Hans Engstrom

If you´re using a 50mm lens on a 16mm camera it doesn´t matter if the lens was made for 35mm or 16mm when consulting the DOF chart, it´s only the focal lenght of the lens that matters.

Take contact with Anders Banke. He´s the director of "Frostbiten" and you can talk swedish with him. http://www.solidentertainment.se/

Don´t just look at Arriflex cameras. They are great cameras and I used to own a 16BL and was planning to buy a S16 SR2 but instead I bought a Aaton LTR. Aatons are much cheaper and a LTR54 can be had for half of what a S16 SR would cost you. The 16BL is a nice camera but you´ll feel limited by it, that I can guarantee. First of all the need of using blimped lenses is the biggest drawback. Second, buying it and converting it to S16 would cost more than buying a LTR that b.t.w. is a much nicer camera. However the loading of the 16BL mags is not hard at all, kind of the same as loading the 435 mags. I usually advise against buying sync regular 16mm cameras as I belive that they are to expensive for what you get and there really isn´t any way to make any money with them. If you are going to get a regular 16mm camera then get a cheap MOS camera that wont loose any value so that you will get your money back when/if you sell it. If you want a sync camera then save up and get a s16 camera that will pay for itself. I recommend that you take a look at a Aaton LTR54, it´s a nice camera that is not extremely expensive and can be used as a B camera on bigger s16 shoots and will do very fine as A camera on shorts and musicvideos. If you want to go for a Arri I suggest that you go for a SR2 s16, but they are expensive cameras even if they have come down a bit the last years. If you´re still going to buy a regular 16mm camera the 16BL is a reliable camera and except for the blimped lenses It´s really good. The best thing to do if you get a 16BL is to find either a newer multicoated Angenieux 12-120 or a Zeiss T* 10-100 that will fit in the zoomblimp.

Tim gave good answers to your questions, just wanted to congratulate you on a doing a very good deal! If the camera is in good condition it will serve you well many years to come. Amazing that a 16mm Arri with lenses can be found so cheap.

Are there any 930 and 950 G23 lamps available? All I´ve seen are the 827 and some other 8XX lamp?

On a feature I worked on last year the production office didn´t want us in the camera crew to order film because we "ordered to much" (we wanted to have aprox 2 weeks of film in the cooler and we where shooting on vision1 that was hard to find at that time). I said that as long as they took the responsibility from my shoulders that was ok, but that I could no longer guarantee that we had film. They sent back half of the film (to reorder it at a later time) and offcourse we ran out of film so that actors and crewmember had to take cans with them on the plane from different locations (it was a circus). At that point the producer actually tried to get an assurance from me that it was ok and that there shouldn´t be any fogging on the film. To make a long story short, there wasn´t any fogging on the film but it´s a really unnecessary risk to take if there´s crew and actors involved. Get the film tested or use it for experimenting or stock shots.

That SR2 is really cheap right now but I´m guessing that there will be plenty of bids coming in the last minutes. The used camera market is really strange right now and there are plenty of good deals to be found if you´re looking for a 16mm/s16 camera. But if you´re like in this case trying to sell a camera it´s tough. French motor and French two piece electronic circuit board are serial numbers 60900 and lower. The SR I German motor and German one piece electronic circuit board are serial numbers 60901 and higher. The SR I I German motor and German one piece electronic circuit board are serial numbers 63182-69893 Above info from Source

There shouldn´t be any scratches on the neg. As the same scratches appeared with different mags the problem is most likely to be in the camera and not the mags (if the loading are done correctly). Check the gate for imperfections in the finish, are there any emulsion build ups anywhere? The location of the scratches on the emulsion can help you find whats causing them. Anyway the only thing to do is to get it serviced by a camera tech.

This is the strangest looking FF I´ve ever seen. FF In my worst fantasies I´d get called in on a shoot where the DOP uses his own gear and this nightmare appears in front of my eyes.

Thanks, time to go shopping for batteries.

Ebay SR2 really cheap right now ($3k) but 3 days left.

If you dont know if DV or s16 will look better on the big screen and asking if S16 is a viable option, DOP yeah sure. And still no real name in your posts. As to the insults I wont even go there.

And it would look better if you changed what you do for a living because if DOP actually was your profession you wouldn´t have to ask theese questions.

Agree. I just bought one and I´m really impressed with it. When I´m comparing it to Arri SR and SR2 it´s much quiter and the mags are even faster to load. The running noise is comparable to that of the rentals SR3 Advanced that I have worked with and handheld it can´t be beaten. I found mine for $3300 and thats less than half of what I´d have to pay for a SR2 s16. If you got the money I can highly recommend getting a Aaton LTR54

How much voltage does it take to get the LTR54 to do 54fps. I know 16V is good but can i do it with less like 14.4V? How much volt can the camera take, I guess a 16.8V battery would be ok, or not? Why I´m asking is because I´m planning to adapt some powertool batteries to my Aaton as that would be a much cheaper solution than using the original onboardbatteries. I have allready built myself lead acid blockbatteries and they work great but it would be nice to have some onboards that can get the camera running at 54fps.

Well don´t work with many Hollywood stars here in northern Sweden but I worked with Greta Scacchi on a short. She´s a very nice person but it was kind of embarassing when she started picking up and carrying my cases.

If I know that the boom op can take it and knows that I´m not trying to be mean, I usually asks him what his character is called.

Some really nice ones there, well done! You should really make them royalty free after aproval. The producer/filmmaker sends a copy of the film to you or a description of the film and they get to use the music FOC if you aprove. Otherwise your work may end up being the porno music of the century, and then no one will want to use it in any "serious" work.

There´s so few telecine suits here in Scandinavia (atleast that I know of) and it´s either paying a $1000/hour or $200 at this place. I talked to the guy by mail and I will do a test in september as he can´t scan s16 at this moment. The test will be s16 to HD uncompressed standard definition. I will let everyone know the results of my tests. What do think that I can expect from the test, all my previous experience with telecine has been with a Spirit and a Diamond. I know that I can´t expect to get the quality of a Spirit transfer but do you think it would be usable for a DVD version.

Ok thanks I think I´ll stay away from that PL "double" mount. How much do those zeiss contax lenses usually sell for? I received the camera today and it is actually a late LTR7 snr C837 but with LTR54 movement and motor. Is it a big difference from the "real" LTR54 as that is what the seller told me it was? I´m leaning towards sticking with the Aaton mount and getting a set of zeiss contax some wideangle superspeeds and maybe a Nikon tele. I´m however impressed with this old Aaton. I did a test run with it and looked for scratches and it passed without any problems, but what really impressed me is how quiet it was. I wouldn´t even compare it to a SR1 it´s much quieter than that. One thing that would be nice to have is a better manual than the one that I have downloaded from Aaton. Is there some kind of service manual that is more detailed? And one last thing, how do one know if the camera have a pellicle installed?

Then rent or even better borrow a camera instead of buing it. Buying a MOS camera when you need a sync camera to film dialogue is not a good idea. How much are you planning to spend on a camera?

Now you got me really interested in what you are up to :) Anyway visit the Manuals and DOC's and download a Aaton, Arri or Panaflex manual.

Do you have a capture from this roll? Did you use the same mag later without any problem?

I found a company that have just that combination of a FDL90 and a Pogle in Norway (http://www.smalfilm.no/). He charges $200/operating hour when manually color correcting the material and $300/hour of film when doing a onelight. Those prices are the same for both s16 and s35. I guess I will test this service when I receive my Aaton as I´ll want to shoot a test roll. He also list the possibility of getting the material back on harddrive. I have sent him a question asking in what codec the material will be in then.

Some even prefer Aaton over Arri for sfx. I have not done any side by side tests but both cameras if in good order will give steady images.