Gregg MacPherson

The back story or motivation for this post is the three English Eclair ACL 400' mags that I had sitting here, unusable due to needing service. I don't know anyone left in NZ who knows how to survice them , so, with some research and care I decided to service them myself. I had the parts diagram but not the service manual. All went really well, except that I don't know what are appropriate lubricants for diffent parts. I saw a post by Chuck Colburn where he stated the lubricants they used on all the cameras they serviced. looked like this: Losoid. -33B for movement gearing, Arri phenolic pull down claws, most lens rotating and sliuding surfaces. -BBR-1 for ball bearings, fibre gearing. - #70 for areas needing heavier lube. I think those are all greases. A good start, but not easy to find. So my question is, are there generic, readily available lubricants that will serve? Cheers, Gregg

Pretty cool thing to do, but quite bulky eh. There was a guy in Canada who recently sold a really nice ACL kit who had made a video tap with that idea, but I think it was a small camera. I lost the reference. I have an AZ Spectrum B&W unit that I could only test recently as I didn't have a monitor. I ended up buying a Transvideo 5" monitor recently so I could test it. The image wasn't very bright, but it may be the monitor. Unfortunately testing an NTSC-only monitore down here in Neuvel Zealandia is less easy. Maybe I'll try borrowing a decent monitor and report back. I asked Andrew at AZ Spectrum what monitor I should use and he basically said anything. But I'm wondering what people use. These systems are needed for basic framing, so the image needs high brightness and contrast. For those wanting to build their own system there have been some used video taps sold cheap on eBay recently that one could adapt. Cheers, Gregg

Thanks Bernie, I saw their website and all the lenses they still stock. But nobody answered my emaid. I'll brush up on my high school French and phone them. In the meantime I decided to sell my nice Kinoptik 9mm T1.7. Cheers, Gregg.

Does anyone know who sells Kinoptik lenses? I emailed Kinoptik (in English - je ne parle Fracais mais un petite) and got no reply. I find nothing on the web. I have an almost new Kinoptic Grand Angle 9mm T1.7. Beautful modern lens with integral focus and aperture gears. I was deciding wether to try adding to that but Kinoptic are quite rare. Cheers, Gregg.

I came back to this servicing problem again. I have three English 400' mags sitting around here. All need servicing and feel too stiff when you manually turn the drive sprocket. I removed the front of the mag with its pressure plate to get a better look. I removed the plate holding the two "guide shoes", the asemblies that sit around the drive sprocket. Also removed the take up arm assembly and its spring system on the feed side. I could now see the toothed belt connecting the drive sprocket spindle to the take up arm drive spindle. It was obvious from the belt behaviour that the friction was in the take up arm spindle. The grease for the plain bronz bearing surface in that gear was old and quite dry. The drive sprocket bearing felt free and smooth. I think (guess) that has the same bearing idea as a French one and will have a single ball bearing with a light press fit in the drive sprocket hub. I have a new French one and the drive sprocket hub, which is the bearing housing, I can pull off the bearing and spindle after removing a grub screw. This English one I couldn't pull off. So there is no need to remove the brass gear from the drive sprocket assembly on the feed side. The assembly is designed to be taken apart from the take up side, IMHO. I decided to service everything else if possible. The rubber take up drive wheels I had a local small manufacturer make some for about $1 each. Testing I did a while ago on that looked good. If it pans out I'll forward info on dimensions and materials. As I have no drawings/parts list for these magazines I have to guess that the magazine oblique drive shaft has ball bearings like the drawings for the French mag, but I can't know for sure. The shaft does feel like it has them. If they are sealed bearings I will just leave them alone. I'll report back on how it goes. Cheers, Gregg

I was a bit hurried and didn't explain much. Print commonly means a positive exposed from a negative. So if you shoot camera negative you can process that and then make a positive print for editing, projection. So all your processing was negative rather than reversal. You can use reversal camera stock and make a positive (reveresal) print from that also if you had some reason to. Prints for projection or editing are normally made in a contact printer. The processed negative sits in contact with the print stock as they move continuously through the machine. If your art film can have some rough edges or inconsistencies than you can improvise something for crude contact printing. An optical printer, in the siple case basically re-photographs the camera negative frame by frame. Again, if you can accept something less than the commercial lab with the results then you can improvise a DIY optical printer. It's quite a lot of work to set up for even a crude result, but if you enjoy that kind of thing it's super interesting. Cheers, Gregg.

Hey Antonio, An old spring wound Bolex used to be my camera of choice for this kind of thing. Can do single frame for pixilation or animation, in camera effects. Stay standard 16mm and just use the old Bolex primes. They are normally quite sharp. If you like tinkering with mechanical things it is possible to make a crude optical printer with an old projector head and a bolex. Worked for me years ago. It is also possible to set up a crude B&W contact printer. I bipacked the film in the picture gate of a flatbed editor and exposed it with a thin slit of light from my magnalight torch. Some carboard construction with that for positioning and catching stray light. Cardboard cartons covered the spools. Results were not bad. Not as consistent or predictable as a lab. Cheers, Gregg.

Does anyone recognize this power adaptor/charger? It's a JVC AA-C50 that I was given and might find useful if I knew what type batteries it charged, NiCd/NiMhi/LiPo ? It is a 12V, 3.5A DC power supply, 12-16V charger. Fast and trickle charge switches automatically. Connectors are XLR4. Does anyone know what type battries it can charge, .NiCd/NiMhi/LiPo ? I scoured the net for an hour and didn't find anything yet. Thanks, Gregg

I think english 400' mags are all right, as long as the camera and mags are not in need of service. I would get a tech to check the mag over and he could compare the current draw. I used an English ACL I with the small original motor and English 400' mags a lot. My motor looked stock. I don't think there were any changes to the electronics. I had a friend with the same configuration also. I never had any problems with the motor. It looked like it got to speed in about 2 frames with a good battery. The camera and one of the 400' mags was always well serviced. Another couple of mags were probably overdue for a lube, but showed no problems with the motor. If you aren't able to get a tech to check over the mag before you need to use it you can check a couple of things yourself. With the take up wheels working on a core the drive sprocket should feel fairly free to your fingers. It's got an inching knob you can work. Then load some scrap film and see if there is any difference in the motor behaviour compared to a 200' mag. I would test about 800' with a few stops and starts to check the start up time (sync light) and motor temperature. Any unusual motor sound or running out of sync and you stop. Cheers, Gregg

Thanks Stephen and Tim, I'm trying to get a comparison between the maintainence requirements of these two cameras ao I get a better feel for the viability of ownhg one to shoot occasional pet projects. I used an ACL I that I owned quite a lot in the 80s...early 90s. It had seen quite a lot of use when I got it, but had been maintained. I had it regularly serviced. The last service was a full lube for the camera, two mags and the Angeneuix 12-120 plus colimation and it was less than US$ 450. This was done after hours by a TVNZ camera tech who knew ACLs, so I think it was cheaper than if done officially. With inflation here that is US$ 972 in todays currency. I think if one can keep the maintenace cost down and the camera is in good shape when you get it then an ACL is a viable one to own to shoot low budget personal projects. I'm thinking the Aatons are more fragile and expensive to maintain. Cheers, Gregg

Is anyone familiar with what the common periodic servicing requirements are for both the Aaton LTR and the Eclair ACL II ? Most importantly the lubrication. And some idea of the relative costs? I read somewhere on the forum that Aatons have scintered aluminum bushes that need a vacum process to reimpregnate (can't find that thread now, if anyone knows where it is). I'm thinking all ACLs have scintered bronze and a drop of oil on the bearing surface replenishes that. I heard that there are oil wells that get toped up in an LTR during service. What are they feeding? How often are they replenished? Any thoughts much apreciated. Cheers, Gregg

Hey Chris, I'm also in Auckland. Ping me on the email above. Maybe we could meet or corro' about film making or cameras. Cheers, Gregg. PS. Further to the 75fps problem solving. Re the tests I did measuring current with a multimeter. I'm wondering if the multimeter leads are a bit fine and affected our result.

I was a bit slack on solving that problem and reporting back. There are some ideas arising that may be usefull for camera users who are technically minded. My new tests were done in warmer temperatures. I think the camera is almost new and set up with close tolerances and these factors may have been a small contributor to the previous result (failing to run at sync at 75fps). For the new test I made a couple of changes but unfortunately I didn't test the changes individually so can't confirm which was the most significant. Firstly, I checked the potentiometers that adjust the motor drivers. The paint spot seal was cracked and one of the pots had (been) rotated a tiny amount, judging this just by the brocken paint being out of register. So I tried to put the pots back as they were when they were spoted with paint. Also I had a look (@24fps) at the variation in noise and amperage while making small adjustments to the pots. Changes in noise were noticable but small, changes in amperage were very small. Second, I took the motor off, checked the alignment to the rubber drive block carefully and remounted it. Carefully rensioned all the screws about the same. Third. I used the on off switches on the body rather than the handgrip (later I tested 75fps with the handgrip switch and it still was OK) I used the very short onboard battery cable and used a less than full 1.9Ah NiCd battery starting at 12.7V no load voltage. RESULTS: Ran fine at 75fps with lots of stops and starts for 180' , the length of the test roll. The sync light showed a nice quick start up. I then checked the no load bat voltage, was 12.34V. Ran another 180' the same way, all good, maybe the sync light showing a slightly longer start up. No load voltage then was 12.26V. Could have continued with more tests with this battery. I ran a test with a battery that had a no load V=12V and I could not get speed @75fps. CONCLUSIONS AND IDEAS: Don't know what the dominant factor is out of temperature, tight mechanism, motor alignment, motor driver pot adjustment. I owe some thanks to the AZ Spectrum man for his ideas. Not sure if I will make a higher voltage battery for high speed as per his recomendation. I may just make a jumper cable so I can double tha capacity of my normal batteries. Switching to NiMhi will be a great move also. I read recently in the Eclair list in the Topica forum someones experience with high speed with ACL II with the latest motor. He said that voltage had to be over 12V. If anyone has any of the following that they can share please contact me: - Owner manual for ACL II - Circut diagrams for ACL II. - Workshop service/repair manuals for ACL I or ACL II Cheers, Gregg <viz@xtra.co.nz>

I hoped I could watch that here in New Zealand but couldn't unfortunately.

I like ACL's. There are some bargains on eBay. Some people put the likely price on their camera or even over price it and wait for someone to see it. Others just put a very low starting price and accept whatever happens over the few days. This is an example. Actually an ACL II S16, but no 400' mags and I don't think it had a S16 zoom. Sold for $798. http://www.ebay.com/itm/250925415443?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649 You need to know when a camera last had a proffessional lube and check over. Where are you located? Access to servicing expertise could be a deciding factor in buying or not buying a camera. Cheers, Gregg

There have been som truely inspiring efforts in DIY telecine. Have a look at these threads http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=36613&pid=353410&st=60entry353410 and can't find the other thread but it's called "So I built a DIY scanner" Cheers, Gregg.

Hey Jason, I'm pretty sure that the battery bracket screws onto the ACL I and II the same way. My guess is that the hole pattern is the same but I'm not 100 percent on that. To mount the bracket, two screws on the camera body are replaced with longer ones. To me this battery mount puts stress on a weak part of the camera, basically stresses the screws. I saw a photo of one camera that used velcrose to attach the battery to the magazine so it wouldn't move around and stress those screws. If you can borrow the Eclair battery brackets you could replicate them fairly easily if you want to stay compatible. The part on the camera is from flat stock and the part on the battery is from angle stock. The two exposed screws on the bracket on the battery that slot into the bracket on the camera could be improvised with normal screws and short pieces of tube. If want to do this but haven't got an original to work from I could send photos or some dimensions. I used to quite like the separate battery, just on a shoulder strap. The camera is lighter, but the small Jaeger power connection used to get a hard time. I recently got an ACL II with a Canon XLR4 connection (and on board battery). With the ACL II base, big Kinoptic finder and latest motor it's getting heavier. I was thinking of making an integrated hand holding rig: handles, shoulder pad and battery attachment behind that. Never got around to it yet. Are you using NiCd, NiMhi or gell cells? Cheers, Gregg

I don't know if anyone looked at the comments posted by by Leuan in that Guardian article. For me it brings up some ideas that are crucial for considering the differences between film and digital. I didn't yet try to explore the experiments he refers to. Some experiments were made measuring brain wave activity for pople watching film vs digital motion pictures. Film watchers had higher alpha waves. These waves are normaly associuated with subjective experience, like meditation, maybe some contemplative experience. I think there was some speculation about the function of the alternation between the complete projected film frame and the black screen with the closed shutter. Do we fall into a subjective state, transcend, between the film frames? To me this is analogous to how experience itself can be described. It's all in the gap. Digital watchers, showed an increase in beta waves, the waves associated with active experience objective experience. These styles of experience, the objective vs subjective, may not be simultaneously compatible. So my imediate thought was that digital media as an unstoppable modern trend is part of the movement to a more objective and particular world. It's a wold where subtlety, subjectivity and wholenes are harder to find. It's a world populated by increasingly discrete and separated looking things, that have an increasingly hard time finding connection or relationship or a comfortable sense of context or belonging. The fact that this modern trend is expressed everywhere or is unstoppable does not mean that it is in every sense good. So will some artists enjoy the then exstinct film medium. I think so. Maybe I can suggest that artists are of two kinds. There are those who sense or anticipate the coming changes in the world, and even if those changes are destructive, offer a facinating portal or intuit insights into the future qualities of experience. There is another kind of artist, at least in theory, who's function is to remind us of our nature, whether it's emotional, spiritual, or basic sense of identity as human beings. As the wave of digital overwhelms us, those working in the film industry have to adapt and survive. But I'm hoping that some artist will use this medium indefinately. Cheers Gregg.

Hey Boris, I can't remember what the SR extension consists of. Did it have it's own diopter adjustment and eye piece? Maybe it's easier to just get an Arri or Aaton camera instead. The ACL II with the big Kinoptik finder is about as heavy as an SR. Cheers Gregg.

Hey Boris, Thanks for that. I was curious about all this when I saw a TMC-2 cheap on eBay. Cheers Gregg

Years ago I nearly bought a non reflex CP16. The gate had some tiny balls that sat in the film sprockets for regestration. I did a regestration test, shooting some parrallel lines, then rewinding the film, rotating the lines about 5 degrees and reshooting. The two sets of lines weren't stable together, so just intuitively, that was a fail. Good excuse not to buy the camera. Gregg

Does anyone know if any of the Tobin Milliframe Controllers can controlll frame rates on an ACL II with Thomson crystal controlled variable speed motor. The camera base has a six pin socket on the right hand side that is supposed to be for "external control" Thanks for any ideas. Gregg.

I quite enjoyed watching that. I'll let the others critique the photography. As a piece of film making. They are quite big ideas in there, free will vs determinism, the implications on the emotional and psychological state of someone who is about to kill, the ambiguous identity of the messenger. But all that internal idea and emotion is not visually expressed. Imagine for example that the girls ideas are not spoken as dialogue and the visuals attempt to show the internal emtional states. It would be interesting to see the extreme emotions, or an explosion of images that expressed the ideas. Does time have to be so linear and metronomic. Can't it be fractured? Maybe the girl didn't open the door untill the end. Maybe the killing had already happened, but we didn't know that untill the end. Cheers Gregg

Scroll down about 6 screens through the comments to see the first post by Leuan where he talks about the different brainwaves (alpha vs beta) observed in people watching film vs digital.

Has anyone used or had a good look at a Proaim matte box MB-900B. They are a really cheap price, normally about US$400 - 500. Have some good design features that look like being a study on the big brands, but I'm guessing they will have some defects in the build quality or materials. The only opinion I heard on these sofar was from an engineer on the DVXuser forum. He really liked it for the price, but some or all of the lock knobs have plastic heads. For those who don't know it, it's a swing away with one 4x4 and two 4x5.65 holders. Maybe is being replaced by a new model. http://www.proaimshop.com/pas/product.php?productid=17604&cat=255&page=1 If you've used one but don't want anyone to know you can PM me (smiling). Cheers Gregg