Willem Jansen

I bought the Kinoptik HC viewfinder today off of Ebay. Can anyone tell me if I need a certain extra mount or anything? Here's a photo of the viewfinder:

Got a 514xl a while back and just shot one cartridge of 50D film as a test. So although the film results will tell the outcome, I wanna ask for anyone's knowledge regarding my problem. Shot in 18fps and as I was shooting, the speed changed rapidly every now and then. Sometimes even so that the camera fully stopped(!) I made a little mark on the film to see if it advanced - which it did. My question is, could this actually be somewhat normal? That it just needs to work harder but still gives the desired results?

Sorry for my late reply. I've been researching and finally went with the Switar 10mm f1.6 I was able to find one very cheaply through Ebay and in very good condition.

The effect of the less depth of field is probably what I was referring to. Yeah, I'll just have to figure it all out when I'm actually going to shoot as, I of course, can't foreshadow the weather at that time. All I can hope for is that the sun will show up. David, would you mind naming some fast wide angle lenses for my ACL that I could take a look at? I now only have a zoom lens, which is great, but not for every shot. If possible, around or below $500.

Eclair ACL with a C mount. I'll have to think about what I'm gonna do. In the test footage that I shot a couple of days ago, I really noticed that with an ND filter, you get a much nicer image than without one. But, I have just one filter and I'm not really planning on buying all the others. This will be my first (short) film and actual project shooting 16mm. So I was hoping to spend the remaining money on the film stock.

Thanks a lot, David. Much appreciated! I meant Double-X 7222 of course... my bad. So let's say I would shoot on 500T, could I edit the footage to B&W in post without any bumps along the way? Which ND filter would be the best fit? I've also started looking at prime lenses. Are there any fast wide angle lenses you could advice me on? I'd like to keep the price around $500 (and preferably below that).

I'll be shooting a short hopefully this autumn or winter. It takes place in a forest and I want to shoot it in natural light. But because of the weather these upcoming months, I've started to wonder if I'm actually able to do so. For so far, I'll be using my only lens, a zoom lens which its widest aperture is f 3.8. And a 0.6 ND filter, because I love the DOF touch it gives. I'll be shooting on Vision 3 7222. What can I do to avoid using a lighting setup?

Does the fourth edition of the Camera Assistants Manual differ a lot from the latest, sixth edition? The fourth edition has information about the Eclair ACL and since I own one, I would like to read about it.

Really interesting, Greg. I like the design, especially the shoulder cushion. I don't really understand why they made the bottom of the 400ft magazine round and not more shoulder ergonomic. It's not a big bother to me, but it would've made more sense, right? I have handles and got a DIY made rod base from the guy that sold me his ACL. He still has to ship it to me, though. But my plan is to get two 15mm 9" rods and add it to the base with the handles at the end. Hopefully it works out. Adding a shoulder cushion would be a nice final touch if there's a way to do that.

Great, thanks for the information Gregg!

Can somebody tell me if the ACL fits with a 4x4 or 3x3 mattebox? I found this one: http://cavision.biz/MB3485S.aspx Seems to be of good quality and is not expensive. Also, this one seems to work without rods, which if possible, is something I really prefer since I shoot mostly with the camera handheld.

After quite a long search I've finally got a French 400 magazine. I have been checking it for things that need to be fixed and have come across two so far: The magazine has four rollers. From the upper two, the one on the left doesn't roll when film comes through. It occasionally does but not as much as it's supposed to do. Would oiling this be the solution? And what kind do I need and is there an instruction somewhere on how to do it? The other thing is that when film comes through the magazine, it makes a squeaking sound in the take-up side and seems to hit the black plate around the sprocket holder. When I have a 100ft daylight spool on it, the film hits against the spool. I already took off the black plate and patiently bend it straight as far as I could. Could there be something else causing this? I know I'm maybe better off sending it to a tech, but I wanna give it a try myself and it would save me quite some money.

Yeah I bought that lens when I had a Krasnogorsk 3. Thought it would also work with the Eclair... Oeps

Update: Talked to Bernie again and we think it's the lens that I used. Everything in and around the camera seems perfectly fine and found nothing. The lens that I used, a Pentax Takumar, isn't a good combination with the Eclair. Too much light comes through and overexposed the film. Bernie sends over a 16mm lens so I can make another test. I don't have a lot of experience nor knowledge about lenses, if anyone wonders how I could make that mistake ;)

I actually also assumed mine was an ACL 1. Because it has the Jaeger input and not an XLR. But Bernie told me it's a ACL II when he serviced it and it says so on the receipt with the serial number next to it. In the footage that I shot is actually some flickering. Not much per se, but it is there at some moments. Most clearly seen from the left of the screen.