Gregg MacPherson

This is the earlier 19mm rod version with a machined casting for the base. I thought it would be useful to have 19mm rods to allow stronger, stiffer support for large telephoto lenses, and a very stiff, steady platform to experiment with in camera mattes. And use the rod mount base to allow integrated handles, shoulder pad and battery mounting. Having continuous rods to the rear increases the overall strength. You might see that there is a small conflict with the connector protruding from the base, affecting the rod if it is continuous to the rear as shown. Offsetting the rod position a couple of mm would help, but is unappealing. Rods going only forward is possible if the rod mount is a bit longer. Other workarounds are possible. It should be possible to make the base with a flat plate and some Chinese 19mm rod clamps. Gregg

Useful links for Eclair ACL on the forum List of Technicians Who Service ACLs, including potential ones https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/87469-technicians-who-service-eclair-acls/page/5/#comment-559268 Eclair Flea Market https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/91893-eclair-flea-market/ Boris Belay on Eclair ACL History https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/35774-eclair-acl-historyinfo-needed-for-website/ Notes for the new ACL User https://cinematography.com/index.php?/topic/100221-notes-for-the-new-acl-user/ Useful links for Eclair ACL...from elsewhere User manuals and spare parts drawings/docs They are listed on the Cameras Eclair website. Links, with notes on sources, are pasted below. https://eclaircameras.wordpress.com/downloads/ British-made ACL manual [Courtesy of Eric Bickernicks] British-made ACL Parts Catalogue [Courtesy of Nicolas Rey] French-made ACL manual [Courtesy of Rick Lieberman] French-made ACL manual (in French & English language) [Courtesy of Nicolas Rey] French-made ACL spare parts catalogue [Courtesy of Nicolas Rey] French-made ACL LEMO plug connections diagram [Courtesy of Nicolas Rey] French-made ACL hand drawings [Courtesy of Nicolas Rey] SAY YES 2 ANALOG website by Erkan Umut (Istanbul, Turkey) has lots of useful info on ACLs. https://sayyes2analog.wordpress.com/2015/01/23/eclair-acl/ Please suggest other links in your replies below, discuss, debate. I will copy useful links to the list above. Hopefully, replies keep on topic, but human nature is what it is ? Gregg Eclair Moderator. PM: top right of page Email: viz(at)xtra.co.nz Telefunk: sixtyfour274 377 086

Save other interesting links to the Eclair forum As well as the short lists of links in the two pinned topics above, we can save links here to anything interesting. I didn't yet search back very far. Make suggestions and I can add to or edit the list below. new ALCS crystal sync motor for Eclair ACL https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/93357-new-alcs-crystal-sync-motor-for-eclair-acl/ NPR crystal motor by ALCS (Aapo may make a new Xtal NPR motor) https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/99577-new-eclair-npr-crystal-motor-by-alcs/#comment-580428 Everything you always wanted to know about the MIMUL motor* (*but were afraid to ask) https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/91841-everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-the-mimul-motor-but-were-afraid-to-ask/ke a new Xtal ke Eclair ACL, sintered bronze bushes lubrication.... https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/91741-eclair-acl-sintered-bronze-bushes-lubrication/ English ACL 400' mags. Facts and Myths...(includes some info on servicing) https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/91664-english-acl-400-mags-facts-and-myths/ ACL viewfinder - improving hand held ergonomics https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/98112-acl-viewfinder-improving-hand-held-ergonomics/ Ideas for ACL integrated rod base, handle mounts, battery mount, shoulder pad mount. https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/91574-ideas-for-acl-integrated-rod-base-handle-mounts-battery-mount-shoulder-pad-mount/ Gregg.

Potential Camera Techs for ACL Graham Jones...Lemac, Sydney was on the original potentials list but was taken off... I emailed Graham and he replied that he did not service or repair ACL. The last one he saw was 20 years ago. He had no parts or drawings. I offered him the parts drawings (of course)? Gregg.

Technicians who service Eclair ACLs...Summary. Short List of Camera Techs for ACL Criteria.... - Expertise as camera techs with Arri/Aaton etc, CLA, repair/rebuild, collimation. - Have some expertise/experience with ACLs. - Confirmed they will accept work on ACLs. UK and Europe Les Bosher ..South Wales, UK. S16 ACL conversions, servicing, custom rod sets, accessories, PL/TS-1 mount adapters for ACL, custom lens mounts. Les' S16 ACL conversions have less features/elements, no ground glass re-etch, but are cheaper. A small boutique business, he and his son. Be patient with contact and turnaround time. Excellent design and machine shop skills on the parts I have seen (Gregg). USA Visual Products...Ohio Paul Scaglione....(drops in to the forum occasionally) S16 ACL conversions, servicing, rebuilds. Paul's S16 conversions are fully featured, including re-etched S16 ground glass. VP is a well established business with a volume of Arri/Aaton work taking priority. Talk or PM with Paul. Be patient on the turnaround time, especially if the job needs a ground glass re-etch (piece work by SHURCO). Alan Gordon Enterprises...LA They used to advertise expertise in ACL and parts. The website advertises service for all film cameras. If someone is in LA can they clarify this. Get the names of any techs there who've worked on ACL. Du-All Camera...NY Service/overhaul of ACL. Website gives good detail on all the cameras they service, including NPR, and prices. Australasia Dom Jaeger...now working as a lens technician at Panavision Melbourne..(a regular on the forum) His expertise is in Arriflex, Movicam and Bolex, but he has worked on many other cameras over the years, including a few Aatons and Eclairs. Things like flange depth, ground glass focus, checking general function and fault-finding mechanical issues, he can help. If we can find good service documents he might consider overhauls, noise reduction, electrical faults (Gregg thinks). I think Dom is quite busy at Panavision, but likes to help, and loves the film cameras. List of Potential Camera Techs for ACL These guys have skills but may not tick all the boxes, or may need further research, or just encouragement. Feel free to do that and report back so we can update. Try not to over tax their patience, especially if they are on the fence, undecided. UK and Europe (potentials) Thanks Heikki, most of these are your discoveries... Simon Wyss...Switzerland...(regular on the forum) Experienced and adaptable with lots of different cameras. Interested in working on ACLs (not on S16 converted ones), but hasn't much familiarity yet. Has repaired an ACL motor but I don't know the details. Boris Belay...Brussels, Belgium...(occasionally on the forum) A real expert on Eclair who has serviced his own ACLs and (I think), also his friends cameras. I don't know if he has professional experience or if he will accept ACL service jobs... Christophe Goulard...Paris. Involved with Re-Voir and L'Abominables. He serviced the ACL 1.5 recently advertised by Steven Jackson on the forum. Heikki reports that he has previously made replacement electronics for the ACL motor. He does not have a formal business, or means of easy contact, so some care is needed in the research. Someone who lives near Paris perhaps, who can make contact personally. Daniil Nevskij...Sweden/Finland Heikki.."(He) modifies Arriflex cameras to 2-perf and services a range of Arriflex cameras for rental houses has told to me that he has previous experience with ACLs (and owns one) but that he doesn't like them because they are "too French". No idea, if he can be asked to service them. Anyway, he's a real wizard. Was previously located in Russia, but now in the Sweden-Finland -axis." https://instagram.com/kamera_doctor?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y= Georg Bogner...Germany Heikki..."I asked him about servicing my mags in 2020 and he told me doesn't work on them anymore due to retirement. Germany." http://cameraservice-bogner.de/ Retired guys should not be written off... they sometimes will do it, and their overheads are low... Duncan's Russian ACL motor expert (sorry, I lost the name) Duncan found this chap. He's previously made all new electronics for the latest model ACL motor. Nothing about that on his web pages, just lots of other film camera motor mods. I don't know how well set up he is to take jobs or enquiries. English skills unknown. Google translate worked for me on his web pages. Excuse the nude picture in the top left. Duncan thought there might be a restriction on access to this page, but it opened for me.. http://pouch.narod.ru/ USA (potentials) Conci Nelson... Heikki..."Conci is not a full time technician but has been trained by Bernie (S16 Inc) and is very good with rebuilding ACL magazines" Evan Ferrario ...LA Heikki..."Evan is not a full time technician but does maintenance on the side" Tony...AWcinema....LA?..not sure He posted some ACL camera body tear down videos on Youtube. I didn't agree with everything he said, but he's a very interesting and accessible guy..This contact data may be out of date...323-717-5775 or e mail...at awphoto67@yahoo.com There were originally 3 videos that covered the opening, movement block removal and shutter replacement. On short notice I just found these. So rummage, find and report back please for the update. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgxtOkldh9M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an2E3eHYrMs I think I tracked Tony down later, he might have been a drone operator/service specialist. Last point re finding technicians.. Please help find technicians familiar with ACL. You can PM me or Heikki if you need to. You have to keep an open mind. Opportunities come up....for example...maybe five years ago, there were two really skilled techs at Panavision Auckland who might have started looking at ACLs if they had the right nudge. I don't think they are still at Auckland. There was also a tech there who was familiar with repair on ACL electronics... Re updates and errors Please post updates and errors on this thread for now. I will set up a pinned thread, as a directory, with links pointing to useful info like this list. Contact me also by PM and email/phone. Cheers, Gregg. Email: viz(at)xtra.co.nz Telefunk: sixtyfour274 377 086

Tim made me a moderator in the Eclair sub-forum so it should be possible to correct errors in the techs list and make it easy to find.... I planed to make one or more pinned threads that will serve only as directories, containing links to important info on other threads. Or potentially, links to important info external to the forum. Those pinned "directories" could be open or locked (I don't know it all yet). If open, people could include additional links in the content of subsequent posts. They would need to be fairly disciplined about what they add, or we will loose the simplicity I'm hoping for. Any suggestions on these ideas? Gregg. Email: viz(at)xtra.co.nz Telefunk: sixtyfour274 377 086 PS: I can edit any posts from this point on, but the corrections to the techs list I may have to do by replicating it, editing that, and hiding the old version. So don't be alarmed if that disappears

I thought I would work on the tech list while I had a moment, post it as a loud update on Heikki's existing thread, then figure out the pinning etc later. Probably we need a pinned thread that we use just to list a directory of important threads. That pinned thread needs to be updatable, perhaps just by fresh posts, but that may need to be done by a moderator etc. I may ask Tim Tyler.

Any chance you can measure the thickness of the TS-1 flange, the flat part where the mounting screws go. I know the outer thread is raised and I think the C mount may be deeper than the thickness. I don't know what your machine shop skills are like (measurement). If you need suggestions let me know. Then we would have a better start point for guessing about material to machine away. Accurate drawings I believe are the key with projects like this. Then guesswork is almost gone. Gregg.

That's an interesting mixed metaphor. Both rocket building techs and surgeons have an obsession with cleanliness, wear protective clothes, and masks I think.

How far are the Micro 4/3 lenses protruding behind their mount flange. The pics online look like there's no protrusion. What might be useful,' to consider mods to ACL, would be 3 view dwgs or solid model showing gate, body, TS-1 flange with C mount and mirror. Let's talk about that on the Eclair sub-forum.....

Heikki, You posted at the same time as me. Good "show and tell" with the mount and body. Would the machining break through to the inside of the body? A bit of skilled work to do this, and then one is committed to the adapters to Micro 4/3. Which are are available...

The big TS-1 mount flange with C mount in the centre on the ACL has FFD=17.526mm, and the Micro 4/3 FFD=19.25mm. Difference=1.724mm. So not much space for the mount adapter to exist, or anything else (like the lens itself) protruding behind the Micro 4/3 flange. Unless it fits inside the C mount port, or that port was enlarged. ACLs have a really compact oscillating mirror system that allowed the designers a more compact camera body and a lens mount adapter system that builds from that big TS-1 mount quite close to the film plane. If re-inventing a film camera I don't know if you could get much more compact than that. Personally, I love the idea of optical view finders, but even if trying to replace that, I'm assuming there will still be a mirror and a ground glass/fibre optic/sensor...so space required for that image, or to relay it somewhere else. Gregg. PS: I'm unfamiliar with Micro 4/3 and had to look up their FFD on Wikipedia. If I'm in error, just correct me.

Simon Wyss posted this yesterday on The Technicians Who Service ACLs thread.... Re. oillite bearings. These are typical of the years from 1958 up in camera mechanisms, the sell-and-forget mentality. A movie camera differs from household apparatus in that it must work in the cold as well as in the heat, more like a car. Do we have oillite bearings with cars? Not in the crucial places I’d try to install a felt wick oil system, if a customer wants it. A felt lining of the surrounding area would swallow excessive oil. Two or three bores would need to be made to some parts as oil inlets. The alternative is service at regular intervals. The main problem of camera maintenance TODAY is that the cams only rarely see dozens and dozens of rolls run through them. In my experience those who scream the loudest for perfect lubrication expose three hundred-footers, then stop filming. As important as the lubrication of shafts in plain bearings is that of gears. Most camera manufacturers have never spent a thought to how gears could be well smeared. Often burrs are present on the tooth flanks prohibiting a good oil trail.

Busy for a day or two so will get to that one as I can, and will ponder whether one should. A pinned list sounds great, but we need to be updating it and include any research so that anyone can help. I have seen forums where they use pinning very effectively as a way to make ad hoc directories for the many useful threads they can't afford to loose. Seeking an orderly construction of thread topics/ subject matter we are fighting human nature and the gods it seems...witness the post above on sintered bush lubrication by the normally uber orderly Simon Wys, landing here rather than in a thread started explicitly just for that.?

Sorry, if you haven't seen that short paper that's not clear....100% and 90% were just reffering to the oil saturation level. @ Simon W. This is the thread where your insights about sintered bronze bushes should go.. Gregg.

From the graph showing oil content vs time, comparing the vacuum and hot immersion method in the page referred to by Dom above... Looks like the vacuum method gets about 100% and the immersion method get about 90%, so immersion sounds fine, just took 20 hours at 65-80degC vs 4 hours vacuum. Their vacuum would have been (guessing) full vacuum. The syringe, should be less vacuum. Vacuum pumps that pull close to total vacuum have been around for ages. I have one we used for composites. Actually, even an old fridge pump would be ok, they can pull quite a high vacuum. If the existing bushes are not worn i would be keen on trying to leave them in place, cleaning and re-impregnating in situ, which may be easy in a vac bag (infusion). Pressing bearings out, new ones in, or worse, having to resize the bushes, I'm not keen. Maybe if I had a wreck to test on I might be OK.

aapo, How do I pin a thread? Do I ask Tim Tyler? Before or after I make the thread? I'll sniff around in case the means are visible. Are pinned threads updateable? Gregg.

Hei Heikki, (if those words are in the right order)...I'm right now second guessing myself and wondering if, instead I should just put a big loud update on this thread. But for new people I think we need a new thread. And all the interesting stuff where people figure out how to do the ACL teardowns needs it's own list too. Gregg.

Well cripes people, we are 4 pages in, 3.5k views, expansively off topic and still haven't gathered a summary list of techs and what they do, accessible so that someone new can find it easily. I'm gonna steal Heikki's idea, start a new list, and on that one, only have the research on who, where and what they do, and a clear summarized list. Doing it now. I'll notify here when it's done. Gregg

Yes, makes me think that the spring force will vary, and may get weaker with age/use. The lock spring MIN106 if not replaceable could maybe be tweaked a bit, but haven't tried, don't know if it will tolerate it. If irreplaceable, be careful. I never tried a clothes peg. That would be a 1/2 clothes peg with those in NZ. I heard of one guy whos mag fell off and it just shattered into pieces...

The ACL uses many sintered bronze bushes in the movement block. They were, when manufactured, impregnated with lubricant that replenishes the bearing surface while the camera runs. There has been some concern and speculation on the lubricant's function with age. ACLs are about 40 years old, so some questions arise... In spite of advise in the user manual to never add oil, it's pretty certain that many people have been randomly trying to flood oil into the juncture between shaft and bush. Coupled with the potential for aged oil remaining in the pores, it seems unlikely that this ad hoc flooding approach is replenishing the bush. I speculate that it could allow a shallow region of aged oil to develop near the bearing surface of the bush, blocking the pores. Please, at any point, a few words from the wise will educate us all... There is one tech, Nathan Milford, who was doing intensive Aaton rebuilds, re-impregnating the sintered aluminum bushes under vacuum. I finally found an initial link to his posts on that...third post down.. https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/7988-buying-an-aaton-ltr-7-super16/#comment-61048 Somewhere there are other posts of his that describe in detail his vacuum process, and more. If you find that, please notify...He last visited the forum on 2010, his website's still there, so maybe he could be invited in to comment... Nathan seems to say that the Aaton porous aluminum bushes may run dry after 4 years. I don't make any assumptions about the sintered bronze ACL bushes from that. All the anecdotal evidence suggest a much longer timespan. But it's all interesting. Questions that arise for the ACL.. Can oil be added externally to the juncture between shaft/bush? If so, how much, how often, under what circumstances...and what specific oil. Though almost any ad hoc procedure may give some short term lubrication, can some problems arrise in the future? Some clear protocols might be useful. Is it possible to re-impregnate the bushes? What are the methods? Can it be done leaving the bushes in situ? Pasting some useful content from the Technicians Who Service ACLs thread... On 4/8/2022 at 7:33 PM, Dom Jaeger..... "Sintered bearings will dry out over decades. I don’t think just adding oil would necessarily be detrimental, but yeah it isn’t the correct way to lubricate them. Here’s an interesting discussion on ways to relubricate sintered bearings: https://www.lencoheaven.net/forum/index.php?topic=24899.0 " On 4/8/2022 at 09:23 PM, Gregg MacPherson... .....Good condensed read on re-impregnation methods. A simple infusion might work. Put the bearing in a small bag with two sealed tubes coming out. An exit path (with a tap) for the vacuum and an inlet path for the oil. A layer of fabric in there so that air and oil can move between the tube entry points and the bearing. Apply full vacuum, immerse other tube end in oil and remove plug. oil will migrate into the vacuum. I assumed this might be one of the ways it was done. Infusion is used a lot now with composites (carbon/epoxy etc) and some practical things can port from that field. I wonder if bushes could be left in their housings, cleaned and re-impregnated in situ like that. Just thinking aloud. I have tried oil re-impregnating the porous iron plain bearings for the feed rollers in an old wood working machine I have. I found a target temperature online, preheated the bearings and oil, watched oil sweat out of the bearing, then immersed them. I thought that by preheating the bearing I might remove some old oil, and as the temperature dropped oil would be sucked into the pores. Gregg There's other content on the issue on the same page, but mostly it's summarised by me above..

It's hard figuring this out without having a wreck to pull apart. I rethought, and the screws/pins would need to be orthogonal to the oblique plane, the contact face of the trans. shaft bearing mount and shim. Heikki, any chance of an ECU pic of the shim from above, or even an eyeball check. Your CUs already look quite sharp. I often use a reading glass lens or workshop magnifier as a diopter with cell phone.

So is the shim tapered also in the Y direction, thinner to camera left. Wish we had an ECU of that from above. That's the only way I can understand it. The contact face of the transmission shaft bearing mount (MIN50) would also have to be oblique to match that taper, with its screws/pins orthogonal to the plate the assembly mounts to (MIN5). Is it a weird result of translation that gives the big plate that the whole movement block is assembled upon the name "front plan" (MIN5)...? I'm prepared to be wrong, so until we know the exact geometry of the shim and how that adjustment works, there's doubt...but I don't think the tension on the screws for the transmission shaft mounting are a means of gear clearance adjustment. One could try to observe the gear clearance at the extreme up and down position of the shim. We assume that the top position will bind the gears. Can one try to feel the clearance at the low position. Finger pressed hard on the lower transmission shaft gear and see if you can feel a little play in the shutter spindle assembly. All this speculation will disappear with a few short words from the wise....But it can be an unfair ask if the answer is long, so one needs to be careful not to tax too much the time of experts. The learning to fly analogy is a fun one...In gliders (sailplanes) the instructor sits behind you and you can have the illusion of being in control of your own fate..then he shows you a spin for the first time, and you are looking at the ground slowly spinning around your feet..... Gregg PS: All these interesting things may become lost on the forum due to the title. Maybe we need to plan more on the way we organize, categorize our information.

You can now place wanted adds on eBay. Don't know if it costs.

Slow Horses Contemporary English spy show with Kirsten Scott Thomas and Gary Oldman. Love those two and I'm always looking out for an English spy show where the level of detail and tech is high and believable. Remember Spooks, great with character but MI5 was a bizarely small little club. I watched Slow Horses episode 3 first by mistake, and thought it might be too clever and immersive for me. Now starting episode 1 and the first eight minutes, before the tittles were pretty amazing and convincing. Definitely worth a look. Now back to it... Gregg.