Patrick Neary

Hi- I just did a quick test pinhole shot with a Mitchell and one of those Nikon-Cap pinholes, it was a table-top set with flowers, 8fps (hand-cranked) on Eterna 250, with a 1k full-spot about 15 inches from the flowers. It worked, (a little hard on the flowers tho). If there's a way to post a small wmv or mov I'll put it up.

I'm not even sure that I get it, but that has got to be one of the funniest things I've ever read on this site!... :) I've used a chart online which (I believe) also comes from the Naval Observatory. And it works great, unless you happen to be shooting from a hotel deck in Oakland, CA that apparently is full of magnetic rebar that screws with your compass so much that the sun rises about 50 degrees north of where it is supposed too!

Well to be fair that did only happen once, and well into a very long day, so even at the time it was pretty funny... :)

Hi- The last feature I did we used a compact and had constant problems with mag noise- my 1st would give it a hard betch slap on both sides and that solved it pronto, and made my right ear ring for about an hour if I happened to be operating at the time. I've never experienced so many mag problems (of that variety) with any other camera.

Hi- I don't see any reference in the Carlson book, but page V of the manual for my Mitchell GC has a list of horrible things you can do to the camera if things go to hell in a handbasket, including the use of explosives... When I have a few more minutes, I'll copy it down and post here as a public service :)

It seems like doing this as greenscreen just adds a lot of post work where you don't really need it.

I guess you could, but again, it's very simple and takes about 10 seconds to set the shutter at 144 degrees. If you want to get really fancy, hook up the synco box and phase the shutter, which takes an additional 30 seconds, problem solved. Or do as Keith suggests and plop an LCD screen into an older TV case.

Holy Jumping Jesus that sounds like a lot of work just to get rid of a rollbar! :)

A Piper Super-Cub to get back and forth from jobs!

Hi- If the TV is very prominent, like a close-up, to be extra safe you need to set your shutter at 144 and use the synco box to phase the roll bar. You can also get the little doo-hickie that sits behind the TV and reads the TV's CRT, and automatically phases the shutter to match it. Or just set your shutter at 144 and shoot away, that's worked fine for me too.

Hi- It's undoubtedly a 16mm, look at the gate and it should be pretty obvious (I don't think any B&H 70 model would be double 8mm, but I suppose there could be an odd-ball out there). I had one of those tiny .7' lenses too. Have fun, it should be a great camera!

got it- thanks!

flying spot is tops. We recently transfered a batch of ektachrome S8 for the end title sequence of a 35mm feature with them and they did a great job.

er, ummm- what diagrams???

Hi- Isn't it just a PL mount? (52mm) or did they make those beasts with BNCR mounts?

Hi- I've got a Som Berthoit Pan-Cinor 38-155mm f3.8 reflex zoom lens with a dog-leg finder with dual mount to fit a Mitchell Standard, GC or BNC 35mm camera. The lens and finder are in remarkably good shape for their age, and the glass is good - no visible fungus, haze or scratching. The focus, iris and zoom movements are all smooth. Lens hood, zoom and focus handles and caps for front and rear of lens are included. I shot a brief test with this lens on a Mitchell GC and the results were, ummm, just like a Primo! OK, would you believe a mediocre Schneider? OK, how about a heavily abused mayonnaise jar? Really, this is probably more of a special-purpose, retro-look lens (save money on diffusion filters!) not too bad wide, "delightfully soft" at the tele-end. It would look good on a display Mitchell if nothing else. If someone is truly interested I could scan the 35 neg to give a better idea of the quality. A previous owner added their own tape focus and iris marks, not pretty but they seem to be accurate. It would be an easy job to clean them off if you wanted. Comes with a very beat-up and ratty (but original) case. And that old-camera smell. mmmmm. $500 Send me a PM if you're interested, I don't check back here too often anymore. I can take payment through paypal, I think I'd prefer to sell within the US for simplicity. I'm in Portland, OR. Thanks!

Quite so, but it seemed to me that the camera's macro wouldn't let me zoom in/crop very much at all before it just went wildly out of focus, and when you're shooting with a 28mm lens for a wider field of view, you don't really want to crop in too much anyway, it defeats the purpose of using a wide angle. There seemed to be a very small range between too wide (on the HVX's lens) where you were picking up a complete porthole, to too long, where the HVX lens simply couldn't focus on the GG. The one thing I didn't play with was changing the aperture on the HVX, to see how that changed things and I believe the HVX lens was wide, or close to wide open. It's also just a lot of stuff for those poor light rays to pass through before they hit the back end of the camera; the taking lens, the vibrating ground glass, then the camcorder's own array of glass and finally the optical block, it's a miracle there's anything left, quality-wise! It's kind of ironic that the end result of all that glass and interference looks very similar to the single element meniscus lens in my 100-year old box camera (which I really like).

Hi- I see that you're in Portland- to send you on something of a goose-chase, I know there is an older couple in Oregon-somewhere- who have been dealing in old projectors for quite some time, you might try searching for them, I saw them in their little booth at last year's big antique expo. at any rate, they may have something?

Hi- I just shot a couple local bank spots with the Letus, it was nice to have the shallow DOF, and it looked good (the clients loved it), but kind of awkward on the camera (as I imagine any adapter is) I sure wouldn't want to do a bunch of hand-held with it, and follow-focus (with Nikkors) is pretty much guess-work. I did notice that at the wide stops we were shooting at, like 2.0, 2.8, there was pretty severe vignetting, focus-wise, and I know that's not from the lenses. But I haven't used any of the other adapters out there, I don't know how they'd compare, other than I keep hearing wonderful things about the Letus, and my experience was good for what we were doing. The build quality sure seems first rate. My sense is that it's kind of like putting a strong diffusion filter on the camera; you don't do that and then complain about lack of sharpness.

Nicely done!

and that Guinness was involved just makes it even better- did you get to ask him anything about working with Freddie Young?

Hi! There isn't- But like Paul sez, there are a LOT of old junky 16mm and 8mm cameras out there for cheep. I'm trying to build my own 35mm based on an automax geneva movement, and it's a chore, let me tell you. Maybe if I were a better machinist and woodworker...:)

Hi- I've tested the Eterna 250 and 500 stocks against 5218 and 5205 and found that the biggest difference was very noticeable color shifts in both Fuji stocks when under and over-exposed, especially more than 2 stops, where the Kodak remained fairly neutral. The Fuji also looked just slightly more grainy, but they're all very nice stocks though.

Hi- I hate to be the one to point this out, but if I put a 50mm lens on an SR3 then just exactly what focal length does it effectively become? and yes, I already know the answer.... ;)

Nothing against Bolexes, except for handcranking- those tiny little cranks are a pain, and they fall out of the little crankshaft too easily!