Aapo Lettinen

I don't know that particular camera well but sounds like a mag issue to me (used 35-3 and 16bl which have similar type mags), if the lower loop tightens then the film must be slipping on the take-up side sprocket. have you tried with different magazine, did it do the same with it? if so, then it could also be the camera side gear which drives the magazine

you can measure the cylindrical (actual mount) part length of your lenses and then find info how long lenses the pl-ef adapter supports which you are planning to use

it should work if the PL lens's cylindrical part of the mount is not too long. not all lenses are compatible with PL lens to EF adaptors because they have too long mount. You can get PL lens to C-mount camera direct adaptor from Visual Products but it costs a bit more than the PL lens--->EF-->C-mount route

yeah, I can highly recommend them :) They also custom make stuff, like lens adapters. I just got them made a Pentacon Six to OCT18 adapter for me so I can use my Zeiss Jenas with Konvas cameras. There is also the option of using a Foton zoom lens, you can get very nice add-on PL adapter from which clamps to the intermediate mount of the lens. the Foton has quite a lot chromatic aberration however, if this is a problem then primes are much better option. there is also a shop in Russia which converts oct19 to PL, somewhere near St Petersburg if I remember correctly. If you know a lens technician your best bet could be adapting ai-s Nikkors to PL, they are very nice lenses in general. You have to rebuild about half of the mechanics because you have to replace the back part and iris controls to be able to fit the lens inside PL body

Have you asked different shipping options, I think at least the parcel services like ups could handle chemicals shipment. In europe they also use these services for developing chemicals (for examle wittner uses ups but I don't know if its ground ups or air cargo). Are you developing stills or motion footage, if you order for example 5 or 10 kits I'm sure they will arrange shipping for you :)

the white led stripes I have used draw about 2.9 amperes max per 5m length, this is 60led/m with the bigger leds. it's about 35 watts per 5m which is not that much, you can do a little better with 120led/m stripes but their output and color varies even more than the 60/m versions. These were for cool white stripes but I believe you could get somewhat similar results with rgb stripes. You could install two stripes side by side to get more output . It is noteworthy that the Chinese led stripes have HUGE variations in output, durability, color reprod, color temperature, overall quality and it is best to first test the possible candidates and then order the rest of the leds making sure they are the exactly same model and batch than the tested one. The Chinese ebay sellers seem to sell batch at time basis and if you're not quick enough you may miss the good ones and it may take some time to get even remotely matching alternative. as said, the Chinese stuff has huge variations and they don't usually match at all unless they are all from exactly the same production batch :blink: This should not be a problem if you purchase the stripes locally. then you could also test them out (bring a multimeter/amp meter with you and you can test how much they approximately draw power) :)

you can at least order it from Germany if it's not overly expensive to ship to Mexico (it very well may be :unsure: ) maybe it would be practical if you need multiple kits or could share the shipping costs with other persons in your area who also need Tetenal

you can maybe use a customized streak filter for the effect. if you are shooting the light separately in small scale and composing it later you could maybe hide the light's power cord by fitting it inside a small black tube which is protruding out of the black background (the whole pole is behind the light source so you can just hide it behind the bright bulb :)

I think the rifas are very good for doc use etc. when you have to carry your own gear. Like Robin mentioned they have to be completely cooled down before you can fold them... Another thing is that the bulbs seem to be quite sensitive when switched on so you have to be very careful if you have to quikly move them between takes. When wrapping you should basically first switch the rifas off, then wrap every other gear and fold the rifas when every other gear is in bags and ready to go ...

you can replace the pills with relatively similar looking candy pastilles in wider shots so they can be "swallowed" (it can be very unpleasant for the actor/actress however if you choose to use very strong pastilles, for example some strong menthols and they have to put quite a lot of them into mouth :wacko: ) One can get empty gelatin capsules which can be filled with for example powdered sugar or other harmless substance and even swallowed if needed, although I think it could be quite harmful if you swallow dozens of them at the same time <_<

yeah, definitely a stunt department task. safety harness + cleverly hided wire supporting the actor + fake rope which is not dangerous for the actor and does not support his actual weight. if the wire or harness can accidentally be seen in couple of frames it can be masked out later in post if the performance is otherwise perfect. your stunt coordinator will know how to archive this scene safely and efficiently :)

the viewfinder optics: (image from http://www.bolexcollector.com/cameras/h16reflex.html ) There isn't much which could be causing the perceived low brightness other than the possible filter, something wrong with the ground glass or something in the light path which dims the image, maybe dust or other stuff on the optical parts. Bolex viewfinders are quite dim in general though (about 20% of the light going to viewfinder compared to nearly 100% of a standby mirror reflex camera)

the kern 18-86 is a very basic zoom lens for this camera, quite ok lens but little soft and heavy and has square bokeh and a bit too much CA. the kern primes are very good with the bolex, if you don't specifically need zoom lens i'd recommend getting at least two primes, at least the 25/1.4RX and something from 10 to 16mm range. If you plan to shoot a lot of fiction with it, it might be better to get some lenses which are easier to use with follow focus, for example Nikon AI-S lenses with c-mount adapter :)

there seems to be holding screws on place on the other c-ports of the turret, so you have to remove them first before you can rotate the turret, maybe it's best to remove the lens also. your rubber eyecup seems to be missing btw, you should get one for preventing light leaks through the viewfinder

that looks like H16RX0, exactly the same model I have. Your viewfinder shutter seems to be on (the small silver lever on the viewfinder assembly just over the frame counter) , have you tried to move it back and forth? the shooting position is the lever down, facing backwards. It this does not help you should check the prism assembly: rotate the turret so that the prism is exposed. remove the filter frame and then carefully flip the prism to the side (be careful because the prism frame is spring loaded and can hit the side of the turret with force) please take a picture of the prism assembly when turned on the side so we can see the ground glass on the top of the prism. you can also try to see through the viewfinder when the prism is on place but the take-up lens is removed and see if the image is now any brighter

for low budget and one man band use a dslr may be a very viable option and much better choice than for example arricam system. with small and lightweight camera you can capture moments which would be lost if you had to have big crew and one or two vans full of equipment with you all the time. in big movies they can mix formats if a shots can be better archived with dslr but that is usually just a couple of single shots here and there, the shots which could have been very difficult or impossible to get with a cine camera

5D mark2 has the same sensor size than Vistavision camera but the overall image quality is maybe 1/20th or less compared to Vistavision... a dslr is not suitable as a main camera for medium/high budget use and trying to use it for that purpose can easily cost more than renting a better camera with proper cine lenses, for example Alexa or Amira. even nowadays when "good enough" is enough for some producers they definitely care if a camera trashes lots of takes, is difficult to maintain and unreliable and maybe also needs more lighting gear and crew to handle the additional gear (very expensive!)

if the footage does not contain audio it can be easily conformed to whichever framerate the client uses. this leads to speeding up/slowing down the footage however so depending on the subject matter it could be better to archive a little bit of slow motion by shooting higher framerate (29.97 or 30fps at least) I think. but if you also use the footage for your own projects and the original sound is important it might be better to shoot the native framerate you would use, 25fps in your situation. If the slow motion is a benefit for you then it would be ideal to shoot as high framerate as possible and just conform it later for stock sales and other uses :)

with today's film cameras the lens set is usually far more expensive than camera bodies, so you should maybe invest in lenses which you can also use with your next camera body. you can easily spend more on good rx lenses than the SR2 costs especially because the rx lenses have to be S16 compatible. And I'd say the orientable viewfinder is a very big benefit over Bolex. If you decide to upgrade to SR later you have to sell the Bolex and maybe 2k or 3k worth of rx lenses because you can't use them with the new body and you'll need the money for PL lenses. as said, the 100ft daylight loads can be easily used with sr2 or sr3, the only thing is that you can't use the remaining footage indicator and the daylight spool may create additional noise. It may be much more cheaper to use 400ft loads or clearance stock spooled down to 100ft dl spools if you plan to collect lots of stock before shooting (though spooling them down by yourself may add a little bit of dust to the films depending on how good conditions you can arrange for the operation)

I can also add to the Bolex list that the viewfinder image is relatively dim compared to spinning mirror cameras and the fixed viewfinder can lead to problems if you are shooting high/low angles / anything other than from normal eye level. I meant this adapter when mentioning PL to C conversion: http://www.visualproducts.com/storeProductDetail02.asp?productID=1045&Cat=8&Cat2=135#bigPic maybe more suitable for ACL because of the RX issues mentioned with certain lenses. About the Ultra 16…. I really don't see the benefit of it compared to Super 16 unless you have a camera which has re-centering difficulties or rollers which are difficult to modify to S16. A good quality S16 camera would be much better option I think, ideally in PL mount or maybe Aaton if you'd like use lens adapters. something with very stable image like SR3 or XTR Prod would be ideal. with old lenses you can easily have lots of CA which may be a big problem if you are planning theatrical release for big screen (where the 4K/5K scanning really benefits compared to normal 2K option) so modern lenses would be ideal, although may be very expensive if you really are planning to resolve more than 2K

you can add PL mount lenses to C-mount camera using for example Visual Products PL--->C adapter, but I think all the screw type mounts are non-ideal for cine use because it makes using follow focus systems more complicated and the Bolex turret and the c-mount itself is not very sturdy construction for for example remote focus use. But yes, you can use Ultra16 lenses or Master Primes with Bolex cameras if necessary or attach a Angenieux 24-290 to it B)

if you consider arri sr I would buy a set which is already converted to S16, they are not that much more expensive and save a lot of time and hassle and probably also money

you can use 100ft daylight spools on the feed side of an SR camera (the spindle is the same type and size, you just have to remove the core adapter and leave the roller arm to the loading position where it does not touch the flanges of the daylight spool) The daylight spools create unnecessary additional noise however so I don't see the point of using them with SR unless you have remaining stock inventory on daylight spools or you want to load without changing bag. On take-up side you still need to use cores so unloading still needs the changing bag. the camera doesn't mind if you spool down the raw film to 100ft loads on core, they work just like any other load. you just have to load the mags more often if you use loads this short

I have intended using this kind of very lightweight plastic tubing for smoke effects but haven't had opportunity to test it yet (this kind of tube seems to be quite hard to find from anywhere if you don't know exactly where it is sold etc.) http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-8-6-4-Layflat-polythene-tubing-lay-flat-poly-tube-500-gauge-per-metre-/151560553024?pt=UK_Packaging_Materials&var=&hash=item2349b68240 there is lots of different versions of temporary foldable tubes, they use this kind of ventilation in construction sites, some outdoor concerts, mining and so on. should be lightweight at least :)

some stocks, for example Foma, have a silver rem jet layer which needs to be bleached to be able to see the image. Almost all the other stocks can be processed to negative if desired