Robert Hart

It might come down to how many of us have absolutely perfect eyesight. To some of us, a 4K view on a 4K screen situated in the zone of best eyesight might be yielding an overall sharper image to our senses than our real-world view gives us when our gaze darts about focusing close and far. Subjectively to me, the Alexa image in the cinema began to fall over in highly textured environments. For head and shoulder views of actors, being able to see the adhesions on individual nose hairs might be a step too far. What pleases in a given circumstance is what matters.

You might do well to conduct a dry run with your camera and look through the viewfinder eyepiece for any pulsation or strobing from the LED lights. If the overhead lights have their own independent power supply, they may be operating at a different frequency to the mains power. I am assuming you have a film camera with a reflex mirror-shutter viewfinder. As for wasting a car windscreen, would there be any utility in sourcing an identical or very similar model of car from a wrecker and using that for your fixed interior work.

For those who are following, I have received the tacho and power management boards for fitment to two cameras. They arrived well packed and in good time.

John O'Brien. Much made-for-streaming content seems to have become audio-visual fillbelly built down to a price. On-line streaming has been an opportunity for some worthy low budget projects to find an audience. People are enabled to view non-mainstream pieces which would otherwise not be accessible. That was what I liked about the old VHS rentals. The 3D cinema experience was wonderful but died because the beancounters decided to cheat, shoot 2D, tart the vision up in post as ersatz 3D and charge the same premium for it. People knew when they were being got at and voted with their feet. Carboard cutout vision in layerform is fine for live wayan sukit or multiplane optical animation but as a 3D experience??? I have discovered that increasingly, I can anticipate the very next words of reply in dialogue in streaming shows. Cost-driven handheld shortcut camera stuff tends to take me out of the story. I mean how long does it really take to set up a tripod for a car arrival, then pan follow the human to the house entry without heaving and breathing of the camera operator? That's just plain lazy timesaving and may be cost saving by elimination of a camera assistant. When the humble public is paying for the exhibition equipment and the means of getting it from the vendor to viewer, sooner or later the same humble public is going to sense it is being dudded. I think over a longer term, the viewing public will tire of content being a few high quality anchors spotted through an inventory of lesser pieces and only available exclusively within that streaming channel. They will also tire of having to pay for multiple memberships just to get access to the anchor pieces, say "why bother" and take the game off the table. The "discretionary spend" is also diminishing. Netflix is discovering this as no doubt so are the other streaming providers. Netflix's scheme of a discount service studded with ad-breaks could be a foot-shot. No one really wants to pay subscription just to watch ads when streaming providers decide to generate some more income. When ad-breaks become established in the accepted business plan, even more folk will churn their memberships to cherrypick the anchor pieces or bail entirely and just play with their computer games. Australia's SBS free on-line streaming service offers a good line-up of worthwhile non-mainstream product and one can live with the ad-breaks. I am surprised that the pay-for-streaming services have not lobbied parliament to have SBS streaming shut down already. Maybe they have tried or soon will. I wonder what the next big thing will be? So long as we are not running around clubs in hand as gangs clad in cockrags, possumskin clocks and ho-che-min sandals following WW4 or climate catastrophe, it will be exciting to see what evolves in the future of audio-visual entertainment..

A challenge might be in maintaining sharp focus and correct distance between the subject and camera. With modern repeatable motion-control tech, anything is possible. Making it all happen smoothly by the armstrong method is another thing entirely. Years ago, the dolly/zoom combination was used in a mini-series which was shot in a remote area "Flight Into Hell". If I remember correctly, the spatial disorientation this visual effect creates was intended to confer subliminally into the audience's perception, the beginnings of delerium the two characters were experiencing as they slowly succumbed to dehydration and tropical heat.

The Restroscan Universal Mark II can be set up for overscan or a tighter frame for best resolution. Stock was Gevacolor XT 320 neg shot during 1980s, over-exposed a half stop.

There is always the Kinoptik Tegea 5.7mm lens in C-Mount like this one which should fit up as the rear optical elements are within the C-Mount. It confers a rectilinear image, which means neither barrel nor pincushion distortion will occur. All straight lines will be straight but the image will be diagonally stretched like you see in some news-camera wide-angle images. There is also a slightly weird aesthetic effect on faces which appear to be narrower with eyes closer to sides of face. Speed of apparent motion towards or away from subject is accentuated. The lens was referred to for a while as "the Rodriguez Lens" as one was used by director Robert Rodriguez along with a zoom in his breakout film "El Mariachi." The lens was a pioneer design and not the sharpest kid on the block by today's standards. It seems sweetest at about f5.6. Angenieux made a 5.9mm lens in C-Mount. I cannot speak for the image quality, any distortion effects it may have or whether the rear elements extend beyond the C-Mount thread as I have not seen or handled one. so far as I know, neither the Angenieux nor the Kinoptik have a focus ring and rely on a very deep depth of field for clarity of the image. https://www.ebay.com/itm/284871742341?hash=item4253add385:g:d-QAAOSwxGliuFLI&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAsIPLo2te%2FMlS9OFKJy9AyOwQM%2BBZa%2FimpHto8LbJSxo2Y29I49aHkWoR3FPuOj1XA3T86Ze%2BLTji2n7rAv4%2BVQ5LDQPAhRQPG1x4EZPhVoXX%2Ff07%2BzvT6aq8BtAdzmjWLWBDQH8enTHHbCIXeH1EagC6T0Cu1E5kLoqX0sRKSayap7D6MkvLp8AU%2BTbwm6eGWvDGD%2BTyPBaLLFCOFiNREygeuHWUonISYlUgSrN2XTTM|tkp%3ABk9SR978mfPdYA

Dom. I agree. The rear of the lens will bottom out on the structure beneath the C-Mount thread, possibly before the threads even engage.

Lens servicing and repair is one of those things to which the dictate "you get what you pay for" applies. You are paying for the labour involved as well as the expertise gained from many difficult repairs in that tradesman's past. Not all lenses co-operate with their repairer and your lens that the Johnny-come-lately guy, as talented as he may be operates on may be his "learning experience" with all the risks associated. You may find somebody prepared to do the job cheaper but you may also be burned. I have a rare zoom which was serviced for the prior owner in S.E. Asia during the 1980s or thereabouts. One of the rear optical groups is housed in a brass cell. This cell has to be destructively parted with care to extract the elements for separation and cleaning. Normally a new cell is machined, the elements reinstalled, the end of the cell crimped to retain them and then fitment back into the lens body with a threaded retainer. There was no way that those elements floating loosely in their space could have been correctly centred when that ring was cinched down. However in this instance, the elements had been installed in their place loose and suffered rim damage from the threaded retainer squishing the bare brittle glass. The other groups had been separated and refixed with UV-cure optical cement. The material requires careful workmanship with a special jig to ensure the elements are exactly centered and a controlled-climate environment. S.E. Asia's heat and humidity almost guaranteed along with the repairer's apparent attempts at moving the elements to centricity by eye, that the adhesive was foggy with halfmoons and opaque strands between the elements. UV-cure can be removed with extreme difficulty. I aquired the lens which had been assessed as uneconomic/impossible to repair. I patiently set about separating the elements with careful heat treatment and powerful solvents. I almost got there but the whole expedition foundered when one element of the final doublet to be separated exploded. And that was the end of that.

I am wondering about whether the camera/lens combination is off at all. Is there something else going on in the film scan itself? The frame edges are also soft. The sprocket edges are sharp. It is almost as if someone has set the scan focus on the back of the film, not the emulsion face.

Would there be any utility in adding a polariser filter into the optical path?

Dom. thanks for that. Cheers.

Dom. Slightly off-topic. Where do you obtain precision plastic shim material in Australia these days? Cheers.

You may have answered your own question ( no prep day ). Promises to prep gear for you due to mishap, may not always be the best kept. The best you might do will be to allow time in your schedule to set up each camera in turn on a tripod. The focal plane mark on the body should be the same measured distance from a focus chart (siemens star) as your shots are likely to be from subject. Set your shutter speed or gain level or both so that you have to open the lens aperture wide, then note where the focus mark on the lens is for each camera. A good monitor will be your best friend in this instance. Please heed better advice than mine when it comes along.

It is okay to run the camera without film at normal speeds but not recommended to routinely dry run it to end of spring tension. As mentioned in another reply, the brown fluff will be emulsion being scythed off by a sharp edge in the film path. If there is no black fluff, it will be the path the emulsion passes over. If the upper loop is too large, the film may be springing forward over the upper edge of the gate path and emulsion coming off where that edge overlaps the case. The film may also be momentarily touching the edge of the upper loop former but I would expect to see short strands of fluff accumulating more broadly through the path. Culprits for the scratches may be a piece of chrome plating flaking off, past cleaning of edges in the film path through the gate itself with a metal object raising a slight spur, a tiny piece of film caught in a gap between the gate plate and the camera case. It may be sufficient to polish the film path with a piece of dry cloth. Do not add anything like car polish or jewellers rouge to the cloth. Perhaps if you could load film and post an image of the film path, this may assist readers. You may have encountered this youtube guide for the RX1 camera. The operator does not use the small inbuilt scissor cutter in the bottom of the camera to trim the angular lead into the film until he wants to insert it into the slot in the take-up reel. My personal preference is to trim the angular lead-in before autoloading the film through the path. I think it helps the film feed through without snagging straight edges, slightly buckling then springing free and going long on the upper loop. When loading, turn your camera speed to slow. This will make momentary snatches of the film's progress more apparent.

If a person wanted to build and sell a caterpillar gate for continuous feed of warped film, what sort of price would folk be prepared to pay I wonder? (28 moving parts passively driven).

For what it may be worth, here is a rather unscientific test of a contrast filter near the sensor panel of a SI2K camera.

The Blackmagic Ursa Broadcast G2 camera apparently has an active sensor area of 2/3"at 4K, which is near to Super16mm. Your lens mount options for vintage Angenieux 16mm film camera zoom lenses may be limited. I don't know if this camera has the same cropped sensor option for shooting with full frame anamorphic lenses as is provided by the 4.6K Ursa Mini camera family.

I doubt that using a 12-120 Angenieux zoom will yield the resolution you would expect of 4K, however you will get the field of view and perspectives. It is also not a Super16mm capable lens through its full zoom range and may vignette at the wide end and again around about 25mm. However it and the later 10-150 do have a long reach. The 10-150 may vignette during close focus at the wide end on standard 16mm. That said, this clip was shot with an Angenieux 10-150 on a SI2K (2048 x 1156) with the optional top and bottom crop which unloads the data rate a little. You will have a slightly better clarity and contrast with a healthy 12-120. If you crop your frame to the 4:3 image, then the vignette should mostly go away.

When you loaded the mag, which side of the roller did the film end go? With both remjet backing and film emulsion shaving off, this suggests to me that the film may be feeding past the opposite side of the roller and dragging across the case. This happens in CP16 magazines if one is not careful when loading film in the dark.

In regard the vulnerability of the nagra-style switch and the PCB, I had a similar concern. It should be east enough to protect with a C-channel surrounding the switch and attached horizontally with the lower panel screws. Whatever breaks that will break the case and by then all bets would be off anyway.

Good progress to see happening there and keeping it simple. There will be purists who wish to preserve cameras in an unaltered state. There are probably enough left to satisfy them. For folk who want a CP for its original robust and reliable utility, the single speed option will suit fine. This one's beating heart awaits its new pacemaker.

If your external power system would also operate from 14V V-Lock or AB camera batteries via a D-Tap cable, there may be some utility in using an industry-standard 4-Pin XLR socket for the external power-in. I understand that one reason for the original 20VDC was chosen so light aircraft 24VDC power could be accessible.

The news cameraman's pushbutton switch would also have to be changed to the momentary pushbutton style. An internal inching switch would be handy for rolling the film slowly to check the loop before closing up after loading but is not really necessary. Most folk rotate the common sprocket with its manual inching knurled rim then roll the camera with the existing switches. My personal preference would be to preserve that internal switch position for the EXT IN / INT CR selection.

Would there be any utility in re-assigning the existing internal film compartment 200ft/400ft selector switch as the EXT- INT CR selector and re-assigning the switch position in the new rear panel as the studio run switch? If the existing EXT -INT CR switch is hardwired to the circuit board then do not fret about changing it. Longer wiring runs to the switch within the film compartment might also introduce interference from the running drive motor. The original parallel wiring arrangement for the news cameraman's press on - press off run button on the front handle and the studio run switch on the rear was default with an option offered of serial switching with the rear studio switch as the master. Unless someone actually wants to install a video tap, the optional electronic footage display might be accommodated where the video tap hatch is on the front upper surface of the camera with the same risks of interference being generated by the running drive motor. It is looking good.