John R Woods

Sad to hear. I have three Tobin motors; one on a Bolex H16 M5, one on a Bolex H16 Rex-1, and one on my Arri 16.S. Someone will get one of them when I eventually get around to listing the M5.

Super 16

Aaton LTR-54

Aaton LTR-7

Ultra 16

Beaulieu R16 Automatic

Canon Scoopic

Regular 16

Eclair NPR (I'm going to sell it)

Arriflex 16.S w/Tobin motor and Angenieux zoom

Bolex H16 Rex-1 w/Tobin motor, Yvar zoom, and two primes

Bolex H16 M5 w/Tobin motor and Som-Berthiot reflex zoom (I'm going to sell it)

Bolex H16 in Bolex-Paillard underwater housing (I'm going to sell it)

Bolex H16 (I'm going to sell it)

Krasnogorsk 3 (I'll probably sell it)

Super-8

Beaulieu 4008 ZM II

Beaulieu 4008 ZM ii

Beaulieu 5008

Elmo 1000.S

A few years ago I bought a Bogen 3063 mini-fluid head off of eBay. When it arrived, the little cast-in knobbly bit that holds the spring for the cam lever was gone. I don't know how these things break off, but it's not the first time I've seen it. Today, I finally got round to repairing it. Obviously, I couldn't put the broken cast piece back on -- even if I had it. So this is what I did:

I took the head completely apart. My plan was to drill a 3/32" hole just at the arc of the spring housing and insert a tension pin (or 'roll pin') into it. I drilled the hole too far away and the end of the spring kept snapping past the pin , so I ended up drilling a ⅛" hole, and used a ⅛" pin to hold the spring. Then I reassembled the head, putting in new silicon grease (the 'fluid'). The cam holds the plate securely, but I haven't put the head on a tripod or put a camera on it. But at this stage, the repair seems to be successful.

Good to know. I'd hate to fry anything!

Ultra16 mod DIY or by...? Have you worked with Aatons?

Heh. Just came off a shoot. I took my PL-mount Aaton LTR-7, which failed just before the end of the first roll. I'd brought my LTR-54 body, but neglected to bring the Arri-B lens and adapter for it. :angry: While waiting for the lens, and then the adapter, to be sent, we used my friend's Canon Scoopic Ultra-16 conversion.

I thought about applying heat, but couldn't think of a way to safely do it. Of course! The girlfriend has a hair dryer! I'll give it a try when I get back from 'vacation'.

There's a serviceable Super-8 camera out now, the LOGMAR.

That runs... What? Five kilobucks? I have a working Beaulieu, and I don't do this professionally. Five grand equates to an Aaton super-16, almost 40 hours of Cessna 172 rental, over 20 hours of helicopter rental, or a vacation for me and my girlfriend! :P

My Aatons are close to 40 years old, and they work fine. Same with my Scoopic. The Arri and R16 are even older and work well. Not to mention the consumer electronics and electrical things that are 30 or more years old that I still use. It just seems odd that super-8 cameras would 'go bad' while other things don't.

(And JD, don't get me started on old cars! I have a '66 MGB y'see... <_< )

I have a couple of Elmo cameras I bought off of eBay (one recently, one years ago). The more recent acquisition runs, but the power zoom doesn't work. The other one doesn't work at all. Both are in cosmetically excellent condition, and seem to have been well kept. One hypothesis, for the 612S-XL, is that there might be a broken wire in the folding grip. I've never opened up a camera before, so that's an untested hypothesis. In any case, I see a lot of non-running cameras on eBay.

Granted, super-8 cameras were mostly made for consumers and not professionals. Lenny Lipton wrote in The Super 8 Book that even high-quality cameras often needed tweaking right out of the box. (I presume they actually ran, though!) Consumer items meant to be used for a couple of years and then replaced with The Latest And Greatest might be expected to fail. And yet, Elmo was an excellent brand. Other non-working cameras I see for sale are similarly excellent brands (e.g., Beaulieu, Canon).

What is it about super-8 cameras that make them so prone to failure? Why would they fail simply by being stored? (I know storage varies, but most people do take some care.)

You know you have too many cameras when you forget what you have...

I thought I had a Beaulieu 4008 ZM II, but on thinking about it I think it's a 5008. (Still haven't found the bloody thing!) Anyway, I just got a very nice 4008 ZM II to replace the one I didn't have. :P It's pretty much perfect except for one thing: The seller said that for as long as he'd had the camera, he was never able to get the lens hood off.

Now, there's really no reason to take it off. Yet. I may well decide to play with some filters. Any ideas on how I can remove the hood? I've thought about wrapping the lens barrel and the hood in camera tape, having someone grasp tenaciously onto the lens, and using both hands to attempt to unscrew the hood.

That makes sense.

Thanks.

Hm. If it's for the LTR-54 with the higher frame rate, I should include it (and the charger) if I decide to sell mine.

Would it hurt to use a 16v battery at normal speeds in an LTR-7 (or LTR-54, for that matter)?

The 16v looks like it has an extra row of cells. Both batteries pictured say 2,000 mA.

I have an Aaton 16v onboard battery. Why 16v? What is it used for? My LTRs use 12v batteries.

Thanks for the info. I'm in Seattle at my real job twice a week. No way I can swing two kilobucks right now though. Might be cheaper without the PL mount. I already have a Zeiss for the PL-mount LTR-7; the LTR-54 that needs a proper lens has an Arri bayonet adapter for the Aaton mount. I'll give Mr. Pickel a call, probably in June, to see about bringing the lens in so he can look at it.

Good morning, Jean-Louis.

I'm new to the forum and can't find how to send emails. I went to your profile and attempted to send a message, but it wouldn't let me.

My Beaulieu R16 runs fine on external power. I just bought a newly-recelled 1,000 mA grip battery. It won't run on the grip battery. Checking the battery on the meter on the side of the R16, the needle only deflects half-way. I tested the battery with a multimeter. The outer ring shows about 8 volts, and the inner ring shows about 4 volts. Since the camera's meter shows half power, and one ring of the battery shows half power, I suspected that one of the wires in the Power Grip is bad.

I switched to 'resistance' on the multimeter. Looking at the plug that plugs into the camera body, with the pins on the lower side (pins at 9 o'clock, 6 o'clock, and 3 o'clock), I checked each pin corresponding to a ring on the battery, and each pin on the plug. The 3 o'clock pin on the plug corresponds to the centre pin on the battery side. I get a reading of about 1.3 ohms. The 6 o'clock pin on the plug corresponds to the pin on the battery side closest to the centre pin; thus, it corresponds to the nominal 3.6v inner ring on the battery. I get a reading of about the same as the first reading. That leaves the 9 o'clock pin on the plug. I'm not getting a reading on that one, which corresponds to the 7.2v ring of the battery.

Not being an electronically/electrically inclined person, and not having any idea of what I'm doing, it seems that when I use the battery on the Power Grip, the 7.2v power is not getting to the camera. The 3.6v is. Apparently I have a bad lead in the 3-pin XLR cord.

Can this be fixed? If so, can it be fixed by me? If so, how?

I've been out of the filmmaking game for many years. Life intervenes, right? But as it happens, my real life is in a period where I can work on a friend's film and I've been dragging out gear. We're shooting on my Aaton in super-16, and my friend was so enthusiastic about his Ultra-16 Scoopic I had to get one. If you've followed my posts, you'll know that I've got my Beaulieu R16 out too. But like many people of a certain age, I started out in super-8.

Close to a decade ago I bought an Elmo 612S-XL on eBay. Very nice, and in its original styrofoam packing. I pulled it out last week, and it's not running. When I put batteries in, the red light comes on and the power zoom works, but the motor doesn't. I'm aware that consumer electronics can 'go bad' over time, but this is such a nice-looking camera I wonder if there's something really simple wrong with it. This camera has a folding handgrip. It occurred to me that perhaps a wire is broken. Since the zoom works, the camera is getting power. It just isn't running. (Hm... Sounds like the R16 when I use the 1,000 mA battery in the Power Grip! It works with external power.) Or perhaps the problem lies in the trigger switch?

I'm not an electrician, or camera- or electronics technician. How hard is it to open up one of these cameras? (And how do you do it?) If it's something as simple as a broken or disconnected wire, I might be able to fix it and have another toy to play with. If it's something in the electronics, that's that.

In one of my kits I have a Zeiss 10-100mm T3 zoom lens. I have two Aaton LTR super-16 kits, but only one lens that covers the format. I'd like to 'steal' the Zeiss 10-100mm from my Eclair NPR kit and have it converted to S16 for use with the Aaton. Bernie at Super 16 Inc suggested I try Van Diemen in London for the conversion.

Does anyone know how much they charge for that? My 'real job' pays more than filmmaking (which ends up costing me money), so it doesn't make sense as a business investment. As it is, I'm 'camera-rich and cash-poor'. Is conversion worth it to the casual filmmaker? Or would it be better to just find a lens that's already been converted?

I thought it didn't look right, and I was going to look it up, but I figured everyone would know what I meant if I was wrong. But now that you've reminded me, I'll remember next time.

I could not use the grip battery as an external battery. All of my XLR cords are 4-pin. I've ordered a 3-pin one from B&H so I can do my test.

I just got off the phone with Bernie. I told him I can try using the 1,000 MA battery as an external battery when I get home. That should tell me if the problem is with the battery or the Power Grip.

He says the noisy aperture motor is likely just lack of lubrication on an old camera. I'm going to send it to him for cleaning, lubrication, and adjustment, and also conversion to Ultra-16 (Why not?). Bernie's a great guy to talk to.

Oh, there's another issue that I've just discovered.

To check the battery, turn the selector knob to 'Control' and depress the thumb safety. The needle in the film speed meter will swing to the right, into the red zone, and stay there. Turn the selector to 'Run', and the camera runs when you depress the trigger. These things happen with I unplug the Power Grip and plug in an external battery.

Saturday I received a newly-recelled hand grip battery from Du-All. I charged it using the charger I also bought, until the LED changed from red to green. Performing the procedure in the previous paragraph, the needle only swings halfway up the meter, and the camera does not run when switched to 'Run'. Du-All says they tested the battery before sending it (in fact, they built it after I telephoned them), and suggest the Power Grip may be faulty. But since some power is getting through (else, the needle wouldn't move), maybe it's something else. I thought I had a dummy battery with an XLR plug so I could test the Power Grip, but I don't or couldn't find it.

Anyone else have this happen? (I did ask about it when I emailed Bernie just now.)

I have not, Philip. Didn't even know where to start! I'll contact him. Thanks.

Thanks, Josh. That's what I thought. :)

I currently own a Quarz super 8 camera but started with a cheaper Elmo 1000S.

Heh. Funny you should say 'cheaper' Elmo 1000S. My first camera -- and I still have it -- was an Elmo 1000S. I bought it new around... 1980? 1981? Out of high school, anyway. It cost $760 from a camera house in the Valley. I have to say, that camera has a great lens! The only thing that disappointed me was that it does not have single-frame capability. The telescoping unidirectional microphone was good, too. (And yes, I still have that in its case!) I should get my 1000S out and play with it. A friend bought one for a song off of eBay a while ago, and used it to good effect.

I wish sound film was still made.

I dug out the R16 to play with it a little bit, and the automatic aperture motor is a bit noisy. It sounds like its bearing is bad/going bad, or it needs lubrication or something. Is this something I could service myself? Probably not, eh?

Who services R16s in the U.S. nowadays?