Bolex kaput 1 day before shoot

[Damien Bhatti]

Well my tried and tested rex 5 has suddenly stopped working, 1 day before my shoot. I was filming this morning and went from 32 fps to 24 fps and it simply stopped, - no motor action whatsoever when I press the button.

 

Now is there anyway that someone could think to help remedy the situation? When I wind the motor, before its finished it seems to make a sound of "slotting" into place, and moves foward very slightly. However this is not happening anymore.

 

Perhaps I have wound the motor too aggressively and it has decided not to play anymore.........?

 

Shall I leave it awhile until I have any try to get it going? ie let the spring rest.

 

It was working fine until I started playing around with the speed.

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Try moving it to other speeds? Perhaps it's caught in "engaging," 24fps mode ?

 

 

Does it still work @32 FPS?

 

 

just my 4 am troubleshooting thoughts

[Damien Bhatti]

Try moving it to other speeds? Perhaps it's caught in "engaging," 24fps mode ?

 

 

Does it still work @32 FPS?

 

 

just my 4 am troubleshooting thoughts

 

Thanks, I have tried it all on different speeds - when you say caught engaging what does that entail, i ask because i have a gut feeling this might be it..?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

I'm not 100% positive on this, but it stands to reason that, like in a car, the changing of speeds entails the changing of gears/gearing, and as it's all mechanical, some little catch or do-hickie, to use the technical term, may well not be engaging, allowing the camera to fire off. I'm not Bolex tech, but from what I can recall of a few years back when I shot one, that is how the speed mechanism worked.

[Damien Bhatti]

I'm not 100% positive on this, but it stands to reason that, like in a car, the changing of speeds entails the changing of gears/gearing, and as it's all mechanical, some little catch or do-hickie, to use the technical term, may well not be engaging, allowing the camera to fire off. I'm not Bolex tech, but from what I can recall of a few years back when I shot one, that is how the speed mechanism worked.

 

Thanks, yes I am pretty sure what you are describing fits in place - do you think I should let it "cool" off awhile until i try fiddling again?

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Dunno if that'd help, but i don't see as how you've got much choice. Whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN THE CAMERA, a wound spring, going into your skull, can probably cause some damage.

[Damien Bhatti]

Dunno if that'd help, but i don't see as how you've got much choice. Whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN THE CAMERA, a wound spring, going into your skull, can probably cause some damage.

Could you imagine? "Man killed by Bolex!" Thanks

[Adrian Sierkowski]

Ha; I think it would read "Man slain by swiss contraption"

 

Best of luck getting her to work again

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

Well my tried and tested rex 5 has suddenly stopped working, 1 day before my shoot. I was filming this morning and went from 32 fps to 24 fps and it simply stopped, - no motor action whatsoever when I press the button.

 

Now is there anyway that someone could think to help remedy the situation? When I wind the motor, before its finished it seems to make a sound of "slotting" into place, and moves foward very slightly. However this is not happening anymore.

 

Perhaps I have wound the motor too aggressively and it has decided not to play anymore.........?

 

Shall I leave it awhile until I have any try to get it going? ie let the spring rest.

 

It was working fine until I started playing around with the speed.

 

 

 

If you have a rewind crank handy, use it to advance the mechanism by hand forwards and reverse.

This might unjam the mechanism.

Check in the area under the claws to see if there might be a piece of broken film jamming the claws.

If this fails, I guess you should have it looked at by a Bolex tech.

 

Cheers,

Jean-Louis

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

Dunno if that'd help, but i don't see as how you've got much choice. Whatever you do, DO NOT OPEN THE CAMERA, a wound spring, going into your skull, can probably cause some damage.

 

 

Have no fear: there is no danger of flying springs going anywhere.

The main spring is enclosed in a barrel-type shell.

However, the recommendation about not opening the camera if you do not know what you are doing is a good one.

 

Cheers,

Jean-Louis

[Damien Bhatti]

If you have a rewind crank handy, use it to advance the mechanism by hand forwards and reverse.

This might unjam the mechanism.

Check in the area under the claws to see if there might be a piece of broken film jamming the claws.

If this fails, I guess you should have it looked at by a Bolex tech.

 

Cheers,

Jean-Louis

 

I am going to try that thanks, I dont have a rewind crank maybe I can try with my fingers..? thanks again

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

I am going to try that thanks, I dont have a rewind crank maybe I can try with my fingers..? thanks again

 

 

 

You really need a crank keyed to the protuding mechanism shaft.

Simply turning the outer ring with fingers only resets the frame counter dial

 

Otherwise, with your two thumbs pressed firmly against the two sprockets, try to see if you can rock the sprockets back and forth.

 

Cheers,

JL

[Damien Bhatti]

thanks for all the input, I tried rewinding it but its locked solid and the sprockets dont seem to budge much either, i suppose i have to put all my eggs into my other camera, its in such good condition i just hope its alright,

[Guest Billy Furnett]

I had an issue with an H16T that sounds similar to what you are experiencing, but it was so quirky and only happened once, so it?s hard to say what it was, or if it is the same thing.

 

I thought I broke it letting the spring run out (Empty) while changing speeds, it kind of grinded for a second then CLICK -it locked up in forward almost at the very end of spring?s running time.

 

1st. I checked the film compartment, nothing.

 

2nd. I tried to advance the motor via single frame, nothing.

 

3rd. Lacking a backwind crank, I disengaged the motor selector switch, opened the film compartment door and tried to turn (foreword and back) the spool stems a little, nothing.

 

4th. I invented a whole slew of new swear word combinations, nothing!

 

Finally I pushed the run button in while pulling the spring crank towards me (in the winding direction), but only just slightly enough to feel the little play of spring tension in it, not enough to advance the spring to the next gear tooth worth of winding tension (I guess), while doing that motion of pull back slightly on the spring, push in on the button, pull slightly back on the spring, push in the button motion, I got pissed off and shook the camera (Don?t get carried away and shake something loose in the view finder assembly) and in that 3 way motion was whatever it took to free it, it gave a little Click-Grind-Click and the motor took off like normal and hasn?t happened since.

 

Good luck.

[Nate Downes]

Where are you located? I have a 16mm you may be able to borrow if need be.

[Damien Bhatti]

Where are you located? I have a 16mm you may be able to borrow if need be.

 

Hi Nate, ah thats such a good offer, thank you thank you. unfortunately i live in the uk and my shoot was today, i just used an untested ebm so heres hoping, d

[Damien Bhatti]

Finally I pushed the run button in while pulling the spring crank towards me (in the winding direction), but only just slightly enough to feel the little play of spring tension in it, not enough to advance the spring to the next gear tooth worth of winding tension (I guess), while doing that motion of pull back slightly on the spring, push in on the button, pull slightly back on the spring, push in the button motion, I got pissed off and shook the camera (Don?t get carried away and shake something loose in the view finder assembly) and in that 3 way motion was whatever it took to free it, it gave a little Click-Grind-Click and the motor took off like normal and hasn?t happened since.

 

Good luck.

 

Thanks for that Billy, actually i do recall now, a few months back when i had about 2 seconds in which the camera acted weird, sort of slowing down really badly and then stopping to start again, its strange, I will have a tinker around with it,

 

i had a shoot today and it would have really been great to have the rex 5 up and running, alot more freedom but i can always get it serviced again,

 

i was trying to force it last night because i was panicking abit but now its not so important, i can take my time and relax a little.....

[Nate Downes]

Hi Nate, ah thats such a good offer, thank you thank you. unfortunately i live in the uk and my shoot was today, i just used an untested ebm so heres hoping, d

Well, hope it went well.

[Damien Bhatti]

Well, hope it went well.

 

thanks, it kind of went well all of the people i used were fantastic, its just whether i executed the shots how I imagined, i really like using the rex 5 with its 10 mm lens, but i had a 16-100mm zoom on my ebm and its alot more awkward.

 

And also I decided that I dont really like the viewfinder of the ebm, with an additional filter, things get really hard to judge on top of the overall darkness..

 

I think I am going to sell it and buy an arriflex sb, I have heard really good stories about them.