Beaulieu 16R viewfinder whoes

[James Steven Beverly]

What is it with me and viewfinders? First when my old Kinor 35H arrives the viewfinder is black, now the viewfinder on this Beaulieu looks like it's covered with a super heavy fog filter and unless it's pointed directly at a light source it's hard to make out any detail. It focuses OK because I pointed the camera at some florescent lights and could bring the viewfinder image in and out of focus and it will focus perfectly BUT as though it were like I said covered with a VERY heavy fog filter. The Angenieux 17-68mm L2 Zoom Lens is clear as a bell.

 

My guess is our notorious El Paso dust has managed to somehow get in there though the camera is in excellent cosmetic condition. I'm assuming this is something that must be addressed by a competent tech., HOWEVER if anyone may have any suggestions, I'm all ears. I also notices this particular model doesn't have a mount or door for the external mag so I'm assuming that makes it an older model. I also don't see the pilot tone socket but maybe I'm missing something. Anyway any suggestions for this camera would be welcomed also I know the other Angenieux c mount zoom (20-120 I believe) is too heavy for the turret model which this is but is this Angenieux 17-68mm OK or should I rig some sort of support for it? Thanks-Steve B)

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

Sounds to me like you need at the very least a thorough cleanng of all the internal viewfinder optics. Worst case scenario is that the silver coating on the image rectifying prism is oxydized and the prism will have to be replaced. This part should be available from Wittner in Germany but it's very expensive.

Jean-Louis

[James Steven Beverly]

Worst case scenario is that the silver coating on the image rectifying prism is oxydized and the prism will have to be replaced. This part should be available from Wittner in Germany but it's very expensive.

 

Jean-Louis

Oh goodie.... How expensive is expensive? :blink:

[Jean-Louis Seguin]

Oh goodie.... How expensive is expensive? :blink:

 

 

I couldn't find it on the Wittner site but I seem to remember it was around ?250 !!

Like I said, hopefully just having the viewing system cleaned might solve or at least improve your problem. This is a common problem on really old cameras.

 

Jean-Louis

[Michael Lehnert]

I know of owners who have used the Angénieux 1:2.2 / 12-120mm (which I believe you mean with "...20-120...") on the Beaulieu R 16 T, which is the name of your model (the first of the series - what's your serial number?). However, based on my experience with the R 16-series, I would avoid using it on the T-model. Even the last R 16 EA model (which had once in our camera pool until it got too annoying) featured a re-inforced front plate made by Ritter - although the problem actually relates to the weak material used for the C-Mounting, less the construction of the front plates.

 

The 17-68 should be fine (I guess your camera has not gone through a CLA job recently? Beaulieus are quite needy in that respect), however, I would rather take advantage of the turret and go for three C-Mount primes instead. Depending on the choice, you might end up with better optical quality than with the so-so 17-68 vario.

 

Cheers,

 

-Michael

[James Steven Beverly]

The serial number is 618568, I doubt it has gone through a CLA job which I assume is "cleaning and adjustment", so that's something that it will have to go through. I do hope it will clear up with just a viewfinder cleaning as $250 pounds which I think is about 500 dollars is twice what I paid for the camera!!! I do want to pick up a few primes for the Beaulieu but again, the R16 camera isn't a priority at the moment, my 35mm stuff is the major priority. However should the primes come up at a smokin' price, I'll bite the bullet and buy them. :D