Simon Wyss

In 1988 a five-minutes-and-30-seconds 16-mm. film was begun, finished and screened in 1989. Its title is (German) Der verfilmte Stoff und seine Gestaltung dürfen nicht im Widerspruch zur geistigen Grundhaltung der Schweiz stehen. That phrase was part of the Federal law on film production in force then (since 1963). A translation would go like the filmed subject and its composition must not contradict the general mental position of Switzerland. The movie is black and white. An advocate, a politician, and a historian answer the question what is the general mental position of Switzerland?

Just to set a technical detail straight, it’s not lubricants that destroy plastic (worm) gears but the fact that all plastics shrink over time and when warmed. Being sleeves on metal cores these plastic worms crack while ageing.

You can remove the ocular which consists of one single lens or two, depending on the model you have. Caution, the retaining ring may be lacquered or glued in. Once out you can clean the ground surface, it stands perpendicular to the film. There is a prism with a silvered angled face, the front surface of which you can see and reach anytime. As long as you don’t remove the prism unit from its seat, nothing needs to be adjusted back. The silvered surface can be defective (corrosion).

35 is very expensive, if you digitise-scan the original and never project film. 35 is quite economic, if you have prints made and let an audience pay to see them. That’s what cinema was from 1895 to 200? Since you are feeling an urge to have a 35-mm. camera I’d suggest you look for a Bell & Howell Eyemo 71. With an Eyemo you have a rugged camera that doesn’t need electricity, it’s got a spring drive and can be hand-cranked; variable speed depending on the model (only two speeds with an early one): a professional lens mount that locates optics better than the PL mount (I can explain that); a claw that advances the film strictly in a straight line (nice on film), accepts negative and positive perforations; 160 degrees shutter opening; a bright and practical enough viewfinder with younger models (turret finder); a critical focuser with the younger spider turret models usable in conjunction with a so-called focusing alignment gauge for very accurate close-up and macro work; magazines and electric motors attachable with younger models. Prices are from $500 up depending on what comes with them. The most compact and lightweight mirror-shutter reflex finder cameras are ARRIFLEX and CINEFLEX. These let you make perfect pictures, too. There were spring motors for the CINEFLEX. Both ARRIFLEX and CINEFLEX afford a variant of the Eyemo lens mount, equally exact. Prices are between $1,500 and $3,000.

You have those loop size indications body-cast.

Film loop(s) way too large in that video, pity. A way lube oil is apt, what machinists use with manual lathes.

Simple, stay away from plastic. Pick all-metal products. If in doubt, choose the older. A 1926 Filmo 57 still works today. The Filmosound are quite robust projectors. Pour in oil, everything fine. Although the condensor was disposed of with the reflector lamp a tubular lamp design that allows retraction of condensor and access to the mirror is still useable. Perhaps the most important point about a projector is an open film path, a short film canal, just a design that lets you keep everything clean. A good lateral film guidance is important, too.

Additive printing with Red, Green, and Blue is preciser than subtractive where you have filters in play that let pass broader bands, so to say. The early (and still used) additive heads of printers split RGB from an incandescent lamp. That works out narrower bandwidths allowing for the finer differentiation. Bell & Howell introduced 50 steps or points of RGB lights control. When you look at the older colour filter systems you oftentime find Wratten filters of 0.025 log density graduation. Basically, that gives 120 steps (between log 0 and log 3) but since you have three light colours only 40 remain for each one of them. It’s even more complicated because of the side densities of the filters. Also, timers often used log 0.05 density variations. All in all about 20 steps were common. The youngest generation of additive printer light controls is based on RGB from light emitting diodes. These can put out light as narrow as within 10 nm (± 5 nm). Still more accurate is Laser. There you are within less than a nanometer, practically just one colour.

A Bolex 16mm camera is vague. It could be a 1926 Bolex or a 1976 Bolex. What you probably mean is a Paillard-Bolex H-16. These were sold between 1935 and 1969. There are many different models with such variants as a 190-degrees opening shutter, a deeply penetrating steel claw, 170-degrees opening shutter, a flung-on double claw, variable shutters of different open angles, the Standard models, reflex viewing models, single-port and three-ports turret models, those that accept a wild electric motor and those that a crystal controlled motor can be attached to. You have the 50- and 100-ft. spools H, the magazine H. Early models run slower, down to 8 fps, the younger ones to 12 fps. The very first series doesn’t have the critical focuser. For about ten years the Standard could also be wound through the spring core which allowed to expose the entire load without interruption. From January 1st, 1970 on you have Bolex products without the name Paillard. There was the Bolex 16 Pro, a different camera altogether. If I can invite directors and cinematographers to be a little bit preciser, more specific about a matter, that would help. Prices are out of control today. Do not pay more than £ 800 for any Paillard-Bolex H, whatever model it is (sans optics). Even models converted to S-16 aren’t worth more. And stay away from PL-mount modifications. I have seen bad things and clients who lost money. Sad stories.

Under the assumption that a Krasnogorsk 3 is properly working you can produce well exposed originals, negative or reversed, focused the way you want. The lens forms the image technically, no difference there between the cameras (movement character depending on exposure time put aside). You can install a Ciné-Velostigmat, f/1.5 on a Keystone K-56 and focus it or use it on a Doiflex 16 and focus it, you get the same image from identical film stock. That lens is a Biotar type. The Doiflex is a mirror reflex camera from Japan. More expensive lenses can give a better image but it is you who makes it. Don’t externalise too much.

I think the discussion is not complete without the question about the future of film projectors. The classical cinema does have a chance to survive but only in its purest form, i. e. when bringing the ingredients that video beamers don’t, carbon-arc light plus relatively simple lenses that transmit at least some of the ultraviolet of the arc and at the same time degrade the stark contrast of relatively dense prints. Screens should be of a reasonable size to the halls. What concerns printing, precision is vital. Everybody is used to technically completely steady images now, so shaky positives as I had to project them in the eigthies and nineties, fourth generation, is deadly. Why talk about film cameras when films are not properly projected?

With optical printing you can apply independent film movements meaning that a scene can be copied backwards as well as forward, parts or the whole can be accelerated or paced down. You can copy away a frame for standstills. The image can be rotated, flipped over, and combined with other images, plain or partially, through wipes and whatnot. Of course, printing light control is used, not only to adapt scenes to the overall picture but also to introduce colour distortions, over-saturation, desaturation, transitions from black and white to colours or the other way, in focus to out of focus. An objective lens introduces more contrast compared to contact printing. This must be addressed by special intermediate film stocks and trimming of processing. Some makes of optical printers are Depue, Debrie, Oxberry, Bell & Howell, Seiki, ARRI, Dunn. Somewhere between rather slow optical and fast continuous contact printing we have step-contact copying which gives best image steadiness and definition. It’s all about whether producers care about the public or not. IMAX threw the towel in. Recent 70-mm. positives such as for Hateful Eight seem to be continuously exposed ones. I take this opportunity to say that it’s time productions returned to cinema and give audiences a decent screen image via precision 35-mm. prints. It’s possible, I don’t know for certain, that Mike Todd had intermittent prints made of Oklahoma! What he did is to forbid popcorn where his productions ran.

The original value is compromised by a conversion to Super-16 of which nothing is said. An H-16 RX-5 body can be sold for $400 maximum, if the double prism is intact. The long prism’s silvering can be damaged. The spring is 60 years old hands down. Many things more may be impaired. Film guiding frame, clutch group’s ratchet wheel, claws, set screws in shutter group, governor, ocular, . . . It’s just bold what some folks are trying.

I’d suggest that you keep your camera inside a tough plastic bag that has three openings, one for the lens and two for the finder. Close the bag in with strong rubber bands around the eyepiece, the finder lens, and the taking lens. Seal the objective with a glass skylight filter and some Vaseline in the threads. Use an electric motor instead of the spring drive, batteries should not go weak in the warm desert. Keep two more such bags ready. Magazines will help to reduce the number of loading procedures. Mags also within the bag. Manipulate through the bag. Underneath just a hole for the tripod screw to come through.