Gregg MacPherson

The magazine test stock was old Ferania with sound stripe. Replacing that with some 1995 Kodak neg the problem dissapeared. I can't explain that. I have two 400' magazines here that look like they did a lot of work early in life and had frequent service. Maybe the "shoes" to drive sprocket alignment is affected by that. The steps for the screw heads are a bit worn. Cheers, Gregg

Boris, Just so you don't get swamped with requests for an English maintenance manual, I can say that it is a set of parts drawings with numbers for an English ACL I and does not include the 400' mag or the list of parts. It was very useful though. I have almost serviced about 3 English 400' mags. I have noticed that the plate that holds the "shoes" and rollers for the drive sprocket on the take up side is not that accurately located by the screws. So the shoes are not that accurately positioned to the drive sprocket. Maybe they had a jig or trick to set the position. The French mags have a couple of allen screws that align each sprung retainer pin for the shoes. The English ones don't. On one mag I found on reassembly the film somehow escaped the shoe and tracked off the drive sprocket. Assuming that the relative position of the shoes to the drive sprocket was to blame I set the clearance of those by bi-packing some film around the drive sprocket while all the screws were loose. (camera was off). Seemed to work. The same thing is happening on another mag after reassembly. Do you or anyone else have any ideas? The reason to remove the plate was to dissassemble the shoes so I could soak the little ball bearings in oil. The bottom ones are not accessable. Cheers, Gregg.

Yes I was on full alert with that one, but I was still quite curious. If the price was $40 I would probably get one and have a look. Things like deburing and some re-machining where I wasn't messing with the resulting flange position I would just do at home. Cheers, Gregg.

Hey Boris, I got this one really cheap from the asherphoto guy in Israel. I thought I might put it with my old ACL I that I plan to sell locally in New Zealand soon. The Arri-B adapter feels jamed in fairly tight. If the FFD is good like that I will probably leave it. Cheers, Gregg.

If you have a look at the numbers on this page it's useful. I didn't check his numbers properly yet. It's an area where small errors make a big diffeence to our ideas so I would check carefully. http://marylandfilms.com/16mm-super16-ultra16-compared.html Assuming he has no wrong data. U16 projected frame area does look close to S16 for Cinema (1.85/1). For HD (1.77/1) based on the areas he gives U16 has about 11% less area than S16. If you do go U16 there are less labs and some charge more for U16. I saw one that did anyway when I was researching labs yesterday. So you need to be happy with your lab and transfer costs and access. If you are trying to get sharp images for HD or cinema then you need sharp lenses. If you only need to own a zoom then maybe a Zeiss 10-100 will cover. They sometimes are cheap. If not then you end up with the same problem as S16 - the Zooms are still not cheap to own. If you need sharp primes for your U16 and end up getting MKI Zeiss distagons, these cover S16 so you might as well be shooting S16. Do Kooke Kinetal 9mm cover U16? Sometimes Kinetals are cheap. Paying 800 for a new adapter is a fairly expensive way to do it. Cheers, Gregg

Yes very funny. I asked the vendor who the manufacturer was and he said he did not know. He said he has a lot of them. He didn't want to measure the thickness of the flange with base and the spacer ring. I'm wondering if he has a source of these in India or China. I'm curious about the Indian made one you are refering to. Do you have any clues how to find that. Cheers, Gregg.

If you search the forum you'll find the ideas about standard/ultra/super 16 have had a lot of debate. Some will argue that if you are shooting fine grain stock on standard 16 you can get a good cropped image. S16 cameras are quite cheap at the moment. I have seen well serviced ACL and Aaton sell on eBay for what your conversion will cost. You have to watch carefully for these, and here I am assuming the vendors are not liars or conmen. Sorry, I have not been following NPR on eBay. If you do stick with NPR the CA-1 mount can take an Arri-B adapter. Don't know if it can take a PL adapter. When you are deciding what camera and format to go with you need to plan out what lenses you may end up owning or renting. Cheers, Gregg.

Robert, I like the spinning butterfy images. Have you degrained those shots somehow? Or just graded it down to get that nice solid black. My eye says there is less grain in the grey compared to the walk through the lab. Cheers, Gregg

Hey thanks Dom, Tom. If I can get some inexpensive hard mounts I would far prefer it. There are some fairly inexpensive interesting looking adapters that have better variations of the grub screw idea. I might round up the references and see what you think. But for now I'll research the hard mount idea and see what happens. The plated brass hard mount I mentioned before is also an adaptor. I may get one on apro (meaning I can return it) to have a look. The vendor on eBay wasn't that helpful with measurements. From the photo it looks to me that the critical dimension from the mount base to the flange seat/rear of wings will be less than 5.5mm even with the spacer. Here is the eBay URL http://global.ebay.com/Arri-Bayonet-Mount-Lens-to-PL-POSITIVE-LOCK-Adapter/300710926766/item I have a friend with a large CNC wjho may make the adapters for me for free. If the increment under 5.5mm is not that important I think he can make a consistent dimension for that from mount to mount (maybe within just a few microns). Before Dom's post I thought we had to be within a couple of microns of the idealized dimension. It's a ;lot easier if we don't. Wether he will be happy to make them in stainless I am less sure of. He would be happy using 6061-T6 aluminum or probably brass. How long does it normally take to collimate a set of five S16 MK II primes? Steven Spooner at Panavision Auckland was friendly and keen to help. But he may have to do it after hours. Dom I found the previous thread on Fabricating a PL mount which made me wonder about different versions of the mounts. Are you sure that the dimension given above as "one or two hundredths of a mm under 5.50mm from base to flange seat" is good for my S16 MKII lenses? Cheers, Gregg

I was looking around to find an inexpensive way to re-mount some S16 Zeiss MKII primes from Arri-B to PL. They have the 8 screw hole pattern. Visual Products have some nice looking stainless ones, not inexpensive. I saw some inexpensive plated brass ones but I think they are were for Optar lenses. They came with a spacer ring that may help set the flange position. Does anyone know the distance from the front of the PL mount (the drilled face that sits on the rear of the lens body) and the rear of the flange/wings? Were the original Zeiss Arri-B mounts machined super accurately? What tolerance could one assume for that? If the PL remounts are really acurate will they still need re-shimming? Cheers, Gregg

Actually I just found email from Spectra. I think they normally process weekly. Maybe that has helped the price.

Spectra are really inexpensive on their rate card/website. Was 13 cents/foot for 16/35 colour neg. I'm guessing they don't move much when negotiating for a feature. Is there any downside to using them? I think they batch process but that might be for stock other than colour neg. Looks like a great place for indies/microbudget folk committed to film. In New Zealand we had two labs at NZ 45 cents/foot (US 34 cents/foot). One just closed. LA looks good. I talked to an indian film maker the other day and tried to find out how to guage costs in India. Very difficult for a white European to get a straight answer. Normally someone inserts themselves between you and the labs and negotiates a good rate for a commission. I can't help wondering, if you turned up at the labs looking like a veteran hippie Euro-expat holding an Arri ST what rate you might get. Gregg.

I don't have experience with NPR mags. I have been fixing some old ACL mags but they are not the same. You may get lucky and someone has seen and fixed this on NPR mags before. If it is the mag. There are some things you can do however to help logically deduce what the problem is. Load some clean camera stock and try to replicate the scratches. This confirms that they were in fact made in the camera. If you run with the mag doors off you may even be able to see where the scratches happen. Maybe it even happens at low speed. Assuming you replicated the scratches. Do all your magazines give the same scratches? If not then it's a problem with that particular mag. I'm guessing that you have carefully checked that you are loading your mags correctly? Loop sizes? You haven't got the thread path wrong so the film is rubbing on something? Are all the rollers moving freely? Check the ones in the light trap. If you have rollers set at an angle check those are free. Just saw a video of an NPR running with the doors off. I would do what I could to see where the scratches happen. For example, can you end your thread path just after the feed side drive sprocket, let the film just fall out of the magazine from there. What about ending the thread path as you exit the light trap, could you gently pull it through with your fingers? Ideas like that. Cheers, Gregg

When the potter is first introducing himself to camera the lines (scratches) are quite curved and sometimes there are dashed or brocken lines that are almost constant rather than changing frame to frame. Wierd. Can you see the scratches easily on the film? Are they on the emulsion side? Have you tried running some clean film with the take up door off - trying to see where the scratch starts? I liked the look and documentary tone of this little film. I liked the deep blacks and the modeling. Can we see a high resolution version somewhere? What stock was this? If you need a cheap heavy head there have been O'Connor 50s on eBay. Cheers, Gregg.

I found Tony's videos quite interesting and useful also. But I sympathise with Boris and Jean-Louis. Tony comes across on the video as sort of too relaxed. I diddn't agree with all that Tony said, but I still found it useful, if that makes sense. Re precautions when working on the mechanism plate, TI thought Tony had put some screws back into it so that he could rest the plate on the screws. Something that needs to happen, maybe we need a separate named thread for it. Workshop manuals and service manuals for ACL I and II need to get in the public domain. The number of experienced ACL camera techs is diminishing, but there are lots of skilled camera techs who know Arri, Aaton, Panavision ... ACLs are quite simple cameras (so I'm told) and if some documentation was available some of these guys would happily service them. So we need to find and make public domain the service docs. Also, I think camera owners need to document the service record of their gear. What was done, and by who. Cheers, Gregg.

Hey Daniel, My rotation to lock is about from 12 noon 'till 1 oclock if it's lucky. Maybe 20 degrees. I think there may be a bur on the edge of the chanel that the little Arri B wing fits into. Cheers, Gregg.

Find a skilled technician who knows those cameras well and make friends with them directly. I would start by finding out who did the work at/for Ice and see if they are still interested. If you can have always the same good technician you will save money on servicing. Opinins on the forum will vary on what the servicing requirements and costs are. I read somewhere that every 5 years the scintered aluminum bearings should be re impregnated with oil using vacum method. I talked to a tech in Australia recently who services a lot of Aatons and (he said) there are LTRs that have never had that bearing treatment in their whole life and are still going no problem. Cheers, Gregg.

I'm familiar with the ACL to Arri bayonet (TS/Arri-B) lens mounts. I have the type that I see in the manuals. The lens turns a few degrees untill the positive lock engages. It has a release button. I just bought another mount cheap on ebay. Turns out it is an ACL to Cameflex mount with an Arri-b adaptor fitted to the Cameflex port (TS/CA-1/Arri-B). The Arri adaptor feels like it doesn't want to move. If this mount is used I think one might just check the flange focal distance and leave it alone. This Arri adaptor has no positive lock mehanism. The lens is turned maybe only a couple of degrees till it's wedged in tight. Feels like it should turn more. Does anyone use one of these adaptors? How many degrees roughly do your lenses turn before they feel tight? Cheers, Gregg.

I took the lenses to Stephen Spooner at Panavision in Auckland for a quick lookover. I described in an earlier post a small ampont of "backlash" in the focus ring of the 12mm. He showed me that the whole front of the lens has a mall amount of movement. He prescribed a re gtease and maybe the internal sliders need some fixing. Maybe a couple of hours work so not major. We put all the lenses on the projector and they all looked really sharp and had accurate focus marks, except the 12mm lens. All except the 12mm could show a clean 200 line pairs/mm. I think the 12mm was about 140 lp/mm, the 200 lp/mm block didn't look as crisp. Then in a few seconds the machine told us the shim thickness needed to correct the 12mm at a distance of 4', 8/1000mm. Way cool. Interesting and fun. Cheers, Gregg.

Thanks Tom, I was going to cheap nail polish for that. Smells like old school nitrocelulose laquer.

I didn't do that yet. If the "holes" are about 2mm diameter then what I saw on the 25mm could make sense. The screws were sitting loosly in the holes and became progressively constrained as they were screwed in. They actually were sitting about 2 or 3 turns loose. Thanks, Gregg.

Hey Dom, Thanks. The 25mm with the wiggly focus ring is all fixed. The scews were very loose. I tried to screw them all in roughly the same amount. The tightening torque I did wwas very light, just a light feel on my finger tips with a 10mm diameter handle on the screwdriver. The 12mm does in fact have some rotational movement of the front of the lens relative to the mount. It is so small I'm not sure I can see it, but you can feel it easily with your finger tips. So that one may need the doctor. Cheers, Gregg.

I'm looking at some (S16) Zeiss MK II distagons. Ex German TV, quite cheap, optically quite clean and looking good through the viewfinder and hitting the focus marks. But on a couple of them there is some mechanical wear or loosness in the focus ring or what I assume are cams inside. I will show them to a good lens tech in a few days, but I'm really curious to get some ideas about it. The 12mm has what feels to the fingers like a fraction of a mm backlash in the focus ring. The little thud that you feel at either end of this is quite distict. The grease is fairly viscous so it's hard to tell if there is inertia involved or not. Like maybe something heavy is being rotated over that fraction of a degree. The 25mm has what feels like a very loose focus ring. If you look at the edge of the focus ring you see almost a mmm of completely free backlash in the focus movement (about 3/4 of a degree). You can wiggle the focus ring about the vertical and horizontal axis so you see over a mm of movement at the edge (a bit over a degree) Both these lenses look fine through the viewfinder while working the focus ring. You could actually use them just like that. Any thoughts? Dom? Cheers, Gregg.

I had talked to Stephen before about servicing ACLs. He would have a go as a home job but was unfamiliar with them. I looked around for some service docs that wouyld help but didn't yet find any, just some parts drawings. From experience with other cameras I think he could guess generic lubricants for the different parts of the magazines. I was just a bit shy of ringing up the Panavisiuon techs too often every time I was stuck. On my third magazine I am a bit faster, but it is still a lot of work to do a full dissassembly and lube. I realize now that my service guy from the 1980s never used to do all of this every time. Thinking of easily availablr generic lubricants. The synthetic grease that my service tech used in the camera body in 1995 looks and feels just like the TF2 Lithium Grease from the local bike shop. Cheers, Gregg

Hey Tony, There is someone selling photocopies of them on eBay http://global.ebay.com/Arri-Arriflex-IIB-IIC-Factory-Repair-Manual/200400688386/item maybe someone on the forum has a scanned copy they can send for free. Cheers, Gregg