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Duncan Brown

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Posts posted by Duncan Brown

  1. Well that pistol grip is still quite useful - it allows you to use the 16ST in a more handheld configuration, but start and stop the motor with the trigger.  I wish arri had figured out some way to not have two entirely different grips that look virtually identical, so this wouldn't be so confusing!

    Duncan

    • Like 1
  2. But is that the one that just attaches to the camera (short tripod thread sticking past the nut) or the one intended for one of the rigs (long tripod thread sticking up past the nut)?  A picture from the other angle would tell the tale.  It will be useful to someone either way, but the OP would find it more useful if it's the latter.

    Duncan

    • Like 1
  3. The pistol grips come up as loose parts on ebay from time to time, you just need to be very very patient.  I slowly put together from parts a short shoulder brace rig (the long chrome stalk with the "C" shoulder part) with the pistol grip, the articulated shoulder rig with the pistol grip, and a just-pistol grip.  Note the ones that go into the shoulder rigs have a much longer tripod thread, to reach through both the big thick cinching nut AND the rig base plate, compared to the just-pistol-grip.  Don't buy the short threaded one if you're looking for it to go into a shoulder rig.

    Duncan

    • Like 1
  4. This is the NPR magazine thread but it's worth pointing out that my 200' ACL mag has black plastic guides like the original NPR, except they seem to be a slightly rubberier plastic.  I wonder if it's an age thing - at some point they figured out the stainless wire thing and all mags made after that have them?

    Duncan

  5. Well I had a brilliant idea. (Actually, Eclair had the brilliant idea, because this is just how it's done on my ACL 400' mags...)  A piece of round stainless wire glued in the channel meets all the needs.  Minimum surface area for the film to ride against, and conductive so no static buildup. The original plastic pieces are precisely 2mm tall, so 2mm diameter wire it is!   I got a pack of 50 12" wires (enough for 20 lifetimes...) from McMaster Carr and just cut each one to the length of its respective channel, and glue it in with Pliobond.  I wait a day, then polish the top surface with 4000 grit sandpaper, which makes sure it's shiny and smooth, and removes any Pliobond I got where it wasn't supposed to be.

    See pics of the resulting setup.  Quick, easy, cheap repair, what more could you ask for?.

    Duncan

     

    npr_400_mag_stainless_guides_01.jpg

    npr_400_mag_stainless_guides_02.jpg

    npr_400_mag_stainless_guides_03.jpg

  6. I haven't forgotten this topic!  I've just been busy.  Here's an idea I had for the little plastic film guides that always fall off of the NPR mags because they're so old and the Pliobond glue gives out from age.  It's easy enough to glue them back in if they're still there, but a lot of mags seems to have lost them.  Their purpose is to keep the film from rubbing against all the soundproofing and such on the inside of the mag door.  I'd thought of various ways to replace them with plastic but A) the shape is weird (a squared off bottom part to fit in the channel, and a triangular upper profile, to give a minimum surface for the film to ride against.) and B) they need to be some sort of conductive plastic that doesn't build up a static charge, because that would be disastrous.

    If you have NPR mags I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, like these pictures.

    Duncan

     

    npr_400_mag_original_guides_01.jpg

    npr_400_mag_original_guides_02.jpg

    npr_400_mag_original_guides_03.jpg

  7. I'll be honest - I rarely list stuff for sale here; it's just easier to sell on eBay.  But every once in a while I list something that the "wanted" ads here tell me there might be some interest in.  How about a 16S that's in great running condition, including an actual functioning battery and cable (don't see that too often these days!).  Here's the ebay link:  https://www.ebay.com/itm/256106666168

    ...but that's my "ebay price"  If you are coming from here, please use the "make offer" feature for something you consider reasonable and mention you're a fellow cinematographer.com denizen.  Ebay does make it easy to handle the logistics of the transaction, regardless of where in the world you're located, but I'm also completely willing to sell and ship it directly to you if that's what you'd prefer.

    Duncan

  8. I'm forever picking up on eBay odd bits and pieces of cameras I own, because you just never know what project I might get up to someday where it would be handy to have a spare/sacrificial copy of something.  So when I saw this standard NPR CA-1/C-mount plate for next to nothing a while back I snagged it.  But when it arrived, I discovered something very curious.  Neither of the mounts has had its "final machining operation" done!  There are no threads in the C mount.  There are no bayonet slots in the CA-1 mount.  What the heck?!

    It sure looks like it's been mounted to a camera and spun around.  But there is literally no way to secure a lens to this.  Did it escape the factory in this condition and then get swapped out decades ago under warranty?  Is there some possible circumstance not occurring to me where an end user would WANT a blank lens mount so that they could do the final machining themselves in some special way?!

    Duncan

     

    eclair_npr_odd_lens_mount_01.jpg

    eclair_npr_odd_lens_mount_02.jpg

    eclair_npr_odd_lens_mount_03.jpg

  9. There's a special socket if you're using the shade and it's in the shoe already.  You take off the screw knob end of the shade, side the shade parts off the rail, slide this special socket on, then put everything back.  They even have little slots in the socket piece to clear the rivets on the end of the rail.

    Duncan

     

    arri_mini_duro_pack_08.jpg

    arri_mini_duro_pack_09.jpg

  10. Here's how they did the 8V and 12V setups, which explains why the 12V setup is wider (AA batteries are taller than sub-C batteries).  To get the milliamphours desired, they put two AAs in parallel in every position, then did 10 of those pairs in serial, to add up to 12V.

    Duncan

     

    image.jpeg

  11. I scanned this brochure a long time ago and posted it here:

    http://backglass.org/duncan/arri/paperwork/arri_miniature_duro_pack_battery.pdf

    Well lo and behold, I actually ran across one of these setups on ebay a while back and snagged it!  It came with the single chargers not the multi one shown there, and the battery packs were full of leaking NiCd batteries.  But they had been recelled at least once before, meaning someone had already carved open the welded together cases and resealed them with gaffer's tape, which is A-OK by me!  Two of them were set up as the original 8V packs, and two had been upgraded to 12V, which makes them thicker, which is all the more reason to hold the lids on with tape - they couldn't have fit back together the original way anyway.

    I recelled them with NiMh cells and cut off the socket from one of the mini chargers and connectorized it for use with my little universal Tenergy charger I use for everything.  It's a pretty slick little setup!  I'll add pics across a few posts.

    Duncan

     

    arri_mini_duro_pack_01.jpg

    arri_mini_duro_pack_02.jpg

    arri_mini_duro_pack_03.jpg

    arri_mini_duro_pack_04.jpg

    • Like 1
  12. The mag motor and the camera motor are usually both powered through connections inside the camera.  It will be tricky to convert the 12V to 8V somewhere between the camera and the mag motor, since the connector is hidden once the mag is installed.  Might require some fiddling about with the mag motor wiring, adding another connector, etc.

    Duncan

  13. 11 hours ago, Gregg MacPherson said:

    The Visual Products S16 bodies I have here have thread inserts for the VF, which I assume are to allow a shift for re-centering.

    I'm having trouble picturing where/what these are.  You mean, if you take off the VF adapter from the body, they have machined the body to accept threaded inserts, to relocate the original positions of the screws that hold the adapter to the body?

    Duncan

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