Simon Wyss

It’s a pity that so many players don’t understand the thing about film lengths. Everyone needs additional footage for threading up a camera. After initial cemented-on paper leaders the raw stock manufacturers changed to the simpler solution of more stock for the purpose. So a 400-foot portion measures something between 406 and 415 feet. The manufacturers give different amounts. Verne and Sylvia Carlson published numbers in their PROFESSIONAL CAMERAMAN’S HANDBOOK for Agfa-Gevaert, Fujifilm, Eastman-Kodak, and Ilford. The unwritten base of a fruitful cooperation between cinematographers and those who process motion-picture film is the nominal length. It should be respected by both parties, that is no more than 4000 frames exposed on a 100-ft. roll. It takes that little discipline to stop shooting when the counter reaches the mark. The lab people should respect the nominal length as well. A few additional frames on both ends left intact, then spacer added. If the exposed length exceeds the nominal length, we have an ever-increasing affair. I don’t know the right expression in English. Michael Raso should be aware of these intricacies and take care that you can expose 2000 frames with a 50-foot magazine. By the way, there are a number of 50-ft. spool cameras for 16-mm. film.

I hate Super-8. One point about the format, however, is outstanding and I acknowledge it, the image is vertically centered to the perforation hole. Therefore splices are full-area, no hole is bisected, same as with 35-mm. or 65-mm. film. You may want to take advantage of that fact by making cement splices. A good wet splicer is worth its money, take care of it, have perfectly running film which you can also have thoroughly cleaned by ultrasonic equipment.

It’s 160 degrees with all models except 71-Speed which had 18 degrees on request. 71-S runs at 64 fps only.

Lens coatings never turn yellowish, some sorts of glass do, namely thorium-oxyde alloys that contain traces of cerium oxyde. That goes brown-yellow. The Cine Ektar 25 mm, f/1.4, is a Schneider formula. The Hawk-Eye works made a few ciné triplets. Anastigmat, later dubbed Cine Ektanon 15 mm, f/2.7; Anastigmat 20 mm, f/3.5; Anastigmat 2 inch, f/3.5; Sharper than triplets are four-elements lenses. Modern Petzval designs are surprising, for instance the Bausch & Lomb Animar 26 mm, f/1.9. Another good four-glasser is the Ernostar concept besides the all-time classic Tessar. Tele-Tessar are fantastic. Zeiss had the 18 cm, f/6.3, in a mount that takes only a quarter turn to pull through the focus range from infinity to 2,5 meters (8 ft 3 in). Cleanest image else through fine grain stock, camera with good steadiness on rigid support, coated lens, sunshade, no filters, accurate focusing, and only little to no overexposure. A medium dense film projected with enough light yields the cleaner image than everything else. Of course you have a projection lens in the game but there again very good sharpness can be had with four-glass designs. The serious projectionist is equipped with a spyglass.

Roughly one stop. The Beaulieu mirror shutter contraption has a just shy of 100 degrees equivalent exposure. There are Single-8 cameras with 230 degrees shutter opening angle.

That’s today’s plot. The camera most likely never saw a service since 1962. It takes an investment now for future use. You don’t expect a car that old to roll out of a barn just like that, do you? The K, by the way, stands for Kern & Co., Aarau, an optical company.

Yes, timing between claw and shutter is off. Another camera that has been tinkered with. Repair job

One very good question. As a former lab owner I had always wondered about that. Nothing in this country Perhaps France, Italy? USA. International Motion Picture Almanac to begin somewhere

A contact duplicate represents a moment in time, reprographed on suitable stock, nota bene, an integer full-surface photograph, frame by frame. If done properly, under the pressure of a glass block or similar onto microfilm, quality loss is minimal. An electronic scan means denial of the artefact, you step away from the physical photograph, only binary coded data are delt with. Immaterialisation takes place. In the case of the film moving continuously while being scanned, quality loss can be considerable.

You’d need a flange depth gauge plus indicator or a measuring instrument, metal shims of 0.0005" thickness or less, and the fitting tools for all the narrow-slot screws and more. That’s why there are active camera technicians like Dom and others.

You can give me the Beaulieu for a cleaning of the finder optics. If it doesn’t have to be Beaulieu, I can adjust an Ambol Cine-Focus for you on a Paillard-Bolex H-16 with Switar 25 mm, f/1.4. That’s a split-image rangefinder coupled to the lens, very precise. You have a 15 times magnification of the scene with a Bell & Howell Filmo 70-DA and the later models. The lens is rotated on the turret to one side of the camera, after focusing to the other for exposure. The Filmo’s critical focuser is used with glasses or contacts. Yet another solution may be a reflex zoom lens with a split-image focusing screen incorporated, a Pan-Cinor by Berthiot f. ex.

503 frames is short of normal, it should be around 648 but possibly the frame counter slips. A photo of the finder will allow us to tell you the enlargement factor. My advice: put money aside for an overhaul or sell it to buy an other model. Maybe you take to a standard model that can be fitted with regular C-mount lenses. Optical freedom

The sidefinder belongs to it. In dim light you don’t see much through the reflex finder. The H cameras are more demanding than one might assume. I wish you joy with the equipment and a tripod.

One thing is already clear, the 16 mm lens you can only use stopped down to f/4 or more, wider open images will be out of focus. Below 50 mm of focal length and f/3.3 the influence of the reflex double-prism (astigmatism and prismatic dysfocus) is noticeable. Next I can tell you that you don’t need to disengage the spring while the camera is not in use. To run the spring down, though, is a wise move. How much did you pay for the package, if I may ask?

From an emulsion batch several master rolls can be coated. These rolls get cut into parts, two, three or four of shorter lengths than a master roll. Then a part is cut into strips which still measure up to 6000, 4000 or 2000 feet. Finally, after perforation, units are cut of useful lengths that fit camera magazines or spools.

-I know a number of Regular 8-mm. projectors that outperform the vast majority of Super-8 projectors. They have a higher light-dark ratio, better mechanics, and sometimes better lenses. What is not on the market is a clear-base low-speed panchromatic black-and-white reversal stock. Fomapan R is an ISO 100 film reverse processed. Ektachrome is an ISO 100 film E-6 processed. From 1932 to 1961 Double-Eight stocks were ISO 10 to 40. Early Kodachrome had 10 ASA*. Panatomic-X reversal ASA 32, Agfa Isopan ISS ASA 64. Gevaert Microgran ASA 40 (27 Scheiner). In view of 400 times magnification upon projection (easily) and many camera lenses with stops not beyond f/16 something like Adox CMS 20 would suit well. It might thus be worthwhile to contact Mirko Böddecker of Fotoimpex for a talk about cooperation. I would be willing to think about manufacturing a small butt welder for 8-mm. film in case polyester-base CMS 20 comes as 2 × 8. ______________________________________ * At the change from DIN/10-ASA to a new ASA system about a doubling of nominal speed came into being, therefore ISO and ASA figures cannot be held against each other across the 1961 line.

There are a few things to be set correctly. The shutter should be halted with its leading edge one to two millimeters above the aperture in the TIME function when side release is held to front; The shutter should cover the aperture entirely before the claw begins to exert pressure on a hole edge; The shutter should not free the aperture before the claw has cleared a perforation hole after a pulldown. Variable shutters set fully open. I investigate the functions from behind against a window, pressure plate removed, with a crank either on the 8-1 shaft or on the 1-1 shaft with the younger models. MOT switch on 0, side release all the way rearward. The halt position must be checked frontally.

Nothing new under the sun. With the 1961 Bauer 88 L Zoom you could pull the trigger from normal run to a 64 fps override, the auto iris compensated for the change, and that wasn’t the only 8-mm. camera to offer this.

There is ISO 3646 that defines everything about the cassette. Film speed is represented by 4-degrees steps from 22 through 78.

That camera sounds horrible, desperately in need of care. Give it an overhaul. Everything will be checked and realigned by a good technician and that is called investment. You cannot expect a 74 years old spring-drive camera which never got serviced to function properly.

Have a look at the EAC-1, might become your darling. https://www.ebay.com/itm/143462962195?hash=item21670f1413:g:wcMAAOSw629fwXuF&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAA8EkW69usFqrK1UugyKqDrgUKolwLJ7bgUW1e1Q5Rpbuj9Ws0bqRgQvfWCWgUWpTDA2GkWe1Q0MA5l1m4Ed22aqy1fd9FF9kAyuuwWU6z0RJ13UxYEIMHyY2XEN%2FjR%2Fg%2Fe5k%2BndJoDW%2BO9LE29BDF30%2FwkzC54gt8EimZFqbKIptA6bIXFD%2BfW2MAMySqPFiJr%2FO%2BuZgJy3WucFOaq%2FelE6OV%2F8lGKvbBQCGYi9BDJWMHglhtNEwdLsGCvEgqbT%2FcO6WplXn16hWGr5GNq77nnsywchJ3oXQrxSciSshPle%2BoiLypYYmptl%2FrrubJKRQ4Cw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR6TRrfmVYg

A principal difference comes with the various shutter opening angles. The wider it is the longer each frame gets exposed giving smoother movements. Short exposure times produce sharper pictures or with less motion blur. That can be useful, puzzling as it is, when shooting at higher frame rates. Technical differences have to do with the lateral guidance of the film, with the positioning distance (perforation holes counted from the optical axis), and how well stocks are held flat at the aperture.

It takes two to tango, punch and die are one part of the perforation story. The other is the web, the substrate, the very plastic material used with a film stock and that can be of good, mediocre or inferior quality. Sometimes old jumbos are used up that hold lateral and or longitudinal tensions from ageing. Once coated, the base can further change dimensionally. If the stock keeps shrinking or stretching after the perforation you have what you have. Punch and die can be made to match within almost nothing, less than a thousandth of a millimeter or 30 millionths of an inch. The precision of the spacing from one punch to the next is generally kept within 0,01 mm or four tenths. The punches are separate parts, dies are solid blocks with the apertures in them. The precision of the spacing between the hole groups cut together is a bit lesser. Advantage of continuous perforating, spacing is more even. I have the impression that the substrate is cheapo stuff.

It is possible to assemble an H so that the shutter covers the aperture at the rundown stop of the spring gearing, however, if the camera gets stopped at high speeds, the mechanism can advance over the stop. There’s a slip clutch between the derailleur and the 1-1 drive shaft exactly with the purpose to absorb the excess energy at a halt. This has by the way nothing to do with the timing of claw and shutter. The front needs to be lifted from the body, then the correct mesh be found between the 1-1 shaft’s helicoid and the shutter’s. Fine tuning is made by loosening the set screws of the shutter helicoid and retightening in a better position. Lastly, the claw must fit into the shutter movement.

Has nothing to do with any school, his personal view. Old school would mean oldfashioned film stock, i. e. orthochromatic, non-bloomed lenses made from only two or three sorts of glass, sunlight plus flares or carbon-arc or mercury-arc lamps. He is right in the sense that constant f/x stops create a technical continuity but to build inner or content continuity is the far more important task. You want to build space for the action, a flow of time not too harshly overturned at every cut. Yes, that’s constructivism that prevails with fictional narrative cinema. So you need to know what you’re aiming at, what you want the public to experience, whether you’re going to pamper spectators, seduce them emotionally into your make-believe, or give them food for thought.