Nathan Milford

I've found the Ang. can produce acceptable images, but watch the wide end of the lens and its focal tom-foolery. I have one myself for my old Arri SB. It has a distinct 'look.' Call Able and ask for Craig and he could hook you up with a much better lens in an Aaton mount (and he's a super guy). I know for a fact that we have a 10-100 sitting on the shelf right now that isn't being used. Ol' Jean-Pierre and Aaton lays thier mags out like thus: D = Super 16mm C = Standard 16mm M = Mechanical Drive X = Magnetic Drive G = 800' You know you are looking at a 'C' mag when the slanted roller has its bias to the left when looking at the feed side with the throat pointing to your left. The film is transported to the takeup side via that roller emulsion down which can cause bruising and what not of the s16 negative area. 'D' magazines point the other way to allow for emulsion up takeup. You know your magazine is machanically driven ('M' Type) when... well it doesn't have any magnets. You, my friend, probably have either DM or CM magazines. With the older style magazines it is wise to make sure the feed tensions aren't off. They use a wave washer and a leather pad under the core retainer to keep tensions up on that side of the mag. Over time the washer will flatten and need to be adjusted. Newer style mags use three little feet adjusted with set screws and they don't wear as quickly. Feel free to give me a call. I just started here two weeks ago, but I should be able to satisfy your questions.

Alvaro, A lot of those places will give tours of thier facilities if you just call ahead. You can usually get some free swag like t-shirts and pens and what not. Some of the rental houses might sit you down and give you a once over with some of the cameras. It's a bit outside Manhattan, but you could always swing by Abel Cine Tech! Although Staten Island is a bit of a journy, we'll be moving into lower Manhattan in a few months.

Where might one come across schematics and exploader diagrams for the Arri 16SB? I found the repair manual for the 35-II online which sort of gives me insight into ARRI's collective thinking at that period, but I'd feel more comfortable with the real schematics as they're two very different cameras despite similar conventions of design. I'm looking at modding my own Arri SB as a bit of test as I'm in an interview process with a local NYC rental\service house for a job. Any help would be much appriciated. -nate (hopeful future camera engineer)