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Need ARRI 16BL help!


Kurt Walker

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Kurt,

If you're still in need of a 9 pin to 4 pin XLR cable I think I have one. I'll ned to get it out and connect it to my BL to make sure it's OK. I've jut looked at my 'spare' stuff for my 16BL; I've bought various bits over the years including a camera similar to yours for spares just in case I ever damaged the spinning mirror on my working BL. My BL is slightly different to yours in so much as it's got the later motor and the fancy-pants Arri APEC system that's supposed to meter the light through the taking path, it might work for all I know, but I've never trusted it. I also bought a Tobin crystal control a few years back so I don't really need the Tuchel as the Tobin has a 4pin connection. I've also got a spare magazine throat cover for when you don't have a mag. in place as well as a load of other small bits. Collapsible cores and adaptors and magazine barneys. I'm pretty certain an old camera outfit I know of had zipped waterproof cover and several padded Optex camera barneys. I can check for you if you give me a bit of time. Unfortunately for you, I'm in London but I expect it wouldn't be too hard to get the cable to you if it helps you out of a hole.

 

Let me know, I'll check the cable out in the next day or two.

 

Paul Re

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Hey Paul,

 

That sounds great! I am definitely interested-- could you perhaps e-mail me (kurt.walker@gmail.com) after you've tested it out?

 

As for the extras, I'm quite green on what the essentials are for the BL-- would you recommend shooting with the cores/adapters you mention? Or can we perhaps get by without them? Our budget is pretty tight, and we're only looking to shoot a scene with the camera..

 

anyways, look forward to hearing from you on how the cable works!

 

best,

Kurt

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For sync, the camera will output a 50 or 60 hz tone that should allow a reference when recorded with the audio on a separate track. However, the workflow for using this today would be very different to when the sound was transferred to mag film. Traditionally it was feed into a Narga 1/4" audio recorder's pilotone.

 

Crystal controlling the camera would be the simple solution.

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Hello everyone,

 

The original ARRI 16BL Tuchel-XLR powercable is 9-pin in the Tuchel end and 5-pin in the battery end. Original Jensen crystal controllers have the Tuchel connector, but they were often changed to 5-pin XLRs since the Tuchel is so delicate.

 

By the way, over here the 9-pin connector was called AMPHENOL I recall.

 

The last version of the 16BL had the flat motor and used a 4-pin XLR, same as the 16SR.

 

If you connect the camera we see in your photograph directly to a 12v lead acid battery via an original 9-pin Tuchel to 5-pin XLR it will NOT run at synch speed, most likely it will run at something like 30 fps. That´s my experience at least, the motor will simply run at the RPM that corresponds to that voltage, be it 11,9 volts or 12,7 or anything inbetween. There´s simply nothing fine-tuning he voltage here, it just goes to the motor. The motor will run stable though, so exposure unevenness is not an issue (again my experience).

 

Several variations of these circular BL motors were manufactured, not all could even be crystal controlled. I've come across one that could be reversed, how cool is that: you can shoot scenes in reverse in-camera and also do double exposures in-camera the way they´d do it in the early 1900s.

 

I agree with Douglas; try ARRI NY. If you can aquire the right Tuchel-XLR cable you will find out immediately if the broken pin is critical or superfluous, also if the camera will run at 24 fps or about 30 fps. If you can get it to run at a reasonable wild speed with this cable, I would personally go ahead and shoot (you were only going to shoot one scene as a test, right?) I mean, this is the way people shoot super 8 all the time, all speeds are wild on super 8 cameras.

 

BTW guys, the original BL manual is available right here on the Forum :) :

 

 

http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=59519

 

Best wishes

 

Lars

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