Wide angle for Arriflex 16BL

[Noah Kingmans]

Hey there!

I recently got my hands on my own 16mm camera an arriflex 16bl ? I got the camera with a angenieux 12-120 T2.2 which is super nice! 

But I would love to have a bit wider lens in my setup. I've been looking on ebay but I just can't find a wide angle for this camera. I believe it's a ARRI B mount but can't find lenses wider than 12 online.

Do any of you know which wide angle lenses (<12) will fit my camera? Would love to get some suggestions!

 

Thanks!

[Dom Jaeger]

First thing you should do is read the camera manual. You'll find a list of compatible lenses (from that era) on page 7:

http://www.duallcamera.com/Arri 16BL.pdf

The wides listed there are the Zeiss 8mm and later versions of the Schneider 10mm.

You can use either Arri Standard or Arri Bayonet mount lenses in cameras with a Bayonet mount. Just be careful of certain wide angle Standard mount lenses that may hit the mirror (mainly Cooke Kinetals and certain Schneiders). If in doubt, carefully fit a lens set to infinity with the mirror out of the way, and then slowly inch the mirror around. If you feel any resistance (compared to inching without a lens fitted) stop and don't use that lens. Any 35mm format lens will be fine, or any lens in bayonet mount.

Other wide angle primes that came in Arri S or B mount were Angenieux 5.9mm and Kinoptik 5.7mm, Zeiss 9.5mm Super Speed,  and 9mm Cinema Products Ultra T. You could also use various standard 16 zooms if you can find them in Bayonet mount - Zeiss 10-100,  Angenieux 9.5-95 or 10-150, Cooke 9-50, Canon 7-56 etc. They won't all be compatible with the 16BL blimp. 

[Janis Lionel Huber]

Anyone having experience here with Kinoptik 5.7 or Angenieux 5.9? 

[Brian Drysdale]

You could get 16 BL blimps for the Zeiss 10-100 T3.1 and the  Angenieux 9.5-95 T2.8. You could use Mk1 Zeiss Super Speed Distagons in the prime lens blimp.

[Steve Switaj]

Arri also made a BL16 prime-lens blimp that would work with one of the 10mm lenses, maybe a Zeiss or Scheider.

I owned a BL16 back in the day and handled it once or twice, but can't remember anything past that.

I think the thing was that the lens had to have some ears on the focus ring that would engage tabs on the focus ring of the blimp.

But, of course, as Dom notes above, if you're not worried about sync sound, most B-mount lenses are just fine, since they were developed in the era of the S/B or later, and would account for mirror clearance.

 

[Vincent Wolfram]

Officially compatible are the 8mm Distagon and the 10mm Cinegon (from Serial number 10.xxx.xxx onwards!! earlier versions will destroy your mirror shutter if locked in at close focus and then rotated to infinity!!!)

You can still use the prime lens blimp without the little aperture ear, you just have to open it to change the aperture. the focus transmission will still work as it uses those little focus ears