Gregg MacPherson

Hey Rafael, I think the parts you point to online are a standard M12x1.75 thread. The SR3 rods have what looks like M12x1.0, unless its an odd SAE pitch I don't have. So a much finer pitch. The Arri male fitting on the extension rods has a diam12.2mm step about 3.5mm long, then a little undercut (gap), then about 7mm of thread length. If you had a machinist friend in a kind mood he might make you a rod connector. Otherwise just have to be patient to find the Arri extensions. PS...There are a small number of M12x1.0 aluminum bolts online, so maybe it saves some of the work making a connector.

Three interesting old motion picture cameras in this tableau snipped from Churchill at War (52:33). Simon will know them all well. The lighter one on the right held in front of one's face, the others jammed into one's chest below the clavicle bone. Just a little higher, with a redesigned viewfinder, and one could sit it on one's shoulder. I'm sure that one or two design engineers in 1940 would have doodled a new camera with reconfigured eyepiece and mass distribution. The 35BL or Aaton 35, in their simplest sense, do not seem a huge step, but they took a while to happen. But I guess 16mm happened first.

Mark is this anecdotal...your impression...a guess? or are there statistics? There were a lot of flatbed moviolas used by TV in NZ. When I looked in the editing department at Christchurch all I remember seeing is Moviola. My friend bought 7 of them from TVNZ in Auckland in the 80s. I don't know if there is tribal snobbery favouring the Steenbeck, but in hindsight I wish I had waited for one. The Moviola is overpopulated with ICs...troublesome circuitry. I always thought the Steenbeck would be more simple, mechanical, easier to look after without electronics expertise.

Blocking the shutter on camera stop is normally described as "mirror parking". Later versions of the heavy duty multispeed motor had mirror parking. The expert ACL techs told me that there is some electronics in the camera base of later ACLs that supports the mirror parking function of the motors. ACL i I assume does not have that electronics in the base. You may be able to fit a multispeed motor to an ACL I... I think the motor mount flange on the body casting of ACL I/IIis the same, and the mount flange adapter for the bigger motor fits the same. But I don't know if the mechanism was designed to run at 75fps. I can't confirm that. On an ACL without mirror parking, aligning the mirror manually when operating is no biggie, the inching knob is well placed. For what it's worth, am ACL I with the little motor is notably lighter. And with the 200' mag and a prime lens, very small, light, agile. Gregg.

By Moviola do you mean an upright or flatbed moviola? There were a lot of flatbed moviolas made. Television in NZ used them. I have two (one and 7/8 you could say). As you are probably discovering, Steenbeck and Moviola are brands, flatbed is the type. But both brand names served to indicate a type. I'm sure that a flatbed will be the most useful machine for you. The four plate Steenbeck like Mark Dun has is about the smallest. Though I think it was Cinema Products that started production of a flatbed that had the plates stacked vertically. I fiddled with one for a few minutes around 1984, and it had a very small footprint.

Thanks. I was wondering about that. I have been curious about a CANON HD-EC ZOOM LENS HJ21x7.5B-III KLL-SC T2.1, in B4 mount, that comes with an Abakus 132 (about 1.4 extender) B$/PL for S16 format, which corrects the colour fringing. I have seen some test footage with a 1.1 extender and it looked quite sharp, still covering S16. Just a distraction. I don't need it.

Is it still available? Can you send me the test footage, including something showing the vignetting? Is it factory PL mount or was it swapped over later? Thanks, Gregg.

Really nice Erren. Me too on the memories ....the 80s. Making art with very simple technology.

Hey Marc. Send me a DM with some titles or links to the kiwi music clips you did. I'm fond of some old kiwi stuff. Or start a thread about that...Cheers, Gregg.

I meant to say also...re the lenses. My suggestion would be to sell the lenses separately. If someone was buying the camera as a start to build up from, they would probably be more interested without the lenses. My ideas about the CLA did not include the lenses. Note that AZ Spectrum is not that far away, and Andrzej has the expertise to repair those motors. You could send him an email with a pic of the motor housing with the missing inching knob and ask if he has any thoughts. Tell him that the camera is going to a CLA at VP. Keep the email short and he will probably reply straight back.

Hey Tom, You did the right thing contacting Visual Products, I assume Paul Scaglione. Their hourly rate is fairly high, but Paul is quite fast, a CLA on that may only be a couple of hours. It looks like a camera that has had little use, so if it has not been run dry or otherwise abused then it may just need CLA with few or no repairs. If it hasn't had service for over 20 years, it's overdue and the uncertainties will lower the value. Paul's CLA will remedy that. VP will have batteries/power supply so if you wanted to avoid that expense, it will make little difference to the new owner, little difference to the sale price if it has a fresh inspection and CLA from Paul. If you think a battery will make a difference, then you can organise something inexpensive. The Les B conversion with the improvised ground glass lowers the value compared to the VP conversion. The unusual motor housing with no inching knob lowers the value in my eyes. I like to be able to easily inch the camera by hand. It probably has mirror parking. You must remember from when you used it. That may be something that can be fixed. Ask Paul when you hand over the camera. After Paul's CLA and assessment one might make a guess on the value. The lack of Arri-S/B and PL mounts lower the value. Not having useful magazine sets lowers the value. Not having a set of onboard battery packs or a usable battery kit lowers the value, but my opinion is that it's not that important. Not having a video tap lowers the value. These increments lowering the value all sound negative, but after Paul's CLA and hopefully inching knob repair this camera could be a good beginning point for someone to build up a kit. Low mileage, late model camera and excellent view finder. Gregg

Aaron, Assuming that the equipment is OK...... It's a good idea to control the loop sizes, and the position of the perf in the film gate, and the position of the claw. The mirror parking will leave the claw always in the same place. The manual mirror motor, you will have a routine that leaves the mirror and claw almost the same. When loading, while setting the loops, shift a perf in the gate so it's just below the claw. The claw will catch it every time, quiet starts and you will keep your ideal loop sizes. Like Dom says, manual inching to engage the claw is best. Make it part of your protocol. Get some clean scrap film to practice loading. You can run the loop tests/scratch test with the door off. Adjust your loading protocols as above and check that your method works. Then you can pull mags as often as you need without any concern over the loops. If you have any doubt about your mag or method, after mounting a fresh mag on the camera just pull the door and run a few frames. Have fun.

Really interesting work Aapo. How is shoulder mounting with the common view finders? There must be more space to include a shaped shoulder pad.

Well deserved David.

Thanks Dom, this is going to be a good reference thread. Duncan, The generic Arri-B/S to TS adapter in my prev pic above......Lens inserts to the flange, then twist a few degrees 'till it locks with a click. The metal button that releases the bayo lock also retracts the little tabs that hold the groove in the Arri-S mount. If the lens orientation feels off to the operator or focus puller maybe it's OK to rotate the rear of the adapter. The machining one assumes is perfect and there will be 4x90deg increment positions.