Gillian Donaldson-Selby

Ross has done a brilliant job restoring and CLA'ing my Arri ST, and I'll be sending him my BL shortly.

Thank you, Ross and Mark. Ross send me his video and the Minilock seems like a useful unit and easy to use. It looks like you can attach files to messages on this forum, with a max size of 500kb.

I might be able to acquire a Minilock A Crystal Control for Arri BL 16. I think the BBC used these at one time. Has anyone had any experience with these? Are there any manuals, wiring diagrams or instructions available?

Looking at old threads on this site it seems that a) Eclairs and Aatons were most affected, and b) there may have been a batch of out of spec stock released in Europe. Hopefully this is not a poor generalisation on my part and all is good now.

I recently bought an Arri BL16, which will be going in for a CLA shortly. In the meantime, I thought I'd look around for a reasonably priced tripod and fluid head for it. It came with a vintage Miller wood tripod and fluid head, which (as far as I can tell) was made in the 1950s. They weigh a ton (well, 15+kg by themselves) and are not suitable for the kind of rough fieldwork I need them for. Given that a BL16 with blimp and magazine weighs about 8 kg, I guess a tripod/head combination that can handle 10-15 kg should be suitable? Any recommendations gratefully received!

Interesting! I'm not familiar with reversal processing - please could you provide more details or links?

Thanks, everyone, for the advice. I've ordered a few rolls to try it out.

I'm looking for some 'budget' film and processing to run some camera/lens tests and maybe a few experimental shots. Has anyone had any experience with UN54 - a B&W neg/reversal film? I had some negative feedback from a lab about Fomapan so I was wondering if UN54 might be an alternative to Tri-X. Any suggestions for UK processing would be helpful! https://www.wittnercinetec.com/epages/WittnerCinetec-Super8-16mm-Film.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/WittnerCinetec-Super8-16mm-Film/Products/2148

Brilliant! You might want to consider crowdfunding the project?

Perhaps manufacturers could be asked to 'open source' their designs/documentation after, say, 30 years? Documents could be placed in trust and made public even if the manufacturer no longer exists.

I'm having my Arri 16 ST CLA'd with a few upgrades and was wondering which matte box / sunshade would work best for the camera in the future - the original matte box or a modern matte box on rails. I would like to keep weight and size down as much as possible (to hump it across peat bogs) and plan on using prime lenses at this time. I did some experimenting with a standard 15mm rod-based matte box, and it seems that the centre of the matte box is too high for the camera. On the other hand, I wonder how heavy (and potentially cumbersome) the original matte box is. Any thoughts much appreciated!

I'm hoping to submit a funding proposal for a docu-drama and would like to shoot in b/w - it just seems right for the bleak Scottish Highlands! A wile back I spent some time looking at costs for all available 16mm film stocks (e.g. Tri-x, Fomapan and even colour reversal). Fomapan is definitely cheaper than everything else, but self-processing is way out of my comfort/knowledge zone. Also, the 'official' Fomapan chemicals cost pretty much the same as going to a lab. There don't seem to be any labs in the UK processing Fomapan, and a lab in the Netherlands that does process Fomapan said that Tri-x was way better. So any suggestions on how I can keep costs down and shoot b/w most welcome! .."it is a nightmare to dry that kind of film amounts" I can only imagine!

Noted. Thanks, Simon.

Thanks, everyone, for your advice - it is much appreciated! I will stick with primes then - probably Schneider, as the camera came with 16mm, 25mm and 50mm Schneiders. I'm looking at getting a 10mm to go with. I really appreciate all the advice from this forum - this is quite a learning curve!

Any thoughts on the SOM Berthiot Pan-Cinor 17-85mm f2 zoom on an Arri ST camera? I believe that they can be soft and prone to haze, but they are about a third of the price of an Angénieux. Or should I rather save up for the Angénieux?