boardl. A couple of companies have offered to replace the electronics which I may do, I don't really want to invest any money in them as they are seldom used on paying jobs.

 

Stephen

[David Auner aac]

Hi Stephen,

 

care to share some pics of those cams? I'm curious... Thanks!

 

Cheers, Dave

[Stephen Williams]

Hi Stephen,

 

care to share some pics of those cams? I'm curious... Thanks!

 

Cheers, Dave

[Brian Drysdale]

What's the viewfinder like on the camera? The "look through" on cameras improved quite a lot during the 1980s.

[David Auner aac]

Hi Stephen,

 

thanks. How did you go about adding the video tap? That's one topic that I am really curious right now... Would love to add one to my NPR.

 

Cheers, Dave

[Stephen Williams]

What's the viewfinder like on the camera? The "look through" on cameras improved quite a lot during the 1980s.

 

Hi Brian,

 

Very good for the time. Not as good as a modern camera however.

 

Stephen

[Stephen Williams]

Hi Stephen,

 

thanks. How did you go about adding the video tap? That's one topic that I am really curious right now... Would love to add one to my NPR.

 

Cheers, Dave

 

Hi Dave,

 

The cameras had the a B&W video tap from new, all I did was attached a $60 color camera from Ebay.

 

Stephen

[David Auner aac]

The cameras had the a B&W video tap from new, all I did was attached a $60 color camera from Ebay.

 

Hi Stephen,

thanks, that makes it kinda easy! I could easily fit one for my viewfinder, but I'd much rather have beamsplitter to be able to sue both the finder and tap at the same time...

 

Cheers, Dave

[James Steven Beverly]

Hi Stephen,

thanks, that makes it kinda easy! I could easily fit one for my viewfinder, but I'd much rather have beamsplitter to be able to sue both the finder and tap at the same time...

 

Cheers, Dave

 

Steve Morton In Australia did some innovative things with taps on the Kinors, maybe he can do something with the Eclair. I think he charges about $1500 for the Kinor tap so I would imagine the NPR would go for about the same, 'course he may be negotiable, who knows and of course there's always Bruce at Aranda who does beautiful work. B)

Edited November 18, 2007 by James Steven Beverly

[David Auner aac]

Steve Morton In Australia did some innovative things with taps on the Kinors, maybe he can do something with the Eclair. I think he charges about $1500 for the Kinor tap so I would imagine the NPR would go for about the same, 'course he may be negotiable, who knows and of course there's always Bruce at Aranda who does beautiful work. B)

 

Thanks James, sorry for hijacking your thread ;). Back on the topic...

Stephen, any idea why they stopped the run after 15 cameras? Ran out of money?

 

Cheers, Dave

[Stephen Williams]

Thanks James, sorry for hijacking your thread ;). Back on the topic...

Stephen, any idea why they stopped the run after 15 cameras? Ran out of money?

 

Cheers, Dave

 

Hi David,

 

The cameras were rental only like Panavision. I don't know how long they ran the camera rental side of their business, they also had other cameras in their inventory.

 

Stephen

[David Mullen ASC]

Hi David,

 

The cameras were rental only like Panavision. I don't know how long they ran the camera rental side of their business, they also had other cameras in their inventory.

 

Stephen

 

Yes, there wasn't really a reason to have more than a dozen Ultracam cameras in their rental inventory, not for a rental house of that size.

[David Auner aac]

Yes, there wasn't really a reason to have more than a dozen Ultracam cameras in their rental inventory, not for a rental house of that size.

 

Ok, but then the differences in the individual cameras are even more unusual. You'd expect that if the cameras were rental only they had to be matched so that using different ones wouldn't yield problems. How large were the differences? Any noticeable defects on one or the other?

 

Cheers, Dave

[Stephen Williams]

Ok, but then the differences in the individual cameras are even more unusual. You'd expect that if the cameras were rental only they had to be matched so that using different ones wouldn't yield problems. How large were the differences? Any noticeable defects on one or the other?

 

Cheers, Dave

 

Hi David,

 

There was supposed to be a variable shutter, not on either of my cameras but there is a switch on 1! There is also a later version of the mirror shutter, I have both types and also a spare of each. I think the cameras started out the same and there were some upgrades or possibly downgrades!

 

I guess cameras have been fiddled with since they were sold as well.

 

Stephen

[Hal Smith]

I bought my Ultracam mattebox from Roderick Stevens. I emailed him to ask about his experience when he owned his and here's an excerpt from his answer:

 

The first thing I would say is - try to shoot only Fuji film (heavier

base). U-cams are notorious for intermittent, seemingly impossible to

fix, flickering. A couple of us seemed to isolate that it only happened

on the newer Kodak stocks with the thinner base. I loved mine - but it

also caused me quite a bit of grief, and that's the story you'll hear

from most Ultracam owners. It's a love hate thing. :-)

[Stephen Williams]

I bought my Ultracam mattebox from Roderick Stevens. I emailed him to ask about his experience when he owned his and here's an excerpt from his answer:

 

The first thing I would say is - try to shoot only Fuji film (heavier

base). U-cams are notorious for intermittent, seemingly impossible to

fix, flickering. A couple of us seemed to isolate that it only happened

on the newer Kodak stocks with the thinner base. I loved mine - but it

also caused me quite a bit of grief, and that's the story you'll hear

from most Ultracam owners. It's a love hate thing. :-)

 

Hi Hal,

 

The Ultracam I used on the pop video recently was Roderick's old camera.

 

I recently tested Fuji Eterna 500T & 5218 on a night shoot. I could not find any flicker so hopefully tape on the back of the aperture plate has fixed the issue, but as he said the problem is intermittent I don't know for sure.

 

Having shot a great deal of animation in the past, I have seen flicker caused by a number of things. Today with digital post production flicker can be eliminated fairly easily so I am not that worried.

 

Stephen

 

Stephen

[James Steven Beverly]

I don't know guys. These Ultracams seem cool and all that but with all the problems, I'm thinking it might be better to stick with my refurbished commiecam. The Lomo lenses are probably as good or better than the Ultratron Zeiss and probably cost less, also the electronics on mine have been updated to the Aranda Rotoxision-5000 which eliminated the major negative in owning a Kinor 35. I don't see any real advantages in the Ultracam over the Kinor. Now pf course if, like Stephen, someone else had actually paid for the camera, I'd own one too, I'm not stupid. :D

[Paul Bruening]

Oh, Captain...

 

Have you shot any footage on your commiecam? How's it look? The tests from my Micky came back flawless. The Nikons are quite lovely.

 

I had a heart attack over T-giving and have had to put the ECN lab on hold. About all I have the energy for is the computer room. PM me and say, "Hey."

 

Paul

[Thomas Luca]

On 11/12/2007 at 5:16 AM, James Steven Beverly said:

Never heard of an Ultracam before and I THOUGHT I was fairly familiar with 35mm movie camera brands, I then later read on Reduser.com (sounds like a site for Seconal addicts) that David Mullen used one back in the day. Can anyone tell me about these cameras? I did a search but it turned out to be rather fruitless, I kept getting digital video cameras. I know they exist, I saw Stephen Williams shooting with a 35mm one in at the bottom of a swimming pool at below zero temperates in a pic on another thread so enlighten me, what are their strengths, what are their weaknesses, why haven't I ever heard of them before, what's their average cost, who makes them, ect. Thanks-The Captain B)

Ooooooh yeah, I've not had the pleasure of filming with it but I think they filmed with the Ultracam 35 motion picture film camera on some of my all-time favorite movies in the 1980's, especially WEIRD SCIENCE (1985). That picture and POLTERGEIST (1982).