Mitchell Take-Up belt flipped

[Patrick Neary]

Hi- Just a random question over coffee, I've seen a few Mitchell GC/standard pics where the take-up belt is twisted so that the film takes up "9P" instead of the usual "99" (emulsion-out). Is there a specific benefit or reason I'm not seeing that folks do it this way?

[Stephen Williams]

Hi- Just a random question over coffee, I've seen a few Mitchell GC/standard pics where the take-up belt is twisted so that the film takes up "99" instead of the usual "9P" (emulsion-out). Is there a specific benefit or reason I'm not seeing that folks do it this way?

 

Hi,

 

Probably the belt was stretched and slipping, the camera won't run as smoothly as the drag will change more than the normal way. On a worn camera, there is more possibility of flicker.

 

Sephen

[Patrick Neary]

Thanks, Stephen- that makes sense- Is there a rule-of-thumb "target tension" for the belt (ie slips easily over the pulley , or so tight it snaps and takes skin off your fingers as you attach it) ? A couple of my 400' mags have small, additional pulleys that elongate the belt path, I assume you'd tension a stretched belt over those if needed.

[Stephen Williams]

Thanks, Stephen- that makes sense- Is there a rule-of-thumb "target tension" for the belt (ie slips easily over the pulley , or so tight it snaps and takes skin off your fingers as you attach it) ? A couple of my 400' mags have small, additional pulleys that elongate the belt path, I assume you'd tension a stretched belt over those if needed.

 

Hi Partrick,

 

Those extra rollers may be for using 1000' length belts with 400' mags. The belts should be fairly tight so they can easily turn a slightly dished 400' load. If the talke ups slip you may jam the camera especially at high speed. The most important thing to check is the feed roll is tight before starting the camera (at high speed), some mags have a brake so the feed is always under slight friction. The camera will run smoother that way.

 

Stephen

[Patrick Neary]

Thanks again!

 

I've set this camera up primarily for hand-cranking, and hope to use it for single-frame as well, so "high speed" for me would be about 16fps! :P

[Stephen Williams]

Thanks again!

 

I've set this camera up primarily for hand-cranking, and hope to use it for single-frame as well, so "high speed" for me would be about 16fps! :P

 

Hi Patrick,

 

There is a seccond gearing on the handcrank door, 48 should easily be possile. If youre after a flickering look you will need to use a narrow shutter, I could not get any flickering on my 35R3.

 

Stephen