benjamin aguilar

Luka, I've been going to Optical Electro, nice guys Bobby and George. I've already got a quote from them some time ago about the motor, but cannot do so right now as I don't quite have $1,500 to spend, although I have been very tempted to. Looking to save a little more so I can get it fixed properly, ground glass and all. I wouldn't say it's barely useable without the PL Mount as it has been very useful to me so far, but in a working / rental aspect it is less useable. I'll try slow-motion John, thanks. -Benjamin

\ Ok. Funny, you mention having a 50mm and 100mm, just like the lenses I have. Yeah, the CM-3 does look like a gas mask, kinda has a face to it. I've been looking to buy a crystal motor for it, only renting right now, but if you know of anyone looking to sell one, please let me know. I was thinking of getting it nikon mounted don't know about PL as the place I go to said it wouldn't be possible, though I have seen them with that conversion. Benjamin

Hey Luka, Yeah, the EXR line of stocks definitely has a certain feel to it. I guess I like that stock more than current stocks is because it renders your images a little more painting-like, which is how I like to shoot. Fortunately I still have some EXR available, although the short-ends I shot with had a bit of a color shift, due to it being 3 years old. Only about 6 to 8 hundred feet left though, but plan on using it for my next teaser / trailer. Someone needs to order up a big batch. Did you use the CM-3 to shoot that shot? -benjamin

Hello, I just got through shooting a teaser for a feature, about a week and a half ago. The camera I chose to go with, was my Eclair CM-3(a hand-me-down). The stills above are from some of the shots that day. The camera itself is pretty old, could've gotten it Nikon mounted, but decided to test out the lenses I had(unfortunately only a 50mm and 100mm). This teaser was also somewhat of a test for the performance of these lenses. So, knowing how old these lenses(Kinoptik's) were and how little they have been taking care of(cleaning marks, dust between glass ect...) I expected little in terms of image quality. Well, turns out that they performed pretty darn good for being 50+ plus years old! Didn't really expect that from the same camera and lenses used by the Howard Hughes Aircraft Co. "back in the day". Turned out better than some of the older Arri Std. lenses I've seen stuff shot with. Now the camera itself isn't the best but got the job done, of course not without some problems. Fogging of the film from left of the camera from what I can only guess was caused due to either the slit where you can insert tiny gels and hard mattes or from the gate, as thoses mags aren't necessarily the best at keeping a tight lock as to keep light from striking. It seemed to hold registration fairly well for not being pin registered. Of course I was shooting hand held all day, so I will further test this on the next shoot with some sticks. Pretty good camera, shoots 16mm as well and also has an adjustable shutter angle. Is MOS though, but hey you can't complain too much about free 35mm/16mm camera! Now the magazines are a whole different story, as mentioned above, they aren't the most secure for locking to the camera, one problem. 2nd problem, towards the end of the day, on the leads last shot(when the lead really, really had to go home of course) one of the magazines decided to stop working. This was due to the gear(s) jamming. I have not yet serviced it and do not know exactly what happened with them but when the film gets chewed up and slows down with an ugly churning nastiness and the other mag works fine, it kinda makes you wonder. Again, old unserviced equipment. Had to quickly trash that piece, short end the feed and change mags, oh well. All in all, it was a good day and am surprised by the image quality of the lenses for what they are. Not the best, but so much more than I expected. The 1st and 5th pic was shot on 5212, 2nd and 3rd on 5245(The EXR stock that stole my heart) a three year old S.E., 4th and 6th shot on 5205. The 250D and 100T were also S.E.'s, though not too old. Transfered on a Spirit to digi-beta. Well, that was my first experience with this ol' veteran. Definitely won't be the last. -Benjamin

What kind of fog juice did you use?

Thanks. I have bought a cheap 700W fog machine. I was thinking about putting some rosco fog fluid into it. I wonder if that's a bad idea...

Hello, I had just recently purchased a fog machine. A very cheap, holloween party, type fog machine. I didn't feel like going to studio-depot to buy a really expensive one. I know there are some good fog juices over at studio-depot, but what I'm wondering is what makes the bigger difference. Is there a certain way that the higher end machines disperse fog that would make even lowest-end fog fluid effective. Or is the fog-fluid what makes an effective effect. I know there are different types of fog fluids, like heavy or lite. What is your experience? Thanks. Benjamin