How Do I Load My Camera?

justfortherecord · October 22, 2004

I am as new to this as it gets. I recently bought a vintage Cinclox 16mm camera (the wind-up kind) and I would like to use it but I haven't the faintest idea of what kind of film to buy or how to load it into the camera. I love film and desperately want to enter into this fascinating world, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you ever so much for your patience!

andrewbuchanan · October 22, 2004

First, get daylight loads from kodak... so you don't have to load in the dark. Stick one in the camera (usually the top reel). Wind up your camera, and turn it down to the SLOWEST frame rate 8fps is good. Then feed the film through the gate area. If there are line of whee the loop is supposed to be, then follow them. When the film comes out the other side of the loop, thread it into the take up reel... making sure it is going the right direction. Now you should be threaded. Turn up your speed to 18fps or 24fps... and run the camera.

It should NOT sound like a playing card caught in bike spokes.

Dan Salzmann · October 22, 2004

Get some scrap film from a lab and a daylight spool or two and practice loading. Watch the film take-up with the camera door open. If the camera is old it might need a drop or two of sewing machine oil. Most techs at rental houses don't want anything to do with this kind of thing.

I've got an old Kinecam from 1926 with a brass Cooke lens (cost £5 at a flea market) that I use for funky handcranked stuff. The uncoated lens does wild flares and colour reversal film goes really off. Camera just needed a couple of drops of oil to get rejuvenated.