Ward Crockett

Thanks everyone. We've had different rolls of footage transferred on different telecine machines at different labs--same double image. So yeah, sounds like it's definitely either the prism or a lens element--the guys at the lab seem pretty sure that it's a lens issue. Unfortunately, we can't find anyone in Colorado to look at the lens. Any ideas? I imagine we'll end up sending it off to New York or California. Thanks! -Ward

Thanks Adam and Clive. My Bolex does have a black pressure plate, so it sounds like that's not the problem. If you look closely, the ghost image actually appears on the right AND left sides of the person in the image. I loaded some leader and tried to push it horizontally, but it seems solid to me. We looked at the film on a Vidette and saw that the film line is stable--doesn't seem to be a registration prob. I thought it might be some kind of lens issue, but the ghosting doesn't show up in the reflex viewfinder. Maybe the viewfinder is too dim to pick up the ghosting? And it seems like a lens reflection would produce more aberrant results. Collimation issues don't cause problems like this, do they? Clive, you're saying it's unlikely that it's halation problem. So it's probably not even worth testing a color film to see if there's a difference? Thanks, guys. What a frustrating problem! -Ward

I've posted this prob before, but I've come across a theory related to filmstock. We've been testing our Bolex EBM (modified for S16) by shooting black and white reversal (7266) and negative (7222). Our footage keeps coming back with a halation-like ghost image around highlights. See the pic in my other post: filmstock post The weird thing is that it's a horizontal aberration. As far as I can tell, the ghosting does not occur vertically--difficult to tell, though. I've come across some posts about black and white film not having rem-jet backing, and that cameras need to be optimized to run black and white due to differences in film thickness and anti-static coating (gate tension has to be adjusted). Does this look like a halation problem to anyone? Particularly one that might be caused by that difference in black and white film? Do you think it would be worth testing a roll of color? Thanks! -Ward Crockett

I've posted this in the 16mm Only forum as well, but I've come across a theory related to filmstock. We've been testing our Bolex EBM (modified for S16) by shooting black and white reversal (7266) and negative (7222). Our footage keeps coming back with a halation-like ghost image around highlights. See the attached pic. The weird thing is that it's a horizontal aberration. As far as I can tell, the ghosting does not occur vertically--difficult to tell, though. I've come across some posts about black and white film not having rem-jet backing, and that cameras need to be optimized to run black and white due to differences in film thickness and anti-static coating (gate tension has to be adjusted). Does this look like a halation problem to anyone? Particularly one that might be caused by that difference in black and white film? Do you think it would be worth testing a roll of color? Thanks! -Ward Crockett

Brian, While searching for posts related to my Bolex EBM problem, I came across your post about the Super 8 horizontal image doubling you experienced a couple months ago. I had a similar problem with some 16mm reversal footage I shot. You can check out my post at Horizontal Ghosting post I've come up with theories about loose lens, broken lens, light getting through the anti-halation and re-exposing the image, etc. Did you ever manage to figure out the problem? Thanks! -Ward Crockett

Attached is a still from the messed up footage. I'll try to get that web page working correctly. -Ward

Sorry about the link, everyone--I'll try to fix that up so you can check out the pics. And thanks Bernie. Yeah, I'm leaning away from a lens problem as well. The other thought I had was the telecine or film chain transfer---I'll have to find out what kind of transfer the lab did. Can this kind of issue occur if some element of the transfer is misaligned? I don't know enough about video transfer to know if this could occur. Thanks! -Ward

This issue requires some introduction--- My producer and I recently bought a Bolex EBM (converted to S16) with a Vario-Switar 100 POE. We shot some scenes in a TV studio on black and white reversal. A few weeks later, we shot two reels of test footage on reversal--we processed one as reversal and cross-processed the other---we did this to see how cross-processed footage compares to straight reversal processing. These two test reels were recans. We had all of the film mentioned above processed and transferred to DV in two separate labs. The footage we shot in the television studio came out fine. The test footage (both reels) came out with a strange ghosting effect (not sure if ghosting is the right term). You can see the images here: Bolex Test Images The weird effect is on the right side of the man---his ear seems to pop out, the lettering on his shirt pops off, etc. The ghosting isn't as pronounced in indoor shots, though it is present. Strangely, it seems to vary. In the last two images (two consecutive frames), the magnitude of the effect is different. Notice the effect on the right side of the man's thumb---it's worse in the first image. The effect shows up at different frame rates, from 10 to 50. The effect did not change during frame rate changes (we switched from 24 to 50 while rolling). Since we shot the test footage, I've looked thru the reflex viewfinder on an outdoor subject in comparable sunlight conditions and have not seen the ghosting. I've stopped it down to see if the effect appears at smaller apertures but have not seen the effect. Seems like I'd see this effect in the viewfinder if it were a lens problem, but from what I've heard, there are some lens problems that won't be noticeable in the viewfinder (true?). Again, the other footage we processed and transferred at a different lab looks fine. We did shoot the footage a few weeks apart, so there's the possibility that the lens was damaged during that time---unlikely, though, since it was sitting in its cut-foam flight case all that time. I do know that I didn't have the filter holder in place when I shot the test footage (don't remember if it was in place for the television studio footage). Bolex says you must have the filter holder in place whether you're using a filter or not (to prevent light infiltration). I don't see how that could cause this particular effect, but I'm pretty new to this. I've been unable to find any examples of this problem anywhere. We showed the transferred footage to a local lab and the tech was convinced it was a lens problem. We're going to go back and have them take a look at the original film on their viewer to see if the problem is on the film. Meanwhile, I'm wondering if any of you have ideas on what this is. Sorry about the massive post--I wanted to provide as much detail as I could. Happy to provide more. Thanks for your help! -Ward Crockett