Nathan Milford

I have one on my desk at the moment. The new video assist (The VHR, video high resolution... crazy French) is absolutly beautiful. For the most part it is an XTRprod, but with some nice electronics upgrades. You can see it at the NY SMPTE meeting tonight.

Focal Length Comparison Chart.

What was the point of... that...?

Woops. I wrote Lemac, I mean ICE Film in the UK. - nathan

Okie doke. It might be a Bi-Phase XTRplus.. there could be a few that fell through the cracks as XTRpluses and were only rated at going 54fps. It is Aaton afterall... First thing's first. I'd get an external speed checker to confirm that it is 75fps. Also, 75fps sounds VERY different from 54fps. As different 54fps sounds from 24fps. You may have an issue with your crystal or tach or even your side display. If you live by occam's razor, this is your problem. The long and short is that if there isn't a dial setting for 75fps... your camera shouldn't be able to go 75fps... so if it is indeed jumping up to 75fps... you have a serious problem. If the tach just thinks it's going up there... you have a mild problem. Probing deeper, however, on newer cameras there are two spring loaded 'bullets' that engage the mirror shaft to add opposing friction to keep the mirror from spinning wildly... thus making the tach do odd things.. confusing it. Ther addition of a load on the claw (loaded mag) could be putting enough load on the mechanism proper to act as the bullets would nominally. Also, if it's not a tri-phase camera (and it doesn't sound like it is)... you should have to put 16 volts through it to get it up to 54fps with a load of film, otherwise you'll hear the motor falter and the speed fluctuate as it tries to get above 40fps or so. Either way, I'd send it in for an evaluation. Lemac should be able to help you out.

Are you using the camera's on-board speed dial or an external speed control. The older cameras are dumb enough to go whatever speed you punch in. But, you risk destroying your claw or bearings. Could you identify the model of XTR you have and your testing methodology. Also your description is a bit difficult to understand. A plain jane XTR will only go up to 54fps, and it needs 16v to do that. Those still have the old square rod hole in the front. An XTRplus will typically have the screw-in 15mm rods in front and comes in two flavors. A Bi-Phase XTRplus will go up to 60fps and needs 16v to do so. A Tri-Phase XTRplus will go up to 75fps and can do so on 12v. You know your XTRplus is Tri-Phase if it says 'Tri' on the motor gasket/cover, otherwise it will say something like 'P23-X'. An XTRprod will go up to 75fps (on 12v) but most of them have a built in protection that makes them only go up to 36fps then you have to manually go up to 75fps from there. You cannot mix and match Bi-Phase and Tri-Phase electronics to make an older camera go faster.

Get a B&H Filmo or Konvas. - nathan

While ad hominem attacks may be frowned upon, you could just say his behavior resembles that of Jim Murdoch... most members will extrapolate exactly your meaning. - nathan

I second The Lab @ Postworks, (212) 661-2530 - nathan

Number 7? Cripes... is it like carved out of wood or something? With the rapidity that Aaton would change small design changes, by the time you even got to camera 100, it'd be a relativly different camera. #7 probably has more in common with an Eclair than an LTR54. Rik has an LTR... that I should be seeing this week... riiiiight Rik?

Yes. No

What they said. - nathan

Transferring the negative is standard practice. You'll get a positive image in your dailies. I would recomend Postworks, www.pwny.com. But cheap and good is really cheap and 'good enough' based on your particular threshold. - nathan

Well, I wouldn't go by 1K or 2K as the photometrics of the unit may not be the same depending on the type of lamp, if it's in spot or flood or if it has any optics. But if you get f/2.8 with 100 foot candles, you get f/4 with 200 foot candles, f/5.6 with 400 foot candles etc..

Orthochrmatic B&W film isn't very red-sensitive so tungsten (Mazda) lamps weren't a viable option, even though they'd give off more lumens per watt than the cooper-hewitts. Arc lights were highly used, but were noisy, so with the advent of sound they became a problem. Not to mention you need a lampman to continually operate Carbon Arcs. Once panchromatic B&W film (additionally sensitive to red wavelengths) became commerically viable, the use of the more efficient, quiet and safe mazda/tungsten units became more commonplace.

Been covered. They won't. Search the archives.

You should check out Barry Salt's Film Style and Technology. Salt goes over older film technilogy and style to the present, from the beginning of magic lantern shows and pre-cinema to modern times analyzing style and technology by decade (actually smaller periods of time). It's a great read. Did you know they were using Kino's (cooper-hewitts) back before they were using tungsten fixtures?

Yeah, it's black silicone. Silastic is jut what the factory refers to it as, the tube in my desk is regular old dow corning black silicone. It's not difficult, but it can be time consuming. Marking the position doesn't always help. You can't always trust that the previous technician knew WTF he\she was doing (and I always assume he\she didn't) so it might not have started in an optimal position. Americans say ass unless they are feeling silly and then they use arse. Or atleast this american does. Good luck.

Sounds like your co-axial roller needs some oiling. When we have to extract the co-axial we typically call that a full magazine overhaul as we do it in addition to oiling the rest of the mag's lube points, replacing and greasing the clutch pad on the take-up spindle, polishing the sprockets and putting all the tensions in spec. We typically charge two hours of labor for the service. Removing the co-axial is a pain in the arse. Typically it is sealed around the edges with silastic to prevent light leaks so you need to remove the whole mechanism then scrape off probably 30-year old, dry hardened sealant. Then you need to open up the roller's housing, paying special mind to the teflon washer's and put a dab of anderol 401d or another light oil. Then put a half-a-dab of oil on the contact points of the steel cylindrical rollers on the entrance and exit of the whole co-axial mechanism. That's the easy part. Now you need to replace the co-axial. Place it back in keeping the screws loose so you can manipulate it's position. Thread the magazine with a dummy load and place the magazine on the camera and while film is running through the mechanism, set the position of the co-axial for best sound and transport and watch out for scratching or shaving. Once it's set, re-seal the edges of the thing with silastic. Do an exhaustive light-leak test. Have fun >8)

While it's more complicated than this, I generally go by 20 IRE = one stop. Middle grey is around 55 IRE, white skin tones are generally at 75-80 IRE. But that's all ballpark. Shoot tests >8)

You'd want a rocker switch, one side intermittant (inch) and one side locks (run). If you short minus 12vdc (pin 1 or 6, which is actually ground and not stricktly minus) with start (pin 8) the camera will run. If you short the two with a 5v zener diode it will inch.

Rob, Pin 1 - Minus 12 vdc Pin 2 - TV Sync Pin 3 - 2400 Hz Pin 4 - Unused on LTRs, TC in/out on XTRs Pin 5 - Plus 12 vdc Pin 6 - Minus 12 vdc Pin 7 - Strobe Pin 8 - Start Pin 9 - Plus 12 vdc Note the redundant power on pins 1/6 and 5/9. I'm not familliar with your video tap, but 12 volts is 12 volts and if your tap takes it, and doesn't pull too much current you'll be fine. You should keep current draw from that connector (the amph9) UNDER 2 AMPS as there is NO FUSE between it and the power source. But, ultimately you'd want to keep it under 2 amps for all of the accessories you're powering off of the camera (microforce, monitor, etc..) because that'll zap an onboard battery super fast. You can probably have ICE in the UK sell you the components as they probably buy in bulk.

Basically Start/Stop and 12v Power whcih includes: Inching Intervalometers Eyepiece Heaters Among other, more obscure, things.

I just got a Voigtlander R3A to go with my Bessa T-101. It's a fantastic Leica M-mount camera with a 1:1 viewfinder with nice bright framelines etc.. They're high quality and quite afordable... but they're not quite Leicas... You should definetly look into one, check out Stephen Gandy's Cameraquest. I've got a 40/1.4 Nokton Classic with a single coating so it gives those nice romantic blooming highlights and flares. I've also got the 50/3.5 Heliar which is one of the sharpest lenses around. I'm looking to get an old 50mm Sumar, uncoated. I'm holding out for the Leica M8 which should be released at Photokina this year, and should go for around $5000. Leica's first digital rangefinder... looks weird without the advance lever.

The magazine serial number is a unique identifier that is given by the manufacturer. The mag number may be Mag 1, Mag 1 or Mag 3 or Mag A, B or C that is given to it by the owner, rental house, assistant etc... sometimes they may just use the actual serial number. The emulsion, length, batch, strip etc.. numbers is a unique string of values that identify a given roll of film. These are given to the roll by Kodak or Fuji (or Orwo or Ilford) to describe that product or from where it came from within thier production process. All of this information can be rendered in anyway you see fit in your reports or on tape on the magazine so that any problems can be quickly tracked to the film or the mag. But, there s no definitve way of displaying that info. Some assistant just put the emulsion number and mag number while others write out the whole batch number and magazine serial number as well as the date it was opened etc...