Super16Eclair

My ACL II has developed a flicker problem. An irregular 'flicker' is visible in the lighter areas of the frame, but not all the time. I'm sure my loop sizes are big enough and I have the 75fps motor for 400' magazines. Does anyone know what may be causing this? There was one occasion when I changed the frame rate to 50fps and when I turned it back to 25fps it seemed to be stuck on about 8fps. With a bit of backwards and forwarding between speeds and it seemed to fix itself.

Just had my footage telecined and it looks amazing. Not a problem with the Switar lens, it was pin sharp. In fact, I could hardly pick the difference between the Switar and my beautiful Zeiss 12-120 zoom. The Zeiss seems a fraction more contrasty. Exposure didn't seem to be off either (although the telecine process can hide slight exposure variations). So a 10mm Switar can be used on an Eclair ACL. It even covered the Super 16 frame without a problem. The only problem I had was a slight pulsating from some domestic fluro tubes while shooting at 50fps, which is not lens related of course.

Thanks Brian and Ian for your responses. Firstly, the extra half a stop will not be a problem, as I was shooting negative film, which can easily handle that amount of overexposure. I can simply do some correction in telecine. The image was certainly very sharp in the viewfinder, and in most cases I was shooting at least F4 (although a few shots were almost wide open, so it will be interesting to see the results). After I posted the question I performed a crude test on my camera. I took the magazine off the camera, fitted the 10mm lens and pointed the camera at a bright subject. I then held a piece of thin tracing paper firm against the film gate and found a sharp image was projected onto the tracing paper. Not the most accurate of tests, but it restores a little confidence. Regarding the Schneider Cinegon 10mm. Does this cover Super 16? How does it compare to the quality of the Switar? I'll let you know how the telecine goes next week. I'm holding my breath until then...

Hi, I've just used a Switar 10mm H16 RX lens on my Eclair ACL (Super 16). The lens looked super sharp through the viewfinder, but on researching this lens I have found that it was designed particularly for the aberation caused by the prisim in the Bolex camera. Does this mean my shots are actually going to be out of focus on the film??

Can anyone give me a few pointers on how to correctly expose a LCD screen for a 16mm film shoot? I have a spot meter. Thanks.

I've checked out previous posts on shooting LCD screens and have pretty much worked out that I should be OK with any flicker problems unless I'm very unlucky. Will be shooting 25fps. My question is to how to correctly expose the screen. I have a spot meter. Am I correct in saying that a direct spot meter reading off the screen will give the correct reading to put the screen in a Zone V (middle grey tone)? Should it be brighter than this...say a Zone VI? Therefore I open up one stop on the meter reading? I will be shooting a plasma screen next week. Any suggestions there? I don't have a variable frame rate controller, so will have to shoot 25fps. I'm in Australia, so it is on 50Htz. Thanks.

The conversion was done by someone here is Australia. I was told by the previous owner that the magazines had also been converted. What should they look like if they have been converted? Are you saying that this rubbing on the emulsion is to be expected, but it was not usually within the image area?

My newly aquired ACL II Eclair (converted to Super 16) magazines seem to be marking my neg. If you are familiar with the Eclair magazine, you will know that where the film exits and enters the magazine to run past the gate, there are two 'teeth' towards the outside of each opening that come into contact with the emulsion. When I inspect my neg closely under strong light I can see rub marks that run the full length of the neg on each side (these match up perfectly with the width and position of these 'teeth'). One rub mark is over the perfs, but the other is very much in the image area. Are ANY marks on the neg unacceptable and likely to cause visible scratch marks when processed, or is this common with this type of magazine and unavoidable? It seems to me that there is no way to stop these bits of metal touching the emulsion as the film exits and enters the magazine. I know that a simple answer would be to process the neg and see what happens, but I was curious if this was encountered by anyone else. Both of my magazines have the same issue. Thanks.

Thanks Chris, great suggestion. Yes, I will be using 500T at about F4. Has anyone got some answers about shooting the fluros?

Hi. I'm shooting a music film clip on my 16mm ACL II Eclair soon and would like some advice please. We are shooting in a bar during the day and there are several windows in shot. I need to make it look like it was shot during the night, so can anyone suggest a gel that I can put on the windows to make it look like night outside? I would prefer if I could do it with one gel only to keep the cost down. I use LEE filters (gel) usually. My other question relates to shooting domestic fluro tubes. The bar is lit almost entirely with pink fluro tubes, which look great, but I'm worried about a few things. Firstly, will they still turn out pink on Tungsten film? Secondly, will I have a flicker problem if I don't stick to certain frame rates? Most likely to shoot either 25fps or 50fps. Power is 50 hertz, so I'm thinking I should be OK. Thanks.

I have used SR's and an Eclair NPR....and I own an Eclair ACL II. Need I say more?? I love the ACL. It's great for hand held, really quiet, and a fraction of the price of a decent SR. I made up a custom sound barney that covers the whole camera, and you can't even hear the thing running! You can also find an adapter for just about any lens to fit the Eclair. I found the NPR to be heavier and the motor sticks out like...well, you know what, so not much good for hand held work. You should be able to find a basic Eclair ACL 1.5 or 2 kit for about $3,000. Mine is a Super 16 conversion with black and white video split, custom follow focus unit/matte box and Zeiss 12-120 macro zoom. It rocks!

I have a Super 16 Eclair ACL II with a Zeiss 12-120mm macro zoom lens. I would like to add a nice wide lens to my kit, but I'm having trouble working out which lenses will actually cover the Super 16 image area. I'm not after a lens that's going to look too fish-eye either. Is there a list anywhere on the net detailing which lenses will work? I'm happy to go with a C, CA Eclair, Arri standard or bayonet and Nikon F mount. Has anyone had experience with the Russian made Peleng 8mm? Can this be fitted to the Eclair? Or the: C mount Tamaron 6.5mm? C mount Computar 8mm? C mount Cosmicar 9mm? Not looking to spend a fortune either. Any ideas?? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.