Struwwelpeter

Firstly, I'd like to apologise for the bad language, cursing and lengthy post. Okay, was wondering if anyone could lend me any advice, criticism or tell me what I've done wrong here if anything. A few months ago I contacted a man from the Photographic Trader here in Australia who sold Bolex camera's. His name is Ian Rivlin. He told me he had a Rex-5 with the 13x viewfinder. To quote the descriptions from the e-mail correspondence... "I made an error - re the SBM - It's actually a REX 5 (ie has a three turret "C" lens mount). It accepts the 400ft magazine and the kit available is as follows:- Bolex Rex 5 - 13x viewfinder Bolex 16-100mm POE lens (Vario Switar) Bolex MST Crystal controlled motor - 25fps 50CPS Bolex BX 55.12 power pack Bolex Handgrip This is the entire kit. (Price as previously mentioned for the "ESM") - installment payments are fine as long as a reasonable initial payment is made. The Rex 5 is in really lovely condition. Not mint but very close." The camera I recieved has alot of surface rust (making me wonder how it was stored), a scratch in the middle of the lens about a centimeter long and it's only the 10x model, not the advertised 13x which we all know is much more desireable and probably the main reason I bought it seeing as I was originally after an SBM. Anyway, he's acknowledged he's sold me the wrong camera stating things like..."I'm sorry if this turns out to be the smaller viewfinder but a good 10x beats the poop out of a bad 13x any day of the week." Hardly the point though really is it?! "This camera could be as much as 35 years old. You mention surface imperfections but what would any car look like (that hadn't been renovated) after this length of time? - Not as good as this Bolex, that's for sure. For it's age it's in unbelievably good condition" Sure, and how many people drive their Bolex down the street on concrete roads in the rain and then park them outside exposed to the weather? "The meter in the POE lens is working! This is almost unheard of. Nearly all of them have blown and the lens has to be set on manual (not a bad idea anyway) but to have a POE with a working accurate meter is - again - amazing. The meter coils have long been unavailable and if you had this lens opened up and the meter removed, you'd be able to get $500 for it." Wow, the meter works! That's real handy when the lens is SCRATCHED. I use a handheld light meter anyway. So what if I'd get $500 for cannibalising the lens and selling the meter. If it's such a good deal why won't he take it back huh? When i offered a trade to him for all my super-8 cameras and k3 I even offered to pay postage to send all the camera's to him to check over and described tiny details like small dents in the film door etc and he doesn't think a scratched lens and rust is worth mentioning on a camera that is supposed to be near mint? The "compromise" he gave me was this... "Nonetheless, I don't want you to be left with a sour taste in your mouth. I'll make you this offer,I'll give you the matte box at a $100 reduction - ie $150, and I'll give you a set of extension tubes (they are mainly for smaller lenses but they will work with the POE." Gee whiz, that so makes up for it don't you agree? He lies to me, misleads me and sends me the wrong camera than wants me to buy more stuff from him...has he a screw loose? Please tell me I'm making too much out of this. Am I being as unreasonable and "beefing about miniscule irritations" as he has told me? How the hell is sending me the wrong camera a miniscule irritation? He also mentioned the following... "After I accepted your offer, someone wantd that setup and offered me $2000 for it. Out of a sense of decency, I rejected his offer as I'd done the deal with you. Now you're beefing about miniscule irritations. By simply accepting his offer and telling you the deal was off, I would have been $500 the richer. This has taught me a very good lesson." and... "Since my Bolex is one entity and would sell fairly rapidly, I have to have a big incentive to take your equipment. I assure you that I'm not trying to "con" you. I genuinely mean everything I say..." Well then, if it's such a valuable camera and would shift so rapidly and he gave me SUCH a good deal on it, why the big fuss in taking it back? The only person going to be out of pocket here is me. Not only will I have paid for postage either way but I sold all my other equipment to be able to afford it. The guys a doctor from Noosa Heads, I'm currently a student who occasionally does commission work. I live off $400 a fortnight. The $1600 I paid for this camera is an absolute shitload of money for me. I asked is I could pay it off over a few months while I sold my other equipment which he agreed to though now tries to use that fact against me. Fact is that was soemthing we both agreed to, he didn't have to but did. The camera he described and sent was something I didn't and wouldn't have agreed to had he been honest. "Sorry Aengus - I can't refund as I've already spent the money. I don't feel that it's appropriate anyway." Sure, whatever... ~sigh~ I have bought and sold over 100 items on eBay over the last few years largely being photographic equipment with a 100% rating. It takes a lot for me to make a fuss over something (and I'm sure the people I have dealt with would agree) but this is a joke. Now I guess I have to go through all the crap of getting a lawyer and filing forms and poop...AARRRGGGHHHH. I don't have time for this. Seriously.....not.....happy..... P.S. If anyone is interested, I'm quite happy to post the entire correspondence between myself and Ian since I originally contacted him concerning a camera. This may shed more light on the situation.

MOS camera's aren't usually suitable for dialogue scenes due to the fact they don't usually have a steady film advance speed (sync speed) and are often far too loud. You can always buy a crystal unit for either of those camera's and a huge bloody blimp but even then it's possible you won't get it quiet enough.

I can't afford the super16 conversion at the moment as much as I'd love to, I can barely afford the film! I'm going to run a test roll of 7217 through it in the next few weeks, I can post the resulting footage if you're interested. Take Care, A.

POE leaves the Ange for dead in my opinion, though you may be paying more than $500 for one in immaculate condition (from what I've seen). The POE would probably cut better with the Switar primes aswell if you were to use them in the same project. 16mm only forum? Looking at the current threads you'd think it was "Bolex only" :P

This is something I was told recently concerning the POE and Rex-5... "When the POE lens is attached to the turret, there is a turret locking plug that holds the turret very tightly to the camera. Remember that the bayonet lenses are just the C mount lenses with the bayonet adaptor fitted to them. (The bayonet is held on to the barrel of the lens with three small screws that total a far smaller screw thread area than a C mount's area). The apparent increase of sturdiness is more of an appearance than a fact." The POE is a great lens regardless of the camera it's attached to. I doubt you'd be disappointed.

You know, I can barely understand why anyone would choose an EBM over a Rex-5 or SBM. Apart from the fact it has a built in motor it appears far less versatile than any of these cameras AND from what I have seen usually costs more. You still need an external controller for crystal sync anyway and as you pointed out no single from nor 64fps. IMO, I think the Rex-5 with the Switar prime set is one of the best sub $2000 16mm you can get, I paid only $1150us for mine and the Tobin motor only adds another $495 onto that. Bargain!

Thanks for the reply Steven, After all that, I actually wound up with a Rex-5 :P I like the spring wound idea as I sometimes film in cold areas, in the woods etc so it would be a useful backup for sure. I'm going for the Tobin TXM-20B motor with the TEC-20 Euroframe Controller. I don't need a silent camera but crystal sync is essential. It's why i feel these Bolex camera's are perfect for "music video" production. I probably would have prefered an SBM but I got a really good deal on the Rex-5 that was hard to pass up. If it's good enough for Bob the Builder, it's good enough for me ;) Take Care, A.

I can't tell you what exactly the conversation entails but i do know they will work for single and double perf film. The mags have no registration pins or cogs. Hope this is of some use. A.

Hello, If anyone has a Bolex SBM (with 13x finder) with the ESM motor for sale and in excellent working condition, please send me a PM and let me know. Thanks! A.

Nah, definately no vignetting. M42 lenses were designed for use with 35mm still cameras, they'd easily cover 16mm without issue.

Hello, I just stumbled upon THIS site while researching the camera and noticed the handy rotatable viewfinder in the pictures. I was wondering if anyone can point me in the direction of where I may purchase something like this and if any modification would need to be done to the camera? Thanks for your time! A.

Hey Stewart, where in Australia are you? I'm in Hobart, Tas. As for your question, that entirely depends on what kind of 16mm you are after and what your budget is. If you're just starting out, I'd recommend getting a K3. They take great footage with a little care (though as I'm sure you know, are far too noisy for sound recording) and helped me learn ALOT about the format and simple but obvious things like how to thread the film properly etc. You get about 26 seconds on a full wind which is comparable to some of the springwound bolex's and for much less the cost. Obviously they are not as well built a camera but depending on your project and most first time budgets, can't be beat. The only problem I have had with mine, is after awhile (if you use it often like I did) you get sick of winding the thing. It was a small price to pay though for some of the footage I got from it. And I should mention, that the "limitation" of only 26seconds is not really much of one at all. I found i would rarely press my finger against the trigger for a take lasting longer than that. Hope this has helped :)

I'm currently in the market for my first (electric) 16mm camera and have narrowed it down to these two Bolex models. I'm wondering if anyone here with experience with these two camera's could share some pro's and con's of the two models to aid in my decision. I'm speaking in terms of quality and steadiness of footage, ease of loading, ease of use etc. Most of my work will be done using a tripod so versatility isn't so important. Any help appreciated, thanks!

Hey, thanks Stephen. I'm glad to see he's still still around and hadn't taken my lens to the grave. I spoke to him on the phone last year when I was organising the conversation and he came across as a really nice talkative guy. I think I may have figured my issue out anyway. I had sent an enquiry to B & H the other week concerning a light meter and recieved a reply from them saying... "Your email to us on May 13, contained a virus, which my security system picked up and cleaned out before allowing me access. I thought you should know about that." Oh dear, and on a Friday aswell. So it's possible my e-mails haven't even been going through if either Les or his ISP has an anti-virus that blocks the mail before making it to his inbox. I've just updated my anti-virus and did a full system scan so will try again now. Thanks again for your help! :) P.S. Yeah, i don't generally use my "real name" on the internet these days after some unwanted drama it caused me a few years back :blink: P.P.S. For the record, I never thought Les was trying to rip me off. I figured he either wasn't getting my e-mails, I wasn't getting his or he had died. I'm glad it wasn't the latter!

Umm, you may have missed it where I said in my original post I don't have an international service on my phone (or rather the phone at the house I'm currently living). So yeah, if I could have rang him I would have done that instead of posting this on an internet forum ;)