Nick Mulder

Sticky as in >> does it feel like a mechanical object is restricting movement or is it just tight ? >> will go in and then stay there ? or it wont go in in the first place ? also is it both the front switch and the M-P switch ? if its just the front switch it might not be so bad... I've opened my rx4 a few times but have only gone as far as removing the prism/shutter parts from where a fair amount of the inards can be accessed - the parts you will need to get to are further down the front near the governer tho so it would take a bit more work... If it is simply tight I'd would try a little spray lube on the external parts, hopefully it will work itself in over time and break down the offending gunk - down here we have 'CRC' or WD-40 - I'm not sure what you call the same sort of product in your neck of the woods...

I have a good supply of near thirty year old 7276 mag stripe Plus-X, which is still yielding good results (wedge tests at the lab came up fine) - The lab will only develop it into neg tho, so it is very grainy... the mag stripe of sound film will cut into the super16 image area, unless you mean optical sound ? which I dont think requires any particular film type... As for my 7276, I have finally got all the chems needed to do reversal devoloping myself here - but only have a 33' lomo tank so have to shoot very short rolls or risk cutting through footage from a 100 or 400' load ... its nice thinking i'm using film as old as my camera :P

cool, go for gold :lol: I also just noticed I left out the 'non-' part of non-reflex in my post above it should read: "non-reflex bolex'es arent useless, they can be put to good use in animation set up's - they are helpful as they do not loose any light through a split prism, so you can more control over DOF ..."

Aside from the bayonet mount itself the ebm is very similar in to the wind-ups in those parts that need modification for super 16... try http://www.sci.fi/~animato/s16/s16.html -

I'm currently addicted to them (having just weaned myself of Mamiya MF and Large format still gear) ... I have an RX4 wind-up - it will give around a 30 sec take at ~25fps ... recently I scoped the 1:1 shaft and set up the cam on exactly 25fps with the spring fully wound, it slowly reduced to just above 24fps in the first 20 seconds then gets lower at a faster rate to equal ~23fps by the time the spring is wound to its stop (which is not fully unwound)

reflex bolex'es arent useless, they can be put to good use in animation set up's - they are helpful as they do not loose any light through a split prism, so you can more control over DOF ... however - I'm not %100 but I think thats a reflex.. you can see the upper viewfinder has the characteristic curve on its end where there is a series of periscope style prisms that weave thier way to the main prism inbetween the turret and shutter.. also you can see '....LEX' partially obscured just past the same curve I am refering to. they are very little pokey 10x (or is it even 8x) reflex finders tho, which when you are stopped down are not the classiest set-ups for seeing what is getting to film - the side view finder however is much brighter and larger, it can also be removed and used as a directors viewfinder, you will get the paralax issue naturally and no DOF preview... when was the last time you put a mirror on a shutter ?

sorry if this is a simple question but are you putting any lube on the pressure plate before loading ? ie. nose oil I'm no camera tech - but id this was happening to me, I'd look at the footage and find out where the scratches are happening and look at all the machanical parts that came into contact with that area - looking for damaged, worn, unaligned or simply loose parts... If you have dust around the pressure plate and gate it will most probably be the pressure plate since the scratches are on the base ... Good luck !

could it be an EBM or EL Mk I with an older wind-up style door on it ? definately has the 400' saddle and the little plastic memo sleeve thing, but the door looks like it has the viewfinder latches ...

As long asyou hold the run button forward... rather than using the button on the front, use the switch on the side with M - STOP - P on it - when you push the run button on the front it is mechanically linked to this switch and will put it into the M position for normal running, pushing it forward will on the I setting will expose only one frame at 1/33 of a second, if you set it to T it will be open for all the time you keep it in the P position - 1 sec, 10 secs, 46 days whatever... what will cause the error is you in this case... say you needed to expose for 1 second - as you are a human you will not be able to expose for 1 second everytime (ever as a matter of fact), there will be a regular error in which %95 of your times will be out by a maximum amount of error say 200 mS (1/5 of a second) either way - which means at least %5 of your exposure times will be either faster than 800 mS or slower than 1200ms - this will cause flicker as you will be out between two adjacent frames by up to %34 of exposure - %5*%5 = %0.25 of the time - like potentially every 400 frames or so - bad! (not screen flicker from the CRT, just general flicker...) If you were to ND your lens or similarly decrease the amount of light reaching the film you could use a 10 sec exposure - in this case your 'switching off at the right time error' is still ~ 200 mS - this time tho the numbers come up as %5 of the time either faster than 9800 mS or slower than 10200 mS ... this will still cause flicker as you will be out between two adjacent frames by only %4 of exposure every 400 frames or so - not so bad I pulled the base figures outta my ass here, but the ratios and hopefully that mathematical logic hold up - its late here and I've probably made a hash of it! I have made a servo drive for my bolex for time lapse using the P switch and long exposures (I've had virtual 350deg shutter angles this way)... check this site out for ideas: http://www.sciencephotography.com/faq_chap2.shtml I'm working on a stepper type system at the moment with xtal sync - well, it will use xtal's and will let me know when its in sync but its not a true closed loop system (yet)

lead acid - cheaper, also heavier

Bolex cams with the 130deg shutters (most of the windup variable shutter reflexes ?) expose at an equivalent of 1/40 of a sec at 12fps - but that is taking into account the light lost through the prism, not a very helpful number when it comes to questions such as yours... (130/360 * 1/12) = 1/33 of a second 'real' shutter speed, which is faster than a TV screen so you will have problems. stink bums batman :ph34r: ...but :lol: your bolex will have the T setting which will allow you to manually acheive much greater shutter-angles by simply holding the shutter open for as long as you want ... However, there is the the problem of being human you will not expose your frames to equal amounts and you will end up with a flicker of another sort - soooo... you need to reduce the error by increasing the exposure time - this way your range of (human) error is proportionally much less than the exposure time (cool) - you'll need to be fully stopped down and maybe some ND filtering, lower screen intensity etc...

I wonder if the coverage is an optical problem with unacceptable corner blurring/aberation in which new elements are required or maybe its just a physical obstruction in the lens body design that causes vignetting that can be removed / modified / lathed out ... If its the latter then the cost of doing it might not be so high ...

well, been having this conversation with myself so I thought I shouldn't be rude and provide the 65 eavesdroppers (at last count) with an answer :D the knob is actually a potective cover for the power zoom remote controller, it also provides two bridges that connect 4 of the pins to each other so the zoom functions internally ... having not been used for sometime I'm guessing it was simply a bit sticky to remove (I only had the guts to pull on it hard once I had seen it from the inside out)

I've heard of projectors made with steppers, its an interesting idea as I happen to have made some stepper motor projects and the electronics arent that hard once you get into PIC/AVR's etc... you could even do it with an encoder and counter/flip flop's just as easily also to get your hank cranking going, it wouldn't be a direct mechanical linkage, but it would still be proportional the camera building forums at www.apug.org are a great resource - they are geared towards still and large format cams but many of the same build / material / problems and answers are answered there ...

I love my bolexes - try to get at least an RX4 - you'll appreciate the extra amount of bits you can build around it or buy for it due to its 'open plan' interface.. they are loud but i'm not sure if the K3's are quiet anyway

have you managed to find the battery compartment yet ??? The early H16's (and the current model SBM and RX5) are all spring wound cameras - they dont need batteries unless you have attached a motor to the side, I'm not sure if the RX1 had a motor made for it - www.evergreen.edu/media/pdf/Bolex_Manual.pdf have a read... it might be for a later model but the bolex designs concepts are very similar throughout the range ... as for your question re. the shutter angle - check if it has a variable shutter like I said - if it doesn't then you probably wont be able to get one going for less than the cost of a body with one in the first place... find your serial number near the base and reference with : http://www.city-net.com/%7efodder/bolex/history/index.html helpful also: http://www.tobincinemasystems.com/page94.html

Which model RX ? You need batteries ? for the EL, EBM, the wind-ups with a motor attached ? I happen to have a 1,2Ah bolex batt, but if I didn't i'd be heading to an electronics surplus store to pick up any 12v rechargeable batt (like a motorcycle style, or two alarm 6v batts in series etc... ) I'm certain that the RX4, 5 and SBM have an adjustable shutter that can go from 130 deg down to zero - look for a little knob just ahead of the rewind shafts that you can pull out and move up and down (down = smaller angle) - I'm not sure about the earlier RX's or the EBM but I know the EL is fixed at 170 deg Out of phase: as in you want the shutter open when the film is moving for vertical streak type effects ? ... again RX4 and RX5 yep you can for certain - you just need to unscrew the whole front shutter mechanism spin the shutter and screw it back on - statistically speaking you will put it back on out of phase :lol: pretty sure its the same for the earlier types but again I dont know about the EBM - the EL yes probably but be careful you dont mess up your metering and wotnot It can be a laborious process getting it back in phase I tell ya <_<

When hank cranking with the rewind knob on my RX4 i noticed how quiet it ran using the 1:1 spindle (obviously I wasnt getting anywhere near 24/25 fps) - but the 8:1 spindle was still loud, with your bolex you only have the 8:1 spindle ... The stepper motor is a good idea for other reasons also (near fully adjustable shutter angle with time-lapse) - I'm making a drive for mine, they do vibrate somewhat at certain rpm's so remember to mount it well so the vibrations dont carry through to your cam and make even more noise than you started with :mellow:

PLEASE DONT DELETE - it seems the posts have gotten confused and the pic has stayed with this thread (the thread that originally didn't have the pic :blink: ) hope the following makes sense: ******************************** Hi, I recently purchased a PTL 12.5-100 zoom for my EL that came without instructions - I have by myself and with the help of friends figured out the functionality of all the knobs and bits but with one exception ... Take a look at the attached pic, its below the aspheron switch and looks like a button but is instead a threaded ring which can be undone but only up to a point ... it feels like it should come off as it gets loose but there is something physical stopping it from coming off (I thought it looked like another battery compartment, but no ...) It could be either malfunctioning or I am not observant enough but undoing it or tightening it up has no noticeable effect on the functionality of the lens (the auto-iris, power zoom, DOF preview ...) Any ideas ? cheers in advance, nick

Well, I got the EL manual recently - in the parts spec it is listed as the '1:1 spindle' - however, there is no further mention of its use ... Was it added so as to future proof the EL in case of any new ideas the engineers or users thought up ? A sort of legacy of the windups ? anyone else interested ??? :rolleyes: Nick

Hi, I recently purchased a PTL 12.5-100 zoom for my EL that came without instructions - I have by myself and with the help of friends figured out the functionality of all the knobs and bits but with one exception ... Take a look at the attached pic, its below the aspheron switch and looks like a button but is instead a threaded ring which can be undone but only up to a point ... it feels like it should come off as it gets loose but there is something physical stopping it from coming off (I thought it looked like another battery compartment, but no ...) It could be either malfunctioning or I am not observant enough but undoing it or tightening it up has no noticeable effect on the functionality of the lens (the auto-iris, power zoom, DOF preview ...) :ph34r: Any ideas ? cheers in advance, nick

mods please delete sorry about the double post ...

gidday greg :D the aspheron knob on my lens will pull at least the rear element about ~2mm back into the lens housing

ah yes, 2 seconds ... heh :rolleyes:

You will need 24 cameras :lol: