Dom Jaeger

You are correct on all counts. No protrusion issues with Arri B to PL adapters I can think of. Get an adapter that uses a lock ring rather than grub screws to secure it. More expensive, but more secure, more accurate and less damage caused.

It's a common fault with those Zeiss zooms that a bushing that slides over a shaft as you zoom swells internally with age and creates tightness. The compensator group lags a bit and you get momentary focus dropouts. It can be repaired by a competent tech who knows these zooms. I can ask my contacts for a good tech near you if you don't find anyone.

Yes those Preston control joysticks were always expensive, that doesn't sound too bad to be honest. I think I paid about that much 20 years ago!

It's been many years since I worked on these. From memory there is a voltage offset pot to zero the joystick, but if you're getting movement in the direction of the last joystick movement, then the joystick is not returning properly to a neutral position and needs replacing.

I think the author was confused by the fact that some earlier 8:1 motors like MC17 utilised the camera governor to control the speed. That motor was supplied with different voltages to increase the speed roughly, with the camera speed governor being the fine control. Later 1:1 motors had their own internal electric or crystal speed controls. But he is wrong in that the 8:1 shaft does directly connect to the pull-down drive shaft via an 8:1 gear, and you can essentially disable the camera governor (like you do with 1:1 motors) by turning it up to 64fps. The governor is always connected to the mechanism, whether you drive from the 1:1 or 8:1 shafts. I believe there were early 8:1 regulated motors that ran a Bolex at 24fps, though I haven’t come across one. That site has a few errors, the author also propagates the mistruth that RX lenses compensate for the prism light loss. It’s unfortunate, because there is also a lot of good information.

All the Zeiss 11-110 iterations are S16 zooms. They were an evolution of the 10-100 which only covered N16. The Mk3 is the best version, with upgraded mechanics and clearer focus marks. The Optex 12-120 was an aftermarket conversion of the 10-100, not quite as good as the Zeiss factory 11-110. Where did you hear that Canon S16 zooms use "plastic sleeves that run on cams and simply wear"? This is incorrect. They are all metal construction, just the outer enamel paint has a plastic look. Over the years I must have worked on over 20 different Canon S16 zooms including full overhauls, and assessed 20 more. They are actually quite durable designs, but like any old zoom they can wear when badly treated or poorly stored or used without regular service. I've restored several that were in a bad way to very good condition. Many cinematographers find them among the best S16 zooms ever made, but as with any vintage optics, condition is crucial. The 7-63 or 6-6-66 need very accurate collimation because they go so wide. I commonly get complaints that are resolved by proper camera/lens calibration. I've worked on many Zeiss 11-110 zooms and they can have their own issues, including a tightness that can develop in the zoom shaft bushings and iris failure. They are sharp, but breathe much more than the Canons, and minimum focus is nearly 5ft compared to around 2 ft on a 7-63 for example. Cooke S16 zooms can be really nice if you can find them, such as the 10-30 and 10.4-52.

Out of those I think the Angenieux is better, albeit bigger. Another good zoom for S16 is the Canon 7-63, which would be a good choice if you needed a wider angle, since 11.5mm or 12mm is not very wide for S16.

The only Bolex model that does not stop with the shutter closed is the EBM. All other models, when correctly set up, should stop fully closed and not allow light to leak past the shutter. That's why they are good animation/time lapse cameras. If you run a Bolex until the spring runs out, then it can stop anywhere, so ideally wind the spring fully before each take and try not to run it all the way down. This also keeps your speed more consistent. The governor drive gear can slip like a clutch, and on some models the stop pawl is mounted to a spring plate to absorb some of the force when the camera stops, but for external electric motors any sort of slipping clutch needs to be in the motor itself. If you think about it, you can't have a slipping clutch in a 1:1 drive shaft, since the orientation is critical to the camera function. If the shaft slipped under load, the shutter closed stop position would keep changing relative to the motor locating position.

Hi Aapo, In case you're not aware, the 1:1 shaft pin was changed to an asymmetric pin in 1968 (after serial number 240400 on RX5 models, something similar on other models, and on all bayonet models SB, SBM). This means the drive adapter needs a larger (at least 2.5mm wide) slot on the side corresponding to the red dot on the shaft, facing the front in the stop position, in order to work with most 1:1 cameras. As found in MST, ESM and other 1:1 motors.

Could just be the edge where the frame was expanded to S16 reflecting or shadowing. Ideally the back surface of the gate has a cutout machined around the expanded part to make the wall equally thin all around. Otherwise the S16 side can be much thicker.

Feel free to PM or email me. I’m holding some Bolex Service workshops in The Netherlands in late January 2026 where this sort of thing will be covered extensively. Nearly all booked up though.

I used to service these a lot back in the day. There are multiple points where you can get tight spots and multiple adjustments to minimise play. Knowing how to properly adjust them is something of a learned skill. It’s certainly not a question of just grease. The main gear meshing has eccentric and axial adjustment, there’s a belt in the swing arm with tension adjustment, there are fine shims and about 50 steel balls in the final lens gear rosette bearing which can get notchy, as well as the handles themselves which can have bent shafts creating tight spots. I would find a rental house tech who knows how to service them.

Fast lenses will be computed differently and can often have some design compromises to achieve the faster speed compared to a similar lens computed for a slower f stop max. At full aperture an old fast lens like this will usually have aberrations that don't clean up until stopped down several stops. So I often find an f/1.4 lens stopped down to f/2 doesn't look as sharp as a similar focal length f/2 lens used wide open. I also believe the f/1.4 version of Schneider's 16mm Cinegon was originally designed for 1" CCTV so it didn't need to resolve as well as lenses designed for 16mm. I don't have an f/1.4 16mm Schneider to analyse and compare with other Schneiders, so take this as speculative opinion.

Hard to say when the haze/damage is out of focus. Fungus looks like tiny spiderwebs, this looks more like spots and scratches. Haze can be a few things - easily cleaned residue, permanent coating degradation, Canada Balsam between a doublet gone bad. Often opening the lens up to inspect the element in question is the only way to find out.

Here's a focal reducer (Speed Booster) that can convert S35 PL lenses to S16 PL, with a relay so it clears a mirror, it even has a similar form factor: https://kipon.com/product/plpl-0-7x/ But there's very little technical information given for this FF to S16 adapter. Just the usual "this is revolutionary!" claims. Is it just a more powerful Speed Booster? Given that I've never seen a cine focal reducer more powerful than about 0.6x, perhaps it's not a Speed Booster relay at all, but more like the old Super 35 adapters that used an oscillating ground glass to form an image for a video camera to record, thereby mimicking the S35 depth of field. They were far from great optically, but maybe technology has improved since then. You didn't think there was a market for this back in this thread, Tyler. Has something changed your mind?