Simon Wyss

I need to have a look at a lens in any case. Your Ciné Ektar might take two hours of continuous work. The time of parts lying in chemicals is of course not counted. PM, please

https://www.filmvorfuehrer.de/topic/31948-die-leicina-ist-60/ First publication of my article, a translation is being prepared. It’s going to be the ONLY automatic camera with crystal control to the motor for Double-Eight film. A Paillard-Bolex H-8-4 with the ESM offers crystal speed accuracy, too, but is way bigger, heavier, and more expensive. The Leicina 8 S has a low optical axis, a straight-pull claw, a ground glass can easily be added to the finder for critical focusing, and the built in 15 mm lens is very good.

I’d love to bring your lens back to life. My latest Kodak Ciné Ektar was a 102 mm that I could revive. I assume you have the f/1.4 since the f/1.9 has rare-earth glass that brings a tint. The f/1.4 is a seven elements design, about on par with the f/1.5 Cinor.

Yes, I will. First of all the turret plate is the original, so lenses are still centered on the film middle line, not onto the new wider frame. Grebenstein in Germany used to shift the central turret post in order to take the lens mount threads 1,1 mm to the left, seen from behind the camera towards the scene. Another solution would be to swap the disc with a new one that has the ports more outwardly on the radius. That again is not simple because Paillard-Bolex (or whoever did that at the time) have cut the threads so that the entry is at the twelve o’clock position. Lenses whose index line is oriented to half past one (45 degrees downward) can be interchanged among the turret ports and retain the orientation. Next, the aperture, machined out obviously, was left blank metal. They wouldn’t even grab a sharpie and blacken the inner rim. Ghost frames were the result, that’s the designation in my language by meaning, the client showed me some footage on his laptop computer he brought with him, scanned on an Arrilaser. Thirdly the sprocket drums seemed to have the teeth shortened but I didn’t measure that out since the client took the camera with him swiftly after I had disclosed to him what loss he was facing. When I tried the camera last week I did what I always do, then under the eyes of the owner, I used it like anybody uses such a camera. Wound the spring, closed the loop formers (where I encountered the old only half-solved problem of an almost hold sometimes), cut the film diagonally in the built-in knife (to feel whether that’s still sharp), and let the film thread mechanism lace up. In the lower loop the film derailed, I had to let the release go. Without a doubt the film guides were not aligned. Fourth, the very outermost maybe ten percent of the image width showed vignetting, depending on the focal length of the lenses used, to be seen clearly with the footage. When I peered onto the aperture from the front I realised that the reflex prism block cut into the Super-16 image. To remedy this the glass would have needed to be unglued from the bracket, shifted by only half to one millimeter, and cemented back in. One can work on the holder as well but from my experiences with the unit it’s better to leave its bores intact. The camera was in an unusable state. The young man didn’t tell me what price he payed to acquire it (I wouldn’t ask) but he unveiled what he payed to Bolex International. To sum it up, a correct conversion costs around about $ 2,000. One must also know that a new pressure plate becomes necessary with the H cameras because the original one is too narrow to press the film down on the half millimeter of rail that bears it on one side. I have seen two H cameras with aperture plates filed for Ultra-16 and listened to the cant of the owner in my shop (six years ago now), that image steadiness was poor. I remember to have shown him that he not only jeopardised steadiness but caused a focus issue, too. A wreckage.

Are you sure you want an SBM and a Super-16 conversion from Bolex International? The SBM has an ugly bayonet that makes an adapter necessary for C-mount lenses. Bolex International conversions to S-16 are incomplete, even inaccurate. I have just met with such a camera. I confess to be a 3-to-4-image aspect ratio aficionado and advocate. The first fifty years of cinema were three to four.

Can you handle a micrometer? It would be a measurement of the FFD from lens seat, the rim ahead of the mount thread, to aperture plate (lateral rails). Be careful to not scratch the rails. You should read .8175" or 20,7645 mm. 20,75 mm is good.

Perfect!

Bolex International aren’t busy but abandonded. Marc Ueter has left the company. Otello Diotallevi retired in 2018 and continued to work a little until past May. The new owner, Hugo Diaz, isn’t responding to E-Mails because he is alone. He has no idea of what he bought with the share package on August 28th, 2019. The website is nil. Now he’s taking summer holidays, it is said that he will answer question in September. Your camera should of course react to changing speed settings. Aapo Lettinen, member here, can help you best. I do only mechanical and optical work (and no Super-8).

I’d like to make a suggestion, that you change to 9 V batteries.

The Arriflex 16 SR 3 has a register pin that locks the film during exposure. Your camera needs to be inspected by a technician. Even if a loop was too tight something like that shouldn’t have occurred. Too tight loops can pull the pressure plate up which results in out-of-focus images.

and make sure that the spring motor is run down before that operation.

The take-up spindle has a gear that must mesh with an internal gear on the spring barrel. If the main plate isn’t correctly seated, the gearing is not functional there.

What sensor? You have a film camera. The exposure aperture is dirty. Use a soft toothbrush to clean the film race.

Well, perhaps half of them. The British who tend to express themselves through understatement are especially difficult to classify. I could limit myself to I am direct but then what about Italians and Greeks? Never got insulted by English. They are simply too playful, that horde of gamblers and musicians. I love them for leaving the EU.