Bolex H16 Rex 4 Film Loading Question

[Ray Noori]

So after familiarizing myself with the Bolex H16 Rex 4, my first 16mm camera, and buying some film stock from Kodak I'm ready to embark on my first film shooting experience. Except, I'm not sure if I'm loading the film correctly! A friend of mine gave me some dummy tape to practice on. The camera manual is quite vauge, so I've had to guess for a lot of things and I wanna confirm that what I'm doing is right. Does anyone here actually own a Bolex H16? Here are some pictures of what I'm doing:

 

1) This is the general path that the film travels after I've loaded it

 

http://img106.imagevenue.com/img.php?image..._122_1058lo.jpg

 

2) This is me finishing the loop by putting the film through the second sprocket

 

http://img199.imagevenue.com/img.php?image...t_122_218lo.jpg

 

3) These things I'm really quite confused by. I need to move them in the direction of the arrows in order to get the film to go between the sprockets and them, as shown in the second picture. Yet, they don't seem to move that much and it's quite difficult to get the film to go in between without man-handling it:

 

http://img19.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=..._122_1090lo.jpg

http://img131.imagevenue.com/img.php?image...s_122_549lo.jpg

 

After I've done this and the end of the film is inserted into an empty spool, I can run the camera and the film seems to run smoothly and fine.

 

Now, even if I am doing this correctly, it seems like a very involved process to perform in complete darkness! :blink:

 

I appreciate any help or insight.

[Clive Tobin]

So after familiarizing myself with the Bolex H16 Rex 4, my first 16mm camera, and buying some film stock from Kodak I'm ready to embark on my first film shooting experience. Except, I'm not sure if I'm loading the film correctly! ...

You are making something fast and easy into something complicated and ugly. The camera has automatic threading. The instructions are here as linked from my website (I haven't checked the link lately): http://www.rit.edu/%7ecrbpph/load.html