Darren F

Yep, emailed Bernie. After further fiddling... Depending on how I depress the "on button" the camera will sometimes operate and other times not. I suppose it's a loose connection in there. Often, the camera will come on when I simply depress the button, but when I slide it over to lock it on, it shuts off. Not every time though... :( Darren

Hi everyone, I bought my Eclair ACL from a guy in New Jersey through craigslist in 2005. It always had a kind of slow response when I turned it on. I always thought it was the cigarette-lighter connection between the battery and the camera. I've shot over 10000 feet of film with the camera, including 400 ft loads and 200 ft loads. Over the years, the camera has continued to work well, sounds great when it runs, and produces sync footage despite occasional out-of-sync warnings. Recently I used the camera for the first time in several months. It was cold outside, but the camera worked as usual--with the delay after turning it on before the motor started up. A few weeks later I tried to use it again, and could not get it to work. I assumed that the battery had finally died. All these years I've used the same battery pack that came with the camera and I hadn't recharged the battery in over a year. I tried a recharge and had no luck. Then I bought a new battery, and still, no luck. There was never any "event" or "bad thing" or smoke rising from the motor to give me an indication of the problem. I've also never had the camera serviced. Any ideas? Darren

Dimitrios, Thanks for the reply, Maybe I have my terminology wrong. I have heard A-wind and B-wind used simply to refer to emulsion out (A-wind) and emulsion in (B-wind). Most of the film I have ever shot in my life has been emulsion in. I am only interested in emulsion out film stock because my 200 ft. French ACL mag seems to be designed for it. Am I correct to refer to the A-Minima emulsion out loads as A-wind? Darren

Ok so I've read what I could find searching through the site about all these ACL issues. I'm a Bolex Rx5 owner and the recent purchaser of an Eclair ACL. It has a 400 ft. English mag and a 200 ft. French mag. I've shot and tested with the 400 ft. mag and all is well. Steady registration, no scratches, the camera runs quiet, etc. I'm using my prime lenses I know and trust from the Bolex. Obviously it would be a great help to have two working mags. So I've engaged in the experiments so colorfully discussed in previous threads. Basically, I bought a couple of the A-Minima loads, popped off the flanges and loaded them into my 200 ft. mag. I shot the film and the camera operates smoothly, quietly, leaves no dust or any other evidence of a problem. I haven't developed the film yet, but so far everything looks good. I'm not sure what the controversy is at this point, but I think the previous threads have perhaps scared off some people from trying this. I'm also interested in the issue of the ACL being able to use film of either wind. Obviously, since the 400 ft mag accepts b-wind and it's easy to get, no problems there. The issue is with the 200 ft. mag and the a-wind film. So far it's working to use the A-minima loads, but what about a b-wind 100 ft. load. For flexiblity, that would help me. I think I saw a picture in a ACL manual that had a clockwise spinning load in the feed side of the 200 ft. French mag. (is that clear? diagrams would help.) Looking at the 200 ft. mag the feed side spindle rotates easily in both directions. Since the drive seems to engage from the take up side, it looks like the b-wind film should rotate off the spindle without any difficulty. The film path looks a bit awkward to me though, with the film bending back at a fairly sharp angle. Has anyone tried this? The b-wind film, threaded through the French 200 ft. mag, looks as though it would take up emulsion out, and therefore be wound against it's original curve. Other than informing the lab that the film is on a 100 ft. spool emulsion out, are there any problems with this? I look forward to your responses. Darren