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Bent daylight spool


Jon O'Brien

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Ahh, Filmmaking! The joys you have of that sense of some really fine shots surely sitting there on your exposed film in the camera. Everything went well. The light was indeed great. You just know you nailed the focus and exposure. You finish the roll and the sense of anticipation builds as you decide to unload the film and get it posted off quickly.

But, Alas! Filmmaking with real film also knows times of great pathos.

Opening the film compartment, you see there before you a great mess of pretzelized, zig-zagging film compressed wherever it might fit into whatever space it could fit into. A sinking feeling. A sigh.

"I didn't get the shots" ...... you quietly mouth the words.

So, what happened? I didn't check my take up spool carefully before loading the camera last time. I was in a rush, and grabbed a spool from a bag I'd had in storage. I found out later that the metal spool was slightly bent, being too narrow on one side, and was causing the film to seize in the take up. It looks like a clutch must have slipped within the mechanism, allowing the camera to keep running even though the film wasn't actually being exposed. A lot of the feed spool still had unexposed film on it. Looks like around 50 feet of film got onto the take up spool.

I did notice some odd sounds during filming. I took this to be that I'd been doing some slow-motion shooting early in the real, up to 64 fps.

To the Bolex experts out there, does it sound like I might have damaged the camera? I loaded some film in it afterwards to check it (already-exposed film, used for loading training) and it seems to run fine now, after I bent the take up spool back into shape. Is the mechanism in a Bolex tough enough to not go out of adjustment by the mishap described above? I learned a big lesson yesterday. Onward and upward. It's worth it for film.

 

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The driving members are sturdy enough to withstand such mishaps. What may become bent are loop formers or the claws of the younger models from serial number 100401 on or the lateral guide frame. Else the film can just stall the mechanism but that’s no reason to be worried. To check a spool let it roll alone over a table and observe it.

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That is very helpful Simon -- the simple check of rolling the spool over a table. I will do that from now on. I will also make a gauge of thick card to double check. I still have some film left from this mishap so will reload it soon and see how the film turns out. Hopefully nothing is out of adjustment.

I'm now wary of filming at 64 fps with this old camera as that may have been a factor too. For now I will avoid higher speeds until I know for sure that all is okay with it.

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Yes you're unlikely to damage anything except perhaps bend the claw, although I think that's probably unlikely.  Just check it still engages in the middle of a perf.

The take-up itself is designed to slip continuously. At the beginning of a spool it will wind on about 4" of film per revolution, but by the end as the diameter has increased it will be winding on over 10" each revolution. So it needs to slip all the time anyway. 

Maybe mark that bent spool as a last resort spare, I don't trust them after they've been damaged. 

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On 1/14/2022 at 6:42 AM, Simon Wyss said:

The driving members are sturdy enough to withstand such mishaps. What may become bent are loop formers or the claws of the younger models from serial number 100401 on or the lateral guide frame. Else the film can just stall the mechanism but that’s no reason to be worried. To check a spool let it roll alone over a table and observe it.

A good tip indeed.  I'll do this myself from now on,  previously I just used a piece of white leader to check the sides of the spool, maybe not accurate enough.  I do remember once having a bad experience losing some film to fogging, because of a bent spool.  However, it was one with film loaded on it from a major manufacturer  believe-it-or-not  ?  I don't know whether the practice of employing used daylight-spools continues.  Only OK if thoroughly checked.

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