Heikki Repo

Ah yes, the bridge. Now I get it. Sorry, missed that part.

I'm missing one of the two plates needed in order to use film on a core in the 400 ft magazine. Happen to have an extra one laying around?

Michel, I don't think Freya meant that to offend, only to point out the problem that quite often some of the "film people" attack any digital news so furiously that less often seen posters tend to disappear and become lurkers again. As for the camera, I myself don't get excited by new digital camera technologies but having seen Pacific Rim I got to admit that it certainly did look good. If Dragon improves on Epic it can't be bad. Certainly looking forward to seeing well shot epic films with it. There's no reason to argue, digital can look great and Red cameras are not to be dismissed. As for me, well, I like the look of film and certainly can't afford to own any high end digital cameras. But this topic isn't about film vs. digital so lets steer away from it.

I myself own an Eclair ACL 1.5, just had it converted to S16 by Les Bosher. Haven't got bad things to say about my ACL, the heavy duty motor and French mags work really well. Also, the option of using almost all lenses available (C-mount adapters / adapter specifically made for Eclair ACL) makes it a good candidate for lower budget work as one isn't tied to PL-mount lenses. As for mags falling off, here are some nice workarounds: http://eclair16.com/eclair-acl/magazines/prevent-magazines-from-falling-off/ Anyway, I think your best bet is to get a camera from someone who has taken good care of it. While that ebay listing doesn't tell the time of the latest CLA, the seller has used the camera himself and should be able to answer questions.

You might also want to look at Eclairs (NPR, ACL) or even newer Arris. These days the prices have come so low on the higher end 16mm film cameras that it really isn't in my opinion worth it to buy the much older cameras -- their prices have stayed the same for a long time but last months I have seen full sets of super16 Arri SR2s to go for $1600 on Ebay here in Europe.

This one inspired me:

Agreed, that looks nice!

Terve Lasse! Here in Finland the list prices for 16mm and super-8 film camera rentals are following (EUR, price / day, price / week, VAT 24% + insurance 5% is added to these): Arriflex 416 275/1100 Arriflex 16 SR3 250/1000 Arriflex 16 SR3 Adv 200/800 Arriflex 16 SR2 150/600 Aaton A-Minima 130/520 Super-8: Canon 814 XL-S 45/180 For comparison, both Arri Alexa and Red Epic-X are 900/3600 and Red Scarlet-X is 600/2400

It depends quite a lot on what kind of situations you are about use it and whether the noise introduced by using a higher iso value is a problem for you. f4 is quite slow and while it might be enough for still photography due to image stabilization, for cinematography you'll want to have as fast lens as possible because you really cannot get more light by using slower shutter speeds. Is there a specific reason why you want to buy a zoom? There are many excellent, fast and cheap manual focus primes available for EF through the use of adapters. That way you'd not be paying for such features that aren't that useful for cinematography (i.e. autofocus).

Yeah, I'd support this on KS as well. Correctly marketed it could appeal to the 'hip' crowd as well, there are lots of people shooting 35mm stills lomography style. A camera which combines the modern (lcd viewfinder) with retro (super-8) could be the thing.

These examples were not shot by me. However, from the description of the latter video: "Shot with Bell & Howell 200's using a 10mm Switar. Loaded by Retrocine.com. Developed by Dwayne's Photo. Telecine by Spectra Film & Video. This film has an Estar base, which is thinner than acetate. It seems to run through the 200's much more smoothly (ie better registration) than thicker acetate films."

Here are two tests shot on 16mm: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjGrnBOCQoY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw2SEtFLyzA

This? http://www.pro8mm.com/pdf/classic16.brochure.pdf I'd guess it is the Classic version not Max16 because otherwise they'd tell it.

For still photography, doing your color prints with RA-4 process is quite easy if you just get an enlarger with color head. Kodak's RA4 chemicals work in room temperature. It's very relaxing, even if it takes about 2 min 20 sec per bath.

Well, shooting color reversal for projection is still a very viable path, but you have to do it in 16mm, not super-8... Can't wait to have 16mm AGFA for testing next month! Paid only about $260 incl. VAT 19% for 1200 ft. and could have cost even less, had our order been larger.

For the comparison: this was shot with an Aaton XTR with Zeiss SuperSpeeds mk.2, if I remember correctly (I was the director, not dop).

All Bolex with reflex viewfinder. Non-reflex models such as M5 don't have this problem but then you'd have a new problem: no reflex viewfinder, only octameter... :rolleyes:

Just to add to the reply above: If you are thinking about buying a different 16mm camera you might be interested in Eclair ACL. While it certainly isn't the newest camera, you can use c-mount (NON-RX!) lenses with it and also quite easily use different lens adapters. You could also buy for it a specifically made Contax->Eclair adapter. The zeiss lenses you own are probably from the real high end of SLR lenses and unless you want to start buying PL-mount lenses (cheapest about $500 each) this route could get you quite good results. But all of this is depends on the following question: What kind of results are you getting at the moment? Something like this: or or or All of those look quite good to me and were shot with a Bolex. Many of them also used some longer focal length SLR lenses and for the shorter focal lengths RX Switars. If that quality isn't enough, then you'll probably need high end cine lenses and they won't be cheap to own. You'll also want to have a camera which doesn't have problems with non-RX lenses. You could also rent them and use your Bolex for more hobby projects -- just buy some cheap RX Switars for the shorter focal lengths.

As mentioned, the problem is the prism. The camera was built so that the lenses have to have a specific element to correct for the spherical aberration which is caused by the prism. Because of this reflex Bolex requires RX lenses. When using lenses without this correction images will be less sharp. This problem is worst with shorter focal lengths. The problem is less worse when using smaller apertures. Here some more information: http://www.c-mountlens.com/2011/bolex-reflex-rx-lenses-the-difference/ ARRI, Aaton and Eclair use mirror instead of prism to bring the image to the viewfinder. To sum it: camera is only a box with a lens running film. Thus imagewise there is little difference between Aaton, Arri or Eclair using PL-lenses (except possibly in the weave). It's just that Bolex is the box that isn't compatible with lenses that aren't made specifically for it.

But they certainly are no SLR/still photography lenses, eh? B)

High quality lenses made for 35mm still photography have hard time competing with dedicated high quality 16mm cine lenses in 16mm format. Now then, if I was looking for the best quality glass for a project to be shot with for example Arri SR3, I'd take a look at Ultraprimes or Zeiss superspeeds. For you the real problem is however the prism in your Bolex. All lenses are negatively affected unless you use lenses specifically made for reflex Bolex -- RX lenses. If you don't want to upgrade to an Arri SR/Aaton/modded Eclair, your best bet would be to buy Switar primes or Switar zoom. Bolex cameras are somewhat a dead end lens wise...

Wittner's latest volume discount: Buy 30 packages, pay only 299.00 EUR per package. Really, that's only about 50 EUR per 400 ft. of 16mm color reversal film (incl. German VAT 19%). It doesn't really get cheaper than this I think...

That's correct. However, Wittner seems to own some rolls of that material because they are selling it in S-8 cartridges.

Wittner sells both Velvia 100 and Astia 100.

And then there is this: http://motion.kodak.com/motion/About/The_Storyboard/4294971668/index.htm