Gregg MacPherson

Re the idea of ordering the ground glass (gg) re-etch yourself from SHURCO. I immediately thought that unless there were spare gg in circulation, you would have to remove it yourself or use someone local, both hazardous if lacking familiarity or skill. This was to avoid having the camera sit for an extra 3 months at VP while the GG went to SHURCO. But, even if that had to happen, customer could still precommit by paying for the gg etch at the start. Are there any spare ggs out there? If all those wanting conversions could let Paul at VP know, that would affect what happens. Gregg.

ACL SERVICING AND S16 CONVERSION at VISUAL PRODUCTS. Summary of email from Paul Scaglione I just got a long email from Paul explaining everything. I hope it's ok if I give a short summary of facts... - The business needs him to spend more time on prepping Arri and Aatons for resale, which is more profitable. - People are unwilling to spend as much to buy or upgrade ACL compared to Arri or Aaton. - Arri and Aaton are the most common cameras in need, so VP's parts inventory and supply sources favor those. - ACL electronics are a "huge issue". There's only one guy in the States fully versed, Andrew at AZSpectrum. He has the same issue with Arri, Aaton being more profitable, so turnaround on Eclair jobs is often slow. - Ground glass re-etch has a 3 month turnaround. Only one guy can do it right. They aren't holding stock at VP. They're worth $500 each. - Quoting Paul.."Both myself and Andrzej at AZ-Spectrum will work on Eclair bits up to & including conversions however (it will) always come behind equipment sales and can unfortunately sit on the shelf for months before completion." So the two important ideas arising are... Need to be very patient and plan ahead. Parts don't seem to be a problem, just a supply time and stock cost issue for the ground glass. Maybe people could precommit to that cost, or order it themselves, maybe as a group. (VP have the IP on the etch design so it's only for jobs at VP) Paul would like to take on a trainee but the business doesn't agree yet. (if you are young and keen, go there and try to persuade them). Gregg.

I just emailed Paul asking the questions and inviting him to look in on this thread. Gregg.

I forgot about the shifting of the view finder mount. Thanks. If VP were short of a part for the conversion maybe that might change things. Paul Scaglione is the one to ask there, and it would be useful to know exactly what they are short of. I'm sure VP are able to make or get parts made if they want to. Just got email from Paul re an ACL part so he's still active. For the record, I like VP's conversions best. To be fair, Les seems like a wizard in the machine shop. Does anyone know if he does all his design and machining himself. Maybe his son works with him. I keep wondering if there are older ACL techs in Europe that we are missing. Someone could be out of circulation, in semi retirement but very useful. But the leads provoking this feeling are about 10 or more years old.

I was just thinking that it may save money, depending on the costs for converting the camera body. Can you let us all know what VP's price is for the conversion? Conversion of the body alone? If you have a really clean late model ACL II and can afford the conversion, maybe that is the way.

Hey Travis, Paul Scaglione at Visual Products is still there I think. VP have the reutation for the most thorough and high quality conversions. Les B. will be cheaper but there are less elements to his conversion. There may yet be one or two techs in Europe that are able. Trying to remember all the elements for a full ACL conversion by VP (someone let me know if I miss something)....gate, shutter mod, not sure if the mirror is moded, mirror linkage, lens re centred, magnifying block sometimes removed from the ground glass, ground glass re etched by SURCO with VP S16 design, mag rollers machined on S16 edge. The VP S16 ground glass is very nice to use. Many converted ground glass are crude, not a complete re etch, some do almost nothing at all. I don't think any ACL conversions ever had machining of the pressure plate, loop formers, guide shoes or drive sprocket. So it seems sensible to think that the later mags with the separate centre pressure plate will be better for S16. Only a very small area is actually under pressure, just like an SR. Bruce at Aranda once told me that some people just used unmodified mags for S16, with no problems. Another option. I have a bare S16 body, no motor, view finder or side handle module, converted by Paul at VP...that I was going to sell. I needs service, it was making a tick, tick, tick noise like the shutter was just touching the body casting. Paul thought it might take only 2-3 hours and would be a CLA. If interested, PM me and I can forward Pauls comments. I noticed it also needs a new 9 pin canon socket, so that will add cost. I have the part already. I don't know how to price this body, so maybe it has to go to eBay.... It used to be the only sane advice was to not convert, just wait and buy an already converted S16 version, save money. But cameras are either super scarce or priced too high by brokers... PM me if I can help. Gregg

Daniel may be right suggesting a re-cell due to age, but if only running 24fps you may be fine for a while. Some short notes on charging rates and cell behaviour here... https://www.powerstream.com/NiMH.htm#:~:text=Fastest Charging,-hours for 1.5 hours).

If you lift the end of the battery pack up a bit and spread the opening in the plastic cover you may see the Ah spec on a cell. can do at both ends.

Reverse polarity meaning positive and negative are reversed at the camera. If all you are doing is replacing a Tamiya conector just make sure that it's black to black and red to red (assuming that the original wiring is correct). If it's not clear then get a friend who does electronics to do it for you. The two Jaeger connectors on the battery...use either. ACLs don't like the V getting low. So I would be cautious of adding more load to the battery with accessories. You need to know what the Ah is of the NiMhi cells. Ah can be a lot higher than 1.2. It will be written on the cells. Normally if you recell you note it on the case. Ask the prev owner, or just open the box. For higher fps you need the V up and the biggest Ah you can. I don't know what A for the charger, but your 900mA doesn't sound slow to me. Google it, there will be something. There is some basic electronics in my battery cases that I think is for the original Charger to read the NiCad battery behaviour. Not sure what one does with that when switching to NiMhi, maybe just ignore it. I'm not an electronics guy either, so can only guess that you have an in line voltage regulator in that pic. Last pic looks like a canon XLR-4

Those are both Jaeger. The Canon is an XLR 4, easy to find images online. Not hard to solder but if your soldering is bad maybe the Tamiya idea is better. Be careful with battery polarity. Check the wiring diags in the manuals if you need. If just replacing one of the Tamiya connectors just keep positive to positive and neg to neg. ACLII has a fuse visible at the back of the camera base that I think protects it, ACL I does not. Reverse polarity is bad for ACLI. Does the 1.5 have a visible fuse? You could ask the prev owner whether he recelled with NiCad or NiMhi. Or open the case and see. NiCad are much harder to look after, especially if not used for months. NiMhi are much better

What connector is on your camera? 4 pin Jaeger or Canon? Are your batteries original ACL plastic cases with jaeger connector? If you have Jaeger on camera and Jaeger on battery it would explain your two cables. The connector you show is non standard, so it doesn't matter what connector is used there. But it might be useful to veer to the standard and use 4 pin Canon there. The standard ACL cable has Jaeger at one end and Canon at the other. ACLI has Jaeger on the camera and mine had Canon on the battery. ACLII has Canon on the camera and Jaeger on the battery. If you have a standard plastic battery case with Nicad cells, which are a real pain, you could switch to NiMhi cells and have less trouble if you are handy with solder. Get cells with tabs, high Ah. Need to buy a charger on eBay. Other guys have stitched together non standard battery setups for the ACL. Search the forum. Some other replies as I write. Hope this is still usefull.

Uploading the pics was tricky. Send me your email if you want a full set of pics.

more pics

...more pics..have to spread the upload over ore posts

These will be advertised on the cinemarketplace. Just wanted to notify here in case it gets lost there. Also, technical questions about the type, may, beyond some point, be more useful in the Eclair forum.

Two English 400'magazines. Cosmetically a bit scruffy. Fully disassembled, cleaned and lubed except for feed and take up spindles. New drive sprocket bearings and rubber take up tyres. No plastic pressure plate covers. This is the mag that Eclair designed for the ACL I, which had the small Tomson motor. This camera/motor/mag combination is designed to not overload. I shot a lot of film this exact way in the 80s. The mag draws less amps than the french mag. I tested the current draw after the lube and it was on par with a 200' mag English 400' mags run fine on any ACL. Some have used them unmodified for S16. They can be S16 modeded just like the French ones. The English mag take up system has two rubber tyres that wind the film emulsion-in onto the takeup roll. Looks weird but that's how the design keeps the torque low. Price (pair) USD700, shipping (pair) to USA or Europe, about USD120. Pictures below. Message me with an email address if you want more pictures. SERVICE NOTES..... I'm not a trained camera tech but I have now serviced three of these English mags for myself. Fully disassembling, cleaning, lubing, and a couple of adjustments. - Drive sprockets ball bearing replaced and plain bearing lubed. - The mag door latches have been adjusted so the door closes perfectly. - Sound deadening has been reglued in a couple of places.(Ados 4F). - The take up arm torque I set by feel (memory). - Pressure plate feels normal (not measured) - The "tyres" on the take up arm were replaced with tyres I had made. - Scratch tested, ok, and take up system ok, tension of the wind good and tracking, alignment good. Lubricants used.... - Oblique drive shaft gears and bearings...synthetic brake caliper grease. - Plain bearings that have load...tacky white synthetic grease - Plain bearings with no load (film rollers)...light synthetic oil. If you have a regular service plan for your camera then I would get your tech to give them a quick look over then. Some guys may measure the presure plate spring force and take up arm torque. NOTE: There is nick out of the rubber seal around the pressure plate on M3. Should really be replaced, though I don't remember a problem from it. Cosmetically they show wear and tear, little chips on the black paint, and one or two places where tape adheasive won't fully come off. No plastic presure plate covers. These mags never did, and I have no spares. I have made one out of cardboard and tape before (see pic) and a simple metal DIY one is here. M2 and M3 can travel with those. Any questions please ask.

If you can't read what the battery cell type is, maybe take a pic of the charger. The original NiCad charger is easy to spot.

Do you have a basic multimeter to measure V? Pins 1 and 4 on the canon end of the cable. Can't remember which pins on the jaeger socket on the battery, but trial and error to find out was safe on those batteries.

What about giving a cheap V meter to each battery pack. That could be also useful for looking at voltage drop while running at higher speeds.

Kinetals were used on Eclair ACLs. All ACLs have the same mounts and mirror geometry and shutter plane, so it doesn't matter which version of ACL. Cheers. Oh, Dom beat me to it.

Hey Uli, what I didn't explicitly say above is that you could get MK II or III lenses in PL mount and swap the mount to a used Arri B mount (may still find them cheap). Otherwise a new aftermarket Arri B mount may be the same cost as the PL ones, almost USD400. I think Visual Products used to list them. I don't know if the exact Zeiss eight hole mount geometry has been used on other S16 lenses. Optar Illunia? Dom might know. Cine Kowa may be another option, they were in Arri B mount.

Mk IIs with Arri B mount were quite common on eBay a few years ago. Their mount to lens connection uses the same 8 hole flange as the PL mount,. So the Arri B and PL mounts are interchangeable. Normally reshimed if the mount is swapped over. Aftermarket 8 hole PL mounts of reliable quality are not normally cheap, but used Zeiss 8 hole Arri B mounts may still be turning up on eBay cheap if you need that.

What ACL and motor do you have? I have two 400' English mags that I am going to sell. These mags were designed for the small Tomson motor. They have a low current draw take up system. Though they can be used on any ACL. They were fully disassembled, cleaned and lubed, new take up tyres, by me (not a trained camera tech but I have done these mags before). The scratch test is good. I will check the current draw before selling. PM me for any more info. Gregg.

I really love the old analogue Sekonic L-398(A). Rugged, reliable, a great backup meter and a great learning tool. And until recently, really cheap. The exp calculation from the reading is done with the dial on the body and is just routine. The sensitivity of modern digital cameras may marginalize it a bit now. At 800ASA shooting a tad down on T2 with only 8 fc, the scales on the meter are getting hard to meaningfully read at 8 and below. So Phil is right, I suppose. But "primative" is very unkind, and "very, very primitive" is....... Hendrikus, I bought one of these cheap for my son not long ago and he isn't using it. If you want to try it out for a sew days, PM me (upper right, envelope icon). Gregg.

I you can't find a proper made to fit one, then...these thoughts. I used to use what I thought was an Arri SR barney, draped over the rear of the camera and mag. It didn't fit properly around the front of the camera, around the lens like most of the "made for type" barneys do. And it worked very well. Trying to understand why, my thoughts were...The camera was very well maintained and ran very quiet to begin with. A properly maintained ACL camera I think sheds most of its noise to the rear. Anyway, maybe worth trying with what's available. If you are on the tripod you can even use a heavy woolen blanket folded a few times to create thickness. Whatever you use, vacume all really well so you don't introduce dust. Edit...Adding more ideas. Soft fabrics, carpets absorb sound and help reduce the reflections off walls etc. So the configuration of the environment and the shot(s), the surface qualities, the background sound, lots of things affect how loud a camera will seem.