Don H Marks

I had been told many years ago that the fisheye effect in David Holzman's Diary was a fisheye adapter on the front of the lens. Maybe someone knows more.

Nice way to adapt that lens. I was wanting somethng similar but went about it different. I had an adapter made that allows a 37mm thread adapter screw into the front lenshood thread of my 5.5mm Switar (Standard-8). I put this Raynox 0.3 fisheye adapter on the lens.

Good work!

Wow, great job!

Yes, the three tiny screws around the focus ring are the usual suspects for re-centering infinity. You can certainly do this yourself and get pretty close. If it is otherwise a nice lens, have just about any cine lens tech check it. This is a very common adjustment. In fact you should have all your lenses checked.

After polishing with a wire brush (does not show well with flash). Polishing removes the black residue from the previous heating so the color change of the next step is evident. Heating just until it turns blue. Now it is a spring. BTW, when I make parts like this I err on the side of 'just a little too big' as the parts can be filed smaller if needed. In this case it fit just fine, so I left it this size. Works gerat! The spring grabs a pin on the side of the camera. Now my handle stays in place!!

Bending it into rough shape. It will break if you try to bend it without doing the prior step. Test fit:

Measuring to cut the feeler gauge. Heating the piece red hot (did not show well with the camera's flash).

This is the part I need. Not so easy to find. This image is from a "Sold Out" page. To make the spring I'll use a feeler gauge. I'll heat it red hot so I can bend it. Then I'll polish it and then heat it only enough to turn blue. That will turn it into a spring. The original spring measured about 0.3mm, so I used the 0.011" blade from this set.

The spring steel keeper on one of my Bolex cameras broke. This is very annoying as the handle will not stay put when not in use. It flaps around.

If you have ever peeled the leading edge tape off a roll of 120 format still film in the dark you would know. If your eyes are adapted you can even see it.

I have a still/film camera autocollimator and found it works very well with my Bolex. With film in the gate it gives a bright clear image of the projected Siemens target . After cleaning the very tight helicoids on these lenses, they turn very easy now. So easy, the focus collar grabs even with the 3 screws loose. So I found it quicker to just pull it apart, twist the focus ring and then push back together to get the infinity stop just right.

If you don't know Stan Brakhage, look up - Dog Star Man

Some non-destructive things to try. Take the filter out, that will cause a light leak. Run the camera until it stops; it can stop with the shutter open giving a big light leak flash. Set it to "I" and click as fast as you can on moving subjects. Do the same on "T" with some heavy ND filtering or stop down to get motion blurring. Consider making an inexpensive time lapse unit. I made mine with an RC car servo and a 'servo tester.'

The Non-Rex cameras take a crank that is a little longer and the shaft is larger in diameter, so the crank stays on better. I set the gov to the fastest setting, the idea is to vary the speed as I crank on purpose. Otherwise, if you crank with the govenor, and do a good job, it won't look any different than what the sping does.

Last time I had my square-bottom H8-Rex apart was 2003, and I did not have a digital camera for documentation. So I also need a refresher on this before I do the next CLA. Correct me if I'm wrong. From what I recall, if the conditions of the gears for the claws are met per the service manual (and as you described above), then it is just a matter of trial and error to re-fit the helical gear back in place to mesh in the correct position (assuming it was timed correctly in the first place and the pinion has not been removed and replaced).

Aperture selection may be just as important as "Which Lens." Tiny lenses have tiny apertures that degrade the image from diffraction after just a few stops. I have complete sets of ND filters for most all of my Bolex 8mm format lenses for this reason. f22 on a 5.5mm lens is kind of like pinhole photography. Everything is in focus but nothing is sharp. I try not to stop down past an absolute aperture of 4 or 5mm with normal lenses of any format. My soft limits (no pun intended): Minox -> f3.5 ( no choice by design) 8mm film -> f4 16mm Still (spy camera) -> f5.6 35mm Still -> f11 6x6cm -> f16 4x5" -> f32 8x10" -> f64

Just a guess, but to go wider and wider, the technichal limitations may have come into play. That is, maybe someone would have suggested to do 30, 50, 80 but the lens designers said no. So they got 40 , 50, 80.

Now everyone wants their digital creation to match the top one (which I also prefer).

The helicoid was disassemble, cleaned and re-greased.

The stop-down lever of the 5.5mm lens was bent. I disassembled it and bent it back straight.

The light meter was calibrated to k = 14.03 with a zinc cell.

I cleaned various spinning parts with alcohol and then re-oiled and greased various things until it ran smooth. I did not take the motor out or take the spring apart. After re-assembly, Wow! I never ran so smooth. All ready for some 100ft loads,