steve waschka

its just one of those things that prob was an issue with medium format too. im just over scrutinizing this rig right now. like you said a properly set up camera should be in focus at the gate if its in focus on the ground glass. but i blamed the camera for the result of a poor filter choice to the point i shimmed the ground glass. still... i want to get the body fine tuned. but im going to stop hunting for problems now. ive passed the point of diminishing returns with that. your website also makes me want to buy a 16s. not going to though. i dont think. no im not. thanks again

here's one that may not be new to you. i have a polarizer in the blimp. if you take it out the polarizer and use a long distant horizontal edged subject, it focuses properly at infinity. when you put the polarizer in, it focuses prior to hitting the infinity mark. i have reversed everything back to the way it was and am not using this filter with this lens. that doesnt mean the camera doesnt need fine tuning. reading your web page now REALLY makes me want to get the registration checked and the ffd checked with really good tools. tools i just dont have right now.

i am admittedly worried about the ffd. there's no way the ground glass should be off as much as it was. i havent needed wide angle yet. im gonna have to pull it out of use and take it in.

what you dont want me to collimate your a-cams via starlight or a distant neon sign at night!!?? dont blame you. what i need to do is get my own tools. heres what happened... when you looked thru the vf, infinity subjects were passing thru focus before hitting infinity mark. so i threw a critical focuser in the gate and it was tack sharp on the infinity mark. so i shimmed the screen until it appeared to be dead nuts on viewing sharp edges at distance. i wish doing it was just 10 times more tedious than typing this on a touch screen smart phone. but i needed to shoot and i wanted to run that camera. as it turned out the footage was sharp. but the mags were still throwing garbage in the gate. checking the gate on the beach between takes when takes are determined by the next set rolling in... eeehhh i smell things falling in the sand and misc other issues. so i hope writing all this pointed out i agree with and respect your opinion. i was hoping arri has a precut set i could buy and keep on hand. cause i have ocd when it comes to keeping this stuff running. and i use a bunch of old cameras and am not real fond of sending them out at the cost of what it takes to get a pro tech do it. not that they dont deserve it. god knows i know its tedious tiny adjustments that make it right.

i had to shim the glass with increments of card stock to get it to match critical focus at the gate. can't check this lens on another camera but it seems correct based on the distance scale. film ive shot seems ok but its all been closed down beyond f11. i mean it works but my concern is that paper is gonna contract and swell with humidity. are there steel or alum shims avail? who sells old arri parts? arri?

thanks for all the help guys. after burning a pile of film in the bl for a while, the ange zoom appears to be pretty sharp. and during a cleaning session i was going to pull it out of the housing and give it some love. now, im fairly mechanically inclined and adept at making chicken salad out of chicken @#$* as most of us who mess with cameras are. but that sucks! i developed an attach some swabs to some skewers approach and closed it up. the lens is pretty mint and im just gonna scratch up the barrel monkeying with it. i think i will grab a prime blimp and a couple of pieces of nice glass in the teen or twenties for critical tripod work. thanks again.

it was the first shoot for useable footage with the BL. lighting was tough yesterday! this 3x3 polarizer is new and seems thin. meter says its not. but, the first 100ft looks possibly a touch over exp. the real super irritating problem is i cant get this d@#*n camera to stay clean. its got debris in the gate again! if cleaned it over a dozen times, have run plenty of test footage thru it. this roll was direct from kodak... either its behind the mirror and its slinging it, or its in the guts of the mag sprockets. gonna unload all the mags and tear them down completely. i hope i can make that stuff disappear in post. prob not going to have another swell like that this year! should have used one of my established bolexs. rookie mistake!!!

no its not very dirty right now. however, i shoot in the field predominantly and things get dirty. ive always done my own bolex service. i had to do a pretty good cleaning on this bl when i got it. but there are some things i wont touch yet. that mirror being one of them.

no not set on it at all. it was rec by kodak for use in a rewind tank when buffered with alkali. but right now im using rack and tray developing.

so much for the fresh can. got a good tropical low working us over tonight pretty well. seas are 19 plus. supposed to clean up tomorrow and got an invite to shoot at sebastian inlet tomorrow afternoon. guess ill have to order another can of b&w for the archery stuff. that ones already in the mag. let me know if you guys have some favorite methods to get in the right frame of mind. still can't break anything lose that feels good for the archery shots.

dom and ari: ive already got a bl with the angenieux 12-120. i swear its a bit soft on the non perf side BUT the projector i used to check the film has a soft pressure plate spring and i havent looked at a scan yet so MAYBE this ones ok. BUT ive also got one on a bolex that i swear does the same. im hoping the common denominator is the projector, not that their both angenieux 12-120s ya i saw that kit for $6500 while trolling for lenses. thats pretty complete. one bl is enough. next will be and sr3 i suppose. but i think the bl is going to do well for a while. it feels pretty intuitive on the shoulder and balances alright on a monopod. got to keep it simple i think im going to keep an eye out for the universal blimp and start collecting primes. i dont own zooms for still work. never have. so i guess going arri is just lending itself in the same direction. guess a shoulder bag for a few primes is gonna be an accessory. at least i built an Li pack so thats a little lighter. shooting wildlife sports etc almost everything for me is f8 or smaller with a polarizer so i guess ill be ok for a while. thanks for the help on the zooms. any of those listed primes known to be the holy grail? oh yeah... and how hard is it going to be to switch a lens out of a universal blimp in the field?

its a first surface mirror isnt it? dont want to touch it? ive rebuit some cameras in my day and wiped these things right off during the early end of the learning curve. have no desire to do so with an arri. cant find info in the manual.

ya i dont want it to be mos. i still pull the filter housing and hit the switch for people for a "holy crap that makes a difference!" comment. now that you mention that, i do remember coming across a list of lenses that fit the housing. ill have to pull the manual and see if its in there. oh and i seem to remember something about some arri lenses having a different... i guess its not the backspacing cause the flange is the same... but the rear element is closer to the film plane on some than others?? and the bl has the mirror tucked up real tight to the flange??? i dont want to hit the mirror!!!! still id love some "consumer reviews" from you guys before i go blowing money on old lenses and rebuilding them. forbid i find one ready to shoot for less than a whole outfit.

not looking for anyone to give up their secrets, but i thought some of you might agree that we focus on our gear too much sometimes and the best way to make do is to start shooting. except..... on the self-funded projects at least, does a fresh can equal writer's block for anybody else? or is it just me this time. i need to do a promo film for my archery vendors and my normal ice breaking techniques arent working. my fav is to cull through production music and get some inspiration. right now ive got a message, a project chart, and an empty shot list. oh and a can of 7222 staring at me.

ok... first i have to say i dont own an esm motor. i have the older ones, whatever theyre called. but on modern bolex cameras with two drive ports you have one thats governed, thats the upper one, and one thats not thats the one closest to the film plane indicator. the one thats goverened can be controlled by the standard speed dial. sounds like from your instruction your driving this shaft as you are supposed to set your camera body to max and control with your esm. thats fine. if so doing and your speed is off, either your body speed control is dragging, or you voltage is too low. check drag by using your rewind hand crank (if you have one) and turning the governed shaft by hand while changing the body speed control. should be able to feel it allow you to turn faster and faster before hitting resistance. otherwise test by using spring motor and checking a few fast settings against a stopwatch and your frame counter. then check voltage with meter at the motor end of the batt cable, make sure it is at min allowable voltage range for your motor. not much else matters. if the mot lever is at mot it just wont allow reversing. if the shutter switch isnt at m then its not gonna film at all. now, the older motors have an overrun clutch. so unless im ramping, ill set the camera body speed to 24, put on the motor, and run up til i hear the motor clutch slip. back off till it quits slipping and im sure ive got 24fps. double chk with stopwatch and get used to the sound of 24fps. your only hope of being sure your on time. unless that things got a no sync alarm which it may i dont know.

sorry meant focus. but i dont zoom either so a perfect zoom design is not a must. just bright and sharp.

is there a zoom or varifocal you guys look back on with good memories? i dont zoom while filming so "breathing" is not an issue for me. i just dont have a bunch of primes for the arri. actually dont for the bolexs either. i shoot a lot of outdoor / nature / sports and i just havent got a lens swapping game plan together that works for me. i have totaly abandoned any ideas of gate grinding and so forth to chase ultra or modified super 16. its a 16bl. its suposed to shoot reg 16. anything else is gonna be a mess. so back to my still roots which say make sure the focal plane is dead nuts on, transports and gate are surgically clean, glass is right, clean, and the vf matches the glass. im just not sure the glass is right. your thoughts? (i know its not an sr3. but its an arri. and its design features are damn nice. and its quiet enough not to spook critters. and my bolexs, i can still take off the mags, wind em up, and throw in a back pack. so i wont be ditching them either)

sorry... my original comment was meant to infer that the photos were probably not shot or handled in the same way what-so-ever. i dont use much di effect as i almost always overcook with the stuff, i have never shot with panavision, but its pretty popular gear and david mullen would know so ill go with his response, and i dont think peter meant to include the blade runner shot in the same comparison anyways. so i wasnt a careful reader. but i have seen some mild diffraction filters that i thought he might be able to play with and get a similar effect.

i missed seven days. gonna have to bluray now.

exactly. the way those rainbow rings are kind of broken and not continuous circles (not the blade runner pic... that one looks more continuous), reminds me of some of the diffraction filters. or a di effect. the three filckr pics have very similar flare. the blade runner appears different. at least to me. since it wouldnt have been an add-in affect.....

nikon is old school top dog of the major brands by consumer decision of the masses. canon fds are going up in price as we speak. i think... and this and 5 bucks will get you coffee anywhere, youll find more available variety in the nikons. canon made a pile of fds. but i can never find the one i want when i need it, for a relevant price. i think i saw a mention of pentax. good stuff as well. remember the masses dont always flock to the best stuff. really good glass is a game maker for your projects. you will undoubtably need more than one adapter.

i believe blade runner was shot with panavision anamorphics. im assuming the rest of the places you have seen the flare are probably not shot with the same lenses or from the same period of DI technology as blade runner. using that as a base, id guess the flare you see could have been created by diffraction glass.

i should add that through the bolex (which is an m5 not h5... sorry) i can see the problem through a critical focus prism on the gate. i cant fit that tool to the arri gate. through the arri viewfinder all seems fine now. all i have done is refit the lens. i did not notice the prob as i was shooting. but i have a tv mask on the arri, and it has those ground glass edges blurring the sides anyways.

im having trouble with my 12-120 lenses as we speak. see my recent post. i can tell you from going inside these lenses that the quality of construction of the old angenieux zooms is not near that of the switars. i cant tell water white glass from window glass by eye so not sure about the glass. but if the barrel was milled out rough, what does it say about the choice of glass. that being said i have a lomo anamorphic adapter which was designed for a projector that looks like it was built with same technology that counterfitters make ak-47 castings in the sand in their backyard and the glass is pretty flippin nice! at least the results are without 90% of the gripes most people have about adapters. except its an 80 so you cant use it below 40mm on 16's. and the multi coat looks like it was finger painted on at my kids aftercare. only around the edges though. oh yeah and it weighs 5lbs easy. im afraid im going to have to say this to you... and then do it myself. you just gotta try them out. if you can buy it cheap, you can probably sell it sooner or later. i know there are a few angenieuxs from that era people love. not sure if the one you speak of is one of them. mine are not.

is the angenieux 12-120 relevant to todays cinematography or are they just too old of technology? ive got two. one on a bolex. and one on an arri. both of them have focal plane shift or fall-off at the non-perf edge of the frame. now i know, from calibrating the one for the bolex, there is a group that is centered with grub screws in the center of the barrel. so its position is adjustable. i did some adjustment by eye, and thought from reviewing the films that it helped. also the reflex viewfinder for that lens does not always seat perfect. i think it also is important to be very very certain its tight and flush. i back burnered going back in the thing because i wasnt using the bolex at the time. now i've got this blimped angenieux on the bl and its doing the same thing. maybe it has always done it, but it slid off the box at a soccer match last weekend. and as i reviewed the films it seems just as bad as i remember the bolex footage. maybe the bayo mount was knocked off kilter. the thing that makes this even more of a problem is i was planning to open the gate up a little on both of those cameras on the non-perf side. not to super 16, but just so i can reduce the side bars on hd tv and not have to zoom in on the telecine. so my question is simply has anyone made this lens work properly on these cameras? or are we all just doing different voodoo chants hoping for sharp edges with these things. i know there are a ton of lenses for the arri. what the heck am i going to put on a bolex h5? dont say berthiot. ive got plenty of em. ill sell you one.