Unusual ACL S16 gate.

[Gregg MacPherson]

Heikki spotted that this S16 gate on an ACL on eBay was not like the common ones. Does anyone recognise it? Who was doing their conversions like that? Is this a limited run 3rd party factory offering, from back in the day when that was a thing? It looks like some of the contact area on the claw side, above the gate has been machined off. Is that maybe a one off error.

Wonder how well this gate works. Maybe the film curvature, with pressure from the pressure plate straightening that, is enough. 

Maybe it's Eclairs answer to the Aaton hairless gate...! Which may not have been invented yet.

Don't want this pic lost so putting it here. I'll quiz Heikki on what he's asked the seller sofar, and may try to gather more info.

Edit: Just read on the eBay listing.."Sorry, I've got no information on the super 16mm conversion from when I purchased this 20 years ago or so..." I was going to ask re the conversion but now I don't think so. Let's see what Heikki has already asked.

Gregg.

Edited September 7, 2022 by Gregg MacPherson

[Duncan Brown]

Yes, they definitely machined away the "pocket" between the rails, to make the entire left side rail narrower to match the wider gate, plus painted the new wider pocket all flat black.  So bonus points for going to that trouble - I've seen some conversions where they don't even bother.  But it looks like a really dreadful machine-shop job, at least in terms of the mirror-smooth film-friendly surfaces the camera started with.

He may not know anything about the conversion, but he should be able to answer some questions about the camera sitting in front of him, if he could be convinced - lens recentering, mirror-widening, markings on the ground glass, etc.

Duncan