Aapo Lettinen

I can't comment on that colour process but did you load the film correctly to the spiral? the uneven end result may indicate that the film layers were not correctly on the spiral and touched each other during developing. The spots between perfs could have been the emulsion side just contacting the spiral groove too much. I have found out that it is way easier to avoid this if always loading the film emulsion out on the spiral. The outer edge of the groove is slanted to make loading easier and the inner edge is straight to avoid slipping out of the groove. If the emulsion contacts the straight edge then it leaves stains because the film does not fully develop at the contact points, but if the emulsion is on the slanted side then it should not contact anything and should develop evenly

it is possible to install a new mount there but you need to open the camera to be able to align the hole correctly so that it does not affect the speed regulator bearing assembly and for you to be able to remove the metal dust and filings which would otherwise fall into the camera generating lots of problems afterwards. I like to use a separate quick release plate between the camera and rods so that I am able to move the camera back and forth compared to the rods and the tripod plate. This type of system would work in your application too

does not work on this particular battery issue but I am working on converting the Leicina S light meter to work with a simple voltage regulator so that it uses the same main battery than the actual camera motor. No need for separate light meter battery anymore. It needs wiring a small additional circuit board to the battery holder wires inside the camera (or can be done with external wiring but it will look ugly) . anyway, if you are diy oriented one can do this kind of solution pretty easily and the parts cost something like 3 dollars or so

normally you would use your dominant hand to operate the camera so that the control of the camera is more precise (that tends to matter more than precise control of the focus wheel). What is left over is your left hand which is used to control the focus if you are right handed. If having a zoom controller you would normally use your dominant hand to operate that as well (to make it more precise? at least it is easier to operate it with the same hand that is operating the camera on sticks. the other hand is left free to operate the focus if needed) there is no "rules" how you should always do things when operating but if you are right handed it tends to be easier to operate the camera with that hand. Learning to do it one way and then trying to change it later may be difficult so most people choose the left hand for focus

normal room temperature or air conditioned might do for one month if you are not picky about the fog levels but high temperatures are not OK even for short periods. If you are not going to underexpose it there is probably not much issues though. Clip test will tell you if it's up to the specs you would expect from it. The problem is that you have no way to know how it was stored for that one month and how many x-rays it went through. Either you need to test it, or you can just trust that there will be some kind of image on it and just shoot it and not worry about it. Uncertain shipping conditions is one of the reasons why I like to order larger amount of stock at a time even if I only need the rest of it next year. This way I can shoot one test roll and expect that the rest rolls in the batch are in similar condition than the test roll was. Shooting one test roll out of 2 roll batch is not very ideal but shooting one roll out of 10 or 15 is pretty OK deal

Hi you all! I am negotiating with a film manufacturer for a special order of 2R perforated 16mm film stock which could be used in older cameras (16mm film with perforations on both sides of the film). I am specifically interested in getting the ORWO N75 film in this format for it being a modern stock with high speed rating and can be developed with simple b/w negative process. The film is relatively affordable as well. How many of you would be interested in ordering this type of stock in 400ft rolls? And if so, how many rolls approximately? I am trying to figure out if this batch could be realised as a special order (50 rolls or more ordered so that they could arrange a new slitting of a master roll for us) or if it is necessary to wait for the next scheduled slitting of master rolls which will take some time to happen. So I really need the information of how many people are interested in getting the N75 film in 2R format and how many rolls they would approximately need.

I will test if I could modify the Kiev-16UE to work on Crystal Sync as well. We'll see how it goes. People have asked a usable but affordable electric crystal sync 16mm camera and I believe the Kiev could work for this because the lenses are affordable. We'll see how it goes in couple of months when I get the test cameras here to experiment with them. The goal is to make the final system with couple of Crystal Sync speeds for the maximum of 600 euros including the camera body and some lenses. We'll see if it is possible ?

For various reasons I changed the target to modifying the Kiev-16UE instead. It has similar style of lenses but it already has some kind of electric motor so no need to manufacture lots of precision mechanical parts to get it working. This should keep the price of the final system in tolerable range of about 500 - 600 euros or so. I already purchased couple of 16UE cameras to test this and to build one for my own use. If anyone else is interested, please let me know by PM. So the goal is to build a usable Kiev-16UE with couple of crystal sync speeds and which would cost 600 euros including the camera body and some lenses.

I don't know that controller at all but sometimes there may be problems with the connectors or cables. they are easy enough to check so you could do that by yourself. if there is no cable/connector problems, then it should be sent to someone who could repair those control boxes. The camera should run at 25fps without the control box (at least all the SR2's I know of do so) so if you are fine with 25fps then it should not be a problem to run it without the box

it may be changing to the simple like-dislike now when the votes are not counted under the user profile. So maybe it is just changing to the more traditional "I don't like your profile pic so I'll downvote all your posts" type of system which the Internet is known for :)

the way I see it, voting on this forum is NOT working like "I like this = upvote, I dislike this = downvote) . But it is more like: - "I like this post or it contains lots of useful information" = upvote - "This post insults other members and/or purposefully tries to spread false and misleading, potentially harmful information even when the member who wrote it has been notified about this before" = downvote - "This post contains no useful information at all and is only a personal opinion stated as a absolute fact without any reasoning" = downvote or neutral . Though if it is funny enough post and does not insult anybody, one can upvote it if one likes

Motor sold. The camera body may be available later with different type of motor.

Coming soon: my self designed and assembled Crystal Sync controller for the Konvas 15EPSS motor. I am assembling the circuit boards now ? It has a 16x2 display and lots of selectable speeds. All speeds are Crystal Sync and it is connected to the original handle motor of the Konvas 15EPSS via cable but it does not use any parts of the original Soviet control box. The original speed-regulated Konvas control boxes are rare in working condition so this update enables using all the cameras which have the motor itself but the original control box is broken or missing. I will post images when I have the boards installed inside the new control box and the switches are in place ?

if it works like it did couple of years ago you would need to purchase and install Apple Compressor to your mac and then the prores export should work. All my macs already have this installed so cannot test but the Compressor is not expensive if you won't need fcpx (that is pretty affordable too for a edit program) It is possible to transfer Resolve projects between computers so if someone you know has a installation which has the Prores codecs you can borrow it for making the final exports and do everything else (the time consuming editing etc.) on your own system even if it does not have the paid codecs installed. You only need those paid Prores codecs for exporting, NOT for playback and you don't need to export with the same computer you do the editing with. transferring projects may need some relinking but that is normally fast and easy

Prores export codecs normally come with the Apple Compressor if I remember correctly. So they are not natively installed on all Macs. For reading Prores you don't necessarily need Mac if your edit software can read it (for example Resolve can)

davinci resolve can import prores without problems and it can export it as well if your operating system and installed codecs support it. So your operating system needs to have Prores codecs installed to be able to export them with Resolve. But importing and editing them in the software is possible without the codecs (for example you are able to edit prores files on a Windows computer running Resolve and without the codecs. But exporting prores is not possible on that system. If using a Hackintosh one can have multiple operating systems installed and have Resolve on all of them and share the databases so that one can for example edit the project on Linux or Windows but do the exporting on OSX to be able to export the project to Prores master. ProresRAW is not supported by Resolve at the moment. It is a licensing issue between Apple and Blackmagic... no technical reason but only about the licensing costs being too high for Blackmagic

if the camera was cheap I would personally ask for partial refund like 50% refund and then repair the camera by myself (that is just me, other persons would do differently and I like to open cameras just for fun to see what is inside). If the DIY repair would work well, then I saved lots of money. If it didn't, I still would have 50% of the original sale price to spend on professional repairs.

if the seller gets difficult just use the return options on eBay. Broken/defective or Not as described. Most sellers are helpful and care about their feedback but there is always one or two who just want to take the money and run... If you still want to keep the camera you can ask for partial refund and then get the camera professionally repaired. If the seller does not want it back then they would most likely agree for partial refunds even if the price they get is much lower

Well, I'm sure that most of us could make more money nowadays by manufacturing "key pharmaceutical ingredients" than by making movies :)

I started to design the two speed version for my own use. Very simple system which is a minimum parts design and uses all smd parts to avoid drilling. It has a simple jumper to select between 16 and 24fps and the auto exposure compensates for the speed change. I will post images sometime later when building the new prototype. Will need to test the circuit design with breadboards first to fine tune it ?

I am going to build a two-speed version for my own use soon ( 16fps and 24fps) and we can then check again if anyone is interested in these cameras :) Posting sync sound footage out of the camera is not a practical way to determine how it is working. One really sees the functionality of the crystal sync system only by using correct measuring equipment and by comparing the reference crystal signal against the motor speed sensor signal when the camera is running in various conditions. The thing is, I am measuring 1/10th frame differences in speed stability and one can't really see them in the final footage because, well, they are fractions of a frame, not full frame differences. That is why I like to post breadboard tests with the oscilloscope shown instead of making some random film tests which really would not show any difference. To me, eyeballing the sound sync from camera footage is pretty pointless and only wastes time and money but if I am making this type of test at some point then it is of course possible to see the end results :)

To answer the original question I asked when starting this thread: THERE IS NO DEMAND FOR CUSTOM SYNC SOUND MOTORS. or more specifically, there is no demand for any kind of custom sync sound motors which would have any commercial value. These are interesting projects but most people making them seem to be just very interested making them just for the sake of it, OR they are selling other camera repair services and the Crystal Sync motors are just a way to get more customers for them. For these reasons I am only developing stuff for my own use from now on. If the systems happen to be useful for someone else, then it is of course possible to make one or two crystal sync motors for others. But I don't have high hopes on that. Maybe I am just getting tired of the continuous bashing and disinformation and reverse engineering and everything. The original idea was to help people to restore their old non-working cameras to full working condition with updated electronics and everything so that they would have more tools available to shoot great art pieces on film. Maybe I was just too idealistic or something. And I have learned the hard way that it is not the best idea in the world to try to help people all the time. You will just get yourself burned in the process and not getting much in return. There is endless possibilities available but no one wanting to use them. That is how I see it. By all means, let the film die then. Just shoot digital if that is the only medium which is allowed to evolve, the only medium where it is allowed to have new tools and ideas every year and out of the box thinking is encouraged to get new end results. Shooting on film is the thing of the past because no one is willing to let the format evolve to something else which it has never been before but which it very well could be. Basically your own fault then. I think I'm going to continue my ROV project for a while and then shoot some film again. Concentrating on my own projects from now on. Not trying to be some kind of childish hero who would save all the unusable film cameras out there. That was a stupid idea anyway :)

it is mostly the producer's job to rip the script apart if it does not look to work well and something needs to be changed. In small budget stuff where the director is producing by himself it is very challenging because there is no one to criticise the script and thus every weaknesses are left untouched

I think it would probably be easiest for me to convert the variable speed motor using a external control box with the crystal sync electronics inside and possible to arrange different battery options if needed. I was thinking something like a 6-speed small and compact version without display or a larger one which has a display and from 12 to 16 speed presets. Could be an interesting project when I get my Konvas 15EPSS crystal control finished :) making these is pretty time consuming and costs a bit but it is fully possible. I think there is others converting these motors too (not sure) but you can always PM me later if you are interested in modifying the varispeed motor and I can look at it when having time :)

They seem to pop up on ebay every now and then. There seems to be a jensen motor on ebay at the moment but no tobin ones. You can try the forum and also ask the Motion Picture Technology group on facebook, there is surely someone who has spare ones. Btw if you want to convert the constant speed or the varispeed motor to crystal sync sometime later I could be interested investigating the possibilities for that. I am sure that there is others who already have working solution for that but I am building a external box system which should be adaptable to the task