Gregg MacPherson

Found that photo, and can't see the pins on the driving pinion, but can see the eccentric driving pin for the claw, and one can see that the drilled hole for the securing pin is at 90deg, just like the parts drawing. Heikki, is it clear what I'm talking about with the pin orientations on that complete assy? Gregg.

Referring to French parts drawings...and, my assy means assembly I do have a spare body with the motor off. The empty holes in the rubber coupler are vertical with the shutter open, so horisontal (parallel to camera base) if mirror was parked. So that sounds like the mr Tobin's description. After reading Heikki, I looked at the drawings and I can't see how the claw control shaft (20) with driving pinion assy (28E) could be assembled 90 deg off without putting the claw 90deg out of phase. The only idea I had is wondering if, prior to mirror parking, did randomly oriented driving pinion assys (the gear with the drive pins in the end) exist. The orientation of this assy is set by the hole that is drilled in it for the pin that secures it to the shaft, and of course the drilled hole in the shaft. If the movement block is out, one can see I think. Assuming the parts drawing is correct, the two pins on the driving pinion assy and the single eccentric drive pin at the other end, for the claw, should all be in plane. But the drawing may be just oriented so to make it easy to read. Calling on Heikki (again), are all the movement blocks you have, looking at that shaft, with pin orientation as described above...all three pins in plane? I remember now that you had one or more complete assys of that claw control shaft with gears, bushes etc, removed from the movement block. maybe the photos show it. I'll look. So, on Duncans skewiff body, the eccentric pin driving the claw will be 90deg out of phase with the pins on the driving pinion. Gregg

Just watched the Penelope delta one. Really sweet. Everything I learn about the work of Beauviala is an inspiration.

I think that is explicit. With the coupling sitting in the camera, we are looking at the face that is driven by the motor shaft. Oui?

Hey Duncan. It's puzzling. Someone who had serviced a lot of ACLs might know if they were all (supposed to be) with the pins in one or other orientation. I wonder how many movement blocks that Heikki has at hand. It would be useful to know if they all have the pins with the same orientation when the mirror is parked (shutter is closed). Assuming that all factory orientation is the same, I wonder if someone has re-assembled the movement and changed it...and the motor mirror parking somehow. I would be curious to pull my motor off and look. The camera has only been worked on by Paul at VP so should be factory. But fitting motors and tweaking the mount screws for noise is unappealing. Anyway, mirror parking's for pussies, what's wrong with an inching knob. Gregg.

@Dom Jaeger Slomo may not have any more so it might be moot. They were about 1/4 the VP or PSTechnik price. The clearance to allow shimming was there and the other dimensions seemed good. The fit into a PL lens port felt a bit snug to me, but I only had one port here to try, and I'm not used to PL. I polished a few microns off in a lathe and it's now about 5 microns bigger than the Zeiss one I have. Unfortunately my micrometer couldn't quite fit. I did a comparative measurement by removing the anvil. That cylinder is supposed to be 54 -(0.025-0.075)mm. Those specs might have come from you Dom.. I think there is a fraction of a mm radius in the corner where the Zeiss one has a pronounced undercut about 1mm wide. So they may not satisfy your criteria. I could probably send you one to look at if you're curious.

Are they MK I, II or III..? If they are eight hole mounts (II or III), Frank at Slomo Digital in LA was selling some stainless PL mounts not that long ago. They were quite cheap but didn't come with the black rear light baffle.

It reminds me of the Ronford F15, designed to allow the Arri II motor to extend below the tilt axis. It may still have quite a high max weight capacity. The Ronford had about 50lbs. Heikki, are you looking for an older, cheaper, higher capacity head for your ACL fully built up? There are some early Ronfords and O'Connors that can be cheap, but you may have to have them serviced.

There is a 6mm extension tube listed on page 5 of those lens specs. Extension tubes having no optical elements, right? The only "adapter" close to that length that I saw was 6.5mm length, just above on that page.

Pondering briefly on the idea that the cultural status of the viewing medium might force constraints on our style of experience....then... exceptions that violate the supposed principle... I started thinking about Too Old to Die Young again. They were attempting a 12 hour film, broken into manageable parts, most being about 1-1/2 hrs long. I think it goes without saying that we can't define a piece of experience populated by moving pictures simply by the particular medium of delivery. En route...this nice, short interview with Dharius Khondji on the collaboration with Refn. https://www.afcinema.com/Anaesthetized-by-colour.html?lang=fr

Tokyo Vice...a young American journalist (with fluent Japanese) finding his feet at a big Tokyo paper, exploring the criminal underworld. The juxtaposition of cultures is interesting, and it looked good.

The Old Man...with Jeff Bridges as maverick old spook in hiding, his gradually unfolding history in Afghanistan. Bridges is amazing, the character qualities are very finely realized. Not super actiony or complex, but the old spook can still scrap and kill to save himself.....

Hey Aapo, Plenty of ACLs have the PL mount and AZSpectrum video tap. Actually, an ACL kitted with PL, Arri-S and Arri-B mounts would be really useful if one had access to some old lenses. Schneider and Cook Kinetal for N16 were Arri-S. MkI Zeiss superspeeds (S16) were Arri-B, and some MKII also. If you could find a private owner who will rent maybe it's cheap. There are some good threads on the forum about lenses for 16/S16. I'm not sure which prime lenses Tyler is referring to with those focal lengths above. There are about nine Kinetals and the (MKII) Zeiss superspeeds go 9.5,12,16,25,50. My feeling is that using primes helps culture a logical visual language on a narrative, and you can achieve that even with a tiny inexperienced crew, if the director or photographer is up for it. Good luck with developing the electronics projects, Gregg.

Hey Dom, It would pay to leave the entire quote intact. Otherwise, a sustaining member has a big edit window and can remove or gloss over some gaffe or display of ignorance. (cue sarcasm and alarm) I'm just waiting for the moment where we are schooled on how to service cameras wearing our white cotton gloves. A logical, if absurd progression. Apparently some expert, referring to his 20 something years of experience in the industry, told us that we should be loading or mags and threading, wearing white cotton gloves...Oh...that was Tyler... Gregg.

Nicholas! Bravo! Welcome to the tiny club of souls who've had the nerve or common sense to call this vacuous nonsense out. Gregg

Thanks David. I'm out of date and need to catch up on these new technologies.

Could metal 3D printers make these parts? The design would then be closer to parts machined from metal. I heard there were aluminium printers, but I think there is stainless steel medium too now. A shame that potentially interesting ideas are on the Marketplace thread, where they are harder to find and will quickly get lost downstream.

There must still be people interested in doing this. Slow Motion Digital in LA say they "convert to 2-Perf: ARRI III, ARRI BL, and MovieCam"......

Paul Scaglione on ACL sintered bushes/lubrication..2 Gregg's email to Paul 25/May/2022....2 Hi Paul, Many thanks for that reply. Excellent! I posted it on the forum. I might have a couple of short follow up questions. Using vacuum to replenish the bushes after removing some parts that won't like the oil sounds do-able, but I don't know enough to re-fit some things, the ground glass for example. So I might restrict myself to cautiously spot lubricating what's accessible, as you describe. - I'm guessing that when applying oil at the juncture between shaft and bush it is just one tiny drop? - Do the bushes absorb freely through their flange surfaces if more is applied? Or is that avoided? Regards, Gregg. Paul's email to Gregg 25/May/2022....2 Again Gregg added some paragraph breaks. Some [edits] also, just so. HI Gregg, Yeah... If using the vacuum chamber approach, the viewing optics could take a bath in the process as well unless A) Removed and once removed are a bitch to get back in alignment so B) The best way to avoid disaster would be to set assembly into a cup upright with just the moving parts in the oil bath and the optics above. After drawing it down [applying vacuum], you should invert the assembly over a pan to drain the excess oil out of the voids either side of the cross shaft next to the mirror drive and gently flush the viewing screen & prism (if needed) with a paint-safe solvent such as 91% isopropyl alcohol to get all the oil off the ground glass & prism as well as the reflex mirror letting it drain off in to the pan. You would just have to be careful not to accidentally get any [alcohol] in the cross shaft or any moving parts in the process. You could probably mask off a couple places with painter's tape just to be sure. Do not use electronic or any spray cleaner as it most times comes out of the can very cold and can separate or destroy optics!!! If spot-lubricating, the bushings will soak light oil in and oil should be added fairly generously; a couple drops/ea. That will help for sure and last for a year or more but would not "load" them the same as if vacuumed down in an oil bath. Ideally some disassembly would allow more access to those bushings however the pins that hold everything in place are tiny/tapered and nearly impossible to know the proper orientation of shaft -to- pinned part unless you very carefully scratch mating marks into both before disassembly which is where the wise restraint kicks in; Back to spot-lubing... When spot-lubricating, the hardest place to feel like you are getting oil where it need to be is the cross shaft end bushings (especially at the motor end) as the bushings are fairly buried within. If you can pretty generously shoot some oil into the areas either side of the beveled gear for the reflex mirror drive it should puddle along the casting inside void and get to those bearings with a bit of tipping the assembly side to side. Any way you approach it, observance, planning and careful execution can work well to get oil where it can help and avoid getting it where is doesn't. Hope all this helps! Best, Paul Scaglione Sr. Technician/Designer Visual Products Inc.

Re the lubrication of the sintered bushes, I did ask Paul Scaglione at VP and he gave some good info. It's on the Eclair ACL, Sintered Bronze Bushes thread... https://cinematography.com/index.php?/forums/topic/91741-eclair-acl-sintered-bronze-bushes-lubrication/

@ Duncan. There's no footage from my lens. I did see it on a lens projector, but can't remember the vignetting thing, maybe I wasn't looking for it. Through the viewfinder, vignetting is just visible inside the outermost frame marking, just touching the 1.85 marks. But there is a faint brightness fall off right in the corner. Apart from the fall off, I supose one could figure out what was clipping the frame and machine some off. Not me, and I never heard of it done. I'm not familiar with the older 8mm version, and hadn't heard that it covers S16. Maybe check the fall off in the corners.

Paul Scaglione on ACL sintered bushes/lubrication....1 I wrote to Paul Scaglione at Visual Products. He was very helpful and is fine if I share his insights here. Thanks Paul..! From my email to Paul 25/May/2022....1 ...confusion in the Eclair community about the lubrication of the ACL sintered bronze bushes. Popular knowledge, in line with the owners manual, is that these bushes are never lubricated. Ideas on this may vary, and different techs may have different protocols. (then pointed him to this thread) Can you share any insights into this? - When you do a full overhaul of a movement, is it completely disassembled? - Do you have a way of re-impregnating the bushes? - If so, is the method and the lubricant used a secret? Paul's email to me 25/May/2022...1 I've made some paragraph breaks and added a pause with ... a couple of times. Hi Gregg, I read your thread and all inclusive is correct...however, rarely if at all any more is any Eclair movement completely (or even partially for that matter) disassembled due to the time required/cost involved. More often each reachable bushing is spot-lubricated with a light mineral oil such as Arcopac Oil 90 which is a very light mineral oil (actual sewing machine oil) that can wick in to the shafts/bushings and further wick in to the sintered bronze bearings to then release over time. ArcoPac is hard to find these days however any light mineral oil can work. I would avoid parafin-based oils as they may not play nice over time therefore here is an easily obtainable fine mineral oil with applicator: https://www.amazon.com/Zoom-SPOUT-Sewing-Machine-Oiler-118ml/dp/B00BYCKTW2/ref=asc_df_B00BYCKTW2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=194007750414&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=15756312311447143080&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015294&hvtargid=pla-311553017405&psc=1 Back in the day, the movements would be partially or completely disassembled and placed in a vacuum chamber in a light mineral oil bath over-night to "charge" the bearings...however all bushings & shafts, no matter what machine create a wear pattern (wear in) just as the inside of any combustion engine crankshaft & associated bearings would and therefore are better off left where they lay and fresh lubricant introduced as if disturbed can bind and get noisier over time from new wear patterns being established. If one has access to a vacuum pump & chamber and can completely immerse the movement and associated shafts (still mounted to the aperture plate and any lubricating point access screws removed) in a good light mineral oil and pull down to say 25" mercury for 2-3hrs, the oxygen will be drawn out of the microscopic cavities in the sintered bronze bushings as well as the open cavities in between and replaced by any oil introduced however most don't have access to that and the few technicians in the world still doing work on analogue cameras that may have a chamber more than likely don't have the time available to do the work for what most are willing to pay for it on an ACL... All that being said, if the inside of any Eclair can be spot-lubricated say once a year with any visible debris being surgically removed, it should last as long as it did prior to now. Note: Pull-down claw guides and pinions as well as reflex mirror links (ball & sockets) can benefit from some fresh light grease such as Jet Lube Arctic which I have come to love over the last 20 years using in place of many specialized greases of different consistencies that seem to feel great at first then fade quickly into chalk, paste or goo... It can also be found on Amazon (pretty much like everything these days...): https://www.amazon.com/Jet-Lube-35050-Extreme-Temperature-Cartridge/dp/B000LG8DLG Many points inside the ACL are very precisely adjusted for gear lash or pressure, clearance, claw stroke & penetration, shutter timing, reflex mirror swing & timing, etc. and should not be disturbed by anyone other than an understanding and experienced technician... therefore spot-lubricating with good greases/oils can go a long way to maintain these cameras for a very long time. Having been a camera tech for 38 years has taught me a lot including cautious enthusiasm and wise restraint... Good luck! Paul Scaglione Sr. Technician/Designer Visual Products Inc.

Just listed it on eBay at USD1100. https://www.ebay.com/itm/155008641298?hash=item24173c2912:g:NGsAAOSwNm5iO~S1

Heikki brought up some ideas from Bernie O. in the Techs Who Service ACLs thread. I'll just quote Bernie here...you can link to the source from Heiki's post. I couldn't master that quick enough. On 9/23/2006 at 2:23 AM, Bernie Doherty said: "...Eclair installed "self-lubricating" bearings in all of their cameras, which theoretically should never need to be lubed, but that just ain't so. They dry out rather quickly and do require attention at least once every two or three years...."

Volker, if that mag is good to go its a great price. May be worth putting something on the Marketplace subforum also. I had a quick look at how Google search responds to "eclair acl 400' mags for sale" and Cine Marketplace on this forum was at the top. Hopefully that is not a result peculiar to just me.... Google may be responding to traffic volume, behaviour, or it may be language: marketplace vs flea market. Can we circle back later to the issue of using unmodified mags for S16. You're not the first to succeed with that. Lets do it then, in a dedicated thread... Gregg