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Hi Stephen, Thanks. I know exactly what you mean. I have passed this forum link on to our engineers and in turn hopefully Fries. When the camera gets back we will look into the tuning. I have checked our settings and to be honest they seem a little on the high side. I converted to Flair NT fairly recently. I wonder if the settings got changed accidentally in some way while importing the old settings. When I get some time next week I will boot up the old Flair and check. I will keep you posted as to how we get on. Thanks again John

Hi Phil, Sadly / happily it was not me you worked with. I was feet up on an island in South Easy Asia. I saw the ad though. It looked great. John

Hello Stephen, Forums never cease to amaze me! A camera that old with an unknown problem and we get an informed answer within hours from a man who actually knows the camera. It is indeed camera number 297. Our Mitchell is sadly now in pieces with the movement, flywheel and gate on its way to Fries Engineering so sadly I can't perform any more tests. I have passed on this information to our engineers who in turn have passed it on to Fries. We were pretty sure the problem lay with the pins but I confess we didn't look into the motor or its tuning. Several people with far more camera knowledge than myself have told me that our movement is very 'sloppy' and in real need of a decent service and if necessary some new parts. Hopefully then its journey across the pond will not be entirely wasted. Our Mitchell is still a very busy camera. We maybe shoot 10-20 rolls of film a week with it and regularly put it through its paces at 100 FPS so it's hardly surprising when it needs a bit of attention. In the meantime we are having a universal camera platfrom made which will allow us to use an ARRI camera and also to offer various HiDef solutions. Until this is ready we will be shooting on dodgy Beta. As for our producer not being interested in a dry hire. I'm sorry to hear that. I was never asked whether dry hire was a possibility. If you are ever in Wardour Street please feel welcome to pop in and say hello. We are ' Rushes Studio' nowdays and have moved the rig downstairs to a slightly larger room. Mark Roberts have done an excellent job over the years keeping the rig in tip top condition and I like to think that Central Londons only motion control studio is here for a good many more years. Thanks for the reply and I will let you know how we get on when we get the camera up and running again. John Wenman Motion Control Assistant.

Hello All, I have a problem with my Mitchell Fries 35R which is used for motion control. The problem is a flickering / double imaging mainly at the top of frame and mainly in areas of high contrast. eg black and white text. I have shot various tests at various speeds and ruled out the pelicule. The problem manifests itself worst at higher frame rates. Several people have looked at it for me. Like them I am at a loss. The shutter is timed correctly and doesn't seem to be loose in any way. I was told when I started using the camera that the shutter had long since been 'fixed' at 180 degrees. I think they must have meant 170 degrees however since that is its maximum. The pilot pins (registration pins) do however seem to be picking at the film at the beginning and end of the shutter cycle. I ripped a small sample of video of the problem. The sample was shot at 100FPS and is zoomed in TK to about 200% at the top of frame. I uploaded the 1mb file to a file sharing site. http://www.mediafire.com/?9nnnmqe3fwf Any suggestions would be gratefully recieved. John Wenman Motion Control Camera Assistant.

thanks very much guys. i think michael may be on the money with the gate flare theory. however we shoot 16.9 for everything here in london so shooting with a larger gate is not an option. also our camera is motion control so panning speeds are controllable only up to a certain speed. i will do as you say and try blacking out the gate, maybe with some ink and try reshooting again as a test. i will put a new post next week to let you know how i get on. thanks again john wenman.

i recently shot some close ups of neon signs in a dark studio on 35mm kodak 5274. we used a fries mitchell with a nikon 35mm prime on F5.6 - 8. as the neon passed through the edge of frame we got quite a severe smearing effect almost like there was vaseline on the lens which of course there was not. luckily the rushes were repaired but it cost time and money. the following day we reshot as a test, 2-3 stops under and over and with a wrattan 2e filter which i was told may control uv light. we got the same smearing result every time. can anyone shed any light on whats happening and what i am doing wrong? is this a problem with shooting neon close up? thanks for reading john wenman motiom control camera assistant. www.onepost.tv

I have been asked to shoot a scaffold pole being fired through a car windscreen. The camera is to be the rear passengers POV and therefore in the back seat. We will be doing repeat passes for the interior and exterior lighting and passengers etc. I want to shoot as very high speeds, i reckon about 300-400 FPS, on 35mm. I have only been shooting film for 10 months and my knowledge is therefore limited. I am used to lighting greenscreen but the shattering glass in an unknown quantity. Have you any hints, tips, techniques that i can use? with thanks john. london.