Bolex Rex. 4 - - - Bolex SBM super16

[Tony Sarandrea]

Hey, I shot something in class on 35 with an arriBL and now am trying to finish the project in super 16mm.

Problem is, the elusive teacher at my school who owns a Bolex SBM, and who ive tried to track down for a month, finally agreed to let me use it, BUT

I got hit by a car on my moped over the weekend, Im now typing with one hand only. So since I have a broken finger I figured I'd wait til next semester to finish, HOWEVER, that teacher is running the LA intern program and I doubt I can use the camera if he is away. Also, I will not have a production class next semester so borrowing equipment will have to be done through friends to access our equipment office. anyway

 

So, I have a bolex rex. 4.... Should I try rigging a crop/aspect ratio box within my bolex viewfinder? any suggestion with that?

 

Or I can pay to have it converted to super 16... any ideas where to go for that and how much?

 

I'm in a jam. Let me know if you want to sell/rent/trade so I can use your Bolex SBM lol

[Chris Millar]

conversion will cost you more than the camera is worth ...

 

To mask super16 aspect on reg16 - (and loosing all that film area and 'making up' for it with grain) - I'd carefully put some non-residue leaving tape over the current mask... See the prism ? You can flip it part out to access the mask more easily, its the mask like looking thing mounted on top of the ground glass - it'll still be awkward but there ya go ;)

 

You'll need calipers or something to measure it correctly - and no matter how nicely it looks to your eye 1:1 as soon as you look through the finder it'll look like poopshit anyway :lol: - maybe use some ND gel, then you could pretty much leave it in there for good ;)

 

oops!

 

UPDATE:

 

I've just remembered the rx4 mask has that convex-planar lens on top of it too ...

 

hmmm, well you could try masking tape on top of that - but that will certainly look like crap-poo. You'd have to remove the mask mask the bottom of it then put it back on, or just make your own new mask and ditch the magnification... Realigning the old or indeed a new mask with the aperture plate is a much tougher prospect altogether (as is accessing the hard to get of the two mask mounting screws) - I can teach ya how, most of the Bolex techs here will cough up their cornflakes when I describe my process though :o

[Jeremy Rumas]

The no cost way that could work out fine is to shoot with your Rx4 as is, and visually estimate your framing keeping in mind the top and bottom will be cut off. Not sure what your final format is: If you get a 4:3 SD transfer, you can transfer full frame and easily move your framing up or down in your editing program, shot by shot. If your final format is HD, during a supervised telecine session, you can have the colorist adjust framing up or down on your shots, on a shot by shot basis. This is not ideal, but it can work just fine. I've shot and transferred like this myself, and it worked out quite well.

[Chris Millar]

Another one I forgot is to append a small camera to the finder, my old sony miniDV camera worked a treat - or a security camera or webcam etc...

 

Basically a DIY video split (well, not quite a split actually) which you can crop however you like.

 

Visual focusing would be an issue.

 

And yes, Jeremy is quite right in pointing out that its not too hard to do the crop in your head anyway ;) (then scan in post)