Pathe Webo 16BTL

[Hans Klint]

Hi!  WHO knows of anyone with knowledge and experience with these wonderful cameras. There is quite a lot of Them for sale all around, But I can't find much tech talk about Them. WHO can help!!

[Nick Rowland]

Not so sure about wonderful. Pain to maintain I would say.

Fiddling and fettling..

Ages ago  I spoke with Ken V. who used to work at the UK

Pathe distributors tech dept. If knocked the cameras could go out of 'alignment'.

New, complete, fronts were sent in from France and fitted to camera.

It was too time consuming to try and adjust/repair.

Simon Weiss can probably explain far better than I.

I have a few (DS8's mainly) as curiosities..

all best

nick

[Simon Wyss]

My painful experience laid down in an article, https://www.filmvorfuehrer.de/topic/17051-darf-ich-vorstellen-path/

If you have someone add dowel pins to the front, you can sleep quietly. That is indispensable but then still the mechanism is tricky to adjust. When the gears were new everything was fine. Today you may encounter worn teeth that degrade the value drastically. There are better 16mm film cameras.

[Hans Klint]

Thank you Gentlemen. I already own One of these, together with a couple of other 16mm's,  Cine Kodak B, BBjunior, E, K and mag.cameras. K3 and Kiev 16u from CCCP and also Filmo 70DR and a Bell & Hotell 200.

Nobody seems to use the Pathe thing for filming att all, just as paperweights.

I hope to run a few meters just to see what happens.

[Frank Wylie]

I always thought the Pathe Webo, tricked out with all the accessories, was a very stylish camera. 

Sad to hear they are not generally a good performer.

[Gareth Blackstock]

Hello, Hans

Seems I have had a positive experience with my Pathe.  I found the camera to be easy to use, well made, and a good design.  Taking one apart, however, I found one has to be very delicate.  As the various posts note, mechanically, everything has to be "just so" If something is installed a wee bit out, everything is out.

On the positive side, if a person is used to working on delicate items, such as carburetors, watches, or computers, then they will be used to being delicate and forcing nothing.  In this case working on a Pathe is not that hard, just needs patience.  If a person habitually uses a hammer when they work.... avoid working on delicate cameras!  Instead work on a Krasnogorsk K3... the only 16mm cine camera that actually improves the more it's dropped! 

In other words, buy one!

 

Link to a quick "tidy up" and lubricate:

http://canon-s8-repair.yolasite.com/pathe-webo-m-super-16.php

Interesting info:

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caméra_Pathé_Webo_M16

Translated page with more info:

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.vintagecameras.fr/pathe/pathe-webo-super&prev=search&pto=aue

From this very forum:

And another:

 

[Mark Eastman]

There should be a Pathé sub-group on this site. They are definitely outmoded and full of quirks, but some of them still work and are ok. 

The subgroup could be called "Pathé 16mm post-mortem"

Mark Eastman
Palo Alto, CA

~1977 Pathe PR-16 BTL