1-perf issue with Bolex H16 Leader

Gabi Bucataru · September 8, 2016

Hi everyone!

New guy on the block with a Bolex H16 Leader issue I have with single perforation films. Eager to try out this camera, (off ebay), I got two 100' rolls of Kodak VISION3 50D #7203 (single perforation film), loaded them and shot them all at 24 fps.
Things sounds good in the camera, I was careful to have a good exposure using my sekonic light meter, etc.
But when the rolls returned from the lab, surprise, surprise... Out of two rolls I only got this footage (the rest of the rolls look like what can be seen from 00.40 onward):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BM4_KKmN-ZU

I did a cold check of how film runs through the camera and I discovered that there are no issues with 2-perf film. However, the Bolex H-16 doesn't seem to favor single perforation film, and the lower sprocket tends to push it off and tighten the loops. From there the film runs but the tight loops will mess the smooth transport and get the result shown in the example movie.

Here's a shot I took of how the camera transports double and single perforation film. Please ignore the non-behaving receiving roll -- it's the only one I had on hand, an older type that was slightly bigger than the usual ones and was catching a little.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=898bs0Wep50

So the question I have -- since single-perf film are the most you can find on the market today, do I have any hope to fix this issue?

thanks a lot,
Gabi