Paco Sweetman

If I was to come across problems then wouldn't it be better for Arri to test for registration problems and then be able to amend them. I'm inclined to bring it to Arri because it's there camera make and I they would be able to give the camera a clean / once over. I don't feel that comfortable doing it myself, as I have only a limited amount of time on my purchase insurance for the camera. I'd like to make sure that it is in working order and in as good a condition as the seller said it was. What should I ask Arri to check / service for if I do bring it to them?

Do you think it's worth me getting Arri to have a look over it before I go shoot a 100ft test? To Collamate the lenses I think the engineer said to me on the phone? And he suggested to do a test where he would shoot and image, then rewind the film and re-shoot the same image to check for steadyness?

Hello all, this is my second posting. I left film school 5 years ago and have been working as an editor since. I also make low budget films with a collective (28 shorts and 6 features, and counting) as their editor. www.collectivevision.co.uk I bought an Arri ST off of Ebay. It's register number is 12400. It came with 6 lenses as well. Five are Cooke lenses and one is a Zeiss. I want to shoot the start of my first feature using it. I have a friend who is going to DP it, but I want to learn to shoot on film as I've always been a bit of closet-DP. Now the Question: I spoke to Arri UK and they said they would service it and the lenses, or do tests on it. But I got lost in the stuff the engineer was saying to me, he was very nice about it, but my lack of experience showed. Can anyone tell me what to ask to have done to it? Also, as a sub note, does it do crystal sync? I have a motor with it and the seller said it did 25fps, but I didn't know if that meant it was crystal sync. I know Tobin motor's are crystal sync, but I didn't want to lay out for one until I'd asked you lot. It might seem stupid just going out and buying a camera, but I figured it was the only way I'd learn, even renting an Arri SR3 is well out of my league. Thanks for any help advice as well. I have found www.arri16s.com and are reading as much info as possible off of that. Paco

Hi all. I've just bought my first 16mm camera, an ARRI ST. I am planning on shooting the first section of my feature on it. I've been given an unopened 400ft roll of Ektachrome 7240 single perf by a friend, who bought it around 2004, as a present to shoot the film on. I'd like to use the reversal stock for something as he admits that he probably will never. I have found a lab that another friend has mentioned called Andec Filmtechnik, in Germany to process it, then I was going to get a best light transfer in London to Digibeta. My only worries are: a) I don't have a 400ft mag at the moment, so I'm worried about destroying the film. Is it possible to get a lab to cut it down and put it onto 100ft daylight loading spools? B) what happens if the film is f*cked? Can I get it clip tested? It hasn't been opened at all, but it also hasn't been kept in a fridge. Thanks so much for any help you can advise on. I'm going to shoot my feature on film and HDV. So many people have told me that I'm an idiot to buy a film camera and shoot celluloid...