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New ARRI 2C


George Lekovic

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Hello,

 

a good friend of mine has given me (for time being) his ARRI 2C... Very little used. I need to oil + grease this thing before even start thinking about shooting tests...

 

Being new to this camera, and axcited, and having gone trough all th epossible forums and topics, I still have few qustions. Here are the pix:

 

2ca.jpg

 

2cb.jpg

 

:: Is there an adaptor that would reposition the motor to the side of the camera?

 

:: What are the really good (and affordable) ARRI mount lenses... I used old Superspeeds with triangular iris - not too happy...

 

:: Where do I find batteries for my Motor (the one in the pic)? I don't even know how to begin describing it? What is the Voltage / Amperage for this motor?

 

:: Where do I buy/order oil + grease?

 

:: Should I consider converting to PL mount?

 

I have questions and I hope you have answers.

 

Looking forward.

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Hello,

 

a good friend of mine has given me (for time being) his ARRI 2C... Very little used. I need to oil + grease this thing before even start thinking about shooting tests...

 

Being new to this camera, and axcited, and having gone trough all th epossible forums and topics, I still have few qustions. Here are the pix:

 

2ca.jpg

 

2cb.jpg

 

:: Is there an adaptor that would reposition the motor to the side of the camera?

 

:: What are the really good (and affordable) ARRI mount lenses... I used old Superspeeds with triangular iris - not too happy...

 

:: Where do I find batteries for my Motor (the one in the pic)? I don't even know how to begin describing it? What is the Voltage / Amperage for this motor?

 

:: Where do I buy/order oil + grease?

 

:: Should I consider converting to PL mount?

 

I have questions and I hope you have answers.

 

Looking forward.

 

 

I would send your camera to visual products (www.visualproducts.com) for maintenance. The lubrication and checking over it probably needs is not something you should do yourself unless you know what you're doing. As far as a battery, check in a manula. It's probably 12 volt DC which is pretty easy to get a hold of. Any battery of appropriate voltage will work fine, you might have to have cables made, though.

 

The PL mount thing is entirely your decision. The plus side is that you could rent more current lenses. Sticking with an arri B mount is a fine decision, also, as you can find quite a lot of nice lenses still in that mount. Again to the PL mount side, you can get an adaptor to use bayonet and arri standard mount lenses in a PL mount camera, but you can't go the other way 'round.

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That's an Arri constant speed motor. You'll want more like 16v out of the battery. It can run on 12V, but won't maintain speed if the voltage drops even slightly. However, it is not very usable for sync sound. You'd want a crystal motor for that. A flat base, such as a Cine 60, will give you the option of mounting the motor vertically next to the camera. Some rare flat bases allow you to mount it sideways, if that's necessary (although it shouldn't be). Go for a full camera check and steadiness test, if your budget allows. As long as the camera is borrowed, you'll have to use the lenses which that front allows, meaning Arri standard of bayonet mount (if you have a bayonet mount...the earliest 2Cs didn't).

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That's an Arri constant speed motor. You'll want more like 16v out of the battery. It can run on 12V, but won't maintain speed if the voltage drops even slightly. However, it is not very usable for sync sound. You'd want a crystal motor for that. A flat base, such as a Cine 60, will give you the option of mounting the motor vertically next to the camera. Some rare flat bases allow you to mount it sideways, if that's necessary (although it shouldn't be). Go for a full camera check and steadiness test, if your budget allows. As long as the camera is borrowed, you'll have to use the lenses which that front allows, meaning Arri standard of bayonet mount (if you have a bayonet mount...the earliest 2Cs didn't).

 

 

Excellent, thanks for the power clarification. I was really guessing based on other arri cameras of that time. B)

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Hello,

 

a good friend of mine has given me (for time being) his ARRI 2C... Very little used. I need to oil + grease this thing before even start thinking about shooting tests...

 

Being new to this camera, and axcited, and having gone trough all th epossible forums and topics, I still have few qustions.

:: Is there an adaptor that would reposition the motor to the side of the camera?

 

:: What are the really good (and affordable) ARRI mount lenses... I used old Superspeeds with triangular iris - not too happy...

 

:: Where do I find batteries for my Motor (the one in the pic)? I don't even know how to begin describing it? What is the Voltage / Amperage for this motor?

 

:: Where do I buy/order oil + grease?

 

:: Should I consider converting to PL mount?

 

Congratulations! I love my 2B/C (2B with 2C innards) to death.

 

A flat base option is either the Tobin TXM-21ab or Cinematography Electronics crystal motors, I bought a Tobin when Clive closed them out. The Tobin's go for $800-$1000 on eBay, the CE's are $5,000 or so (the CE's are in many rental house's stock). I've used a small 12V alarm system battery with my variable speed motor. Digikey.com has a large selection of rechargeable batteries. Make certain you know the polarity of the connection on your constant speed motor if you have to improvise a plug, you may damage the motor's transistors with reverse polarity. The tripod adapters that mount a 2C with the motor on the bottom to a regular tripod are called Arri 2 Top Hats, Visual Products usually has one lying around.

 

Lenses can be a bit of a pain, I've ended putting together a small set of Cooke Speed Panchro II's and III's for my camera. The Cookes II's and III's are considered old fashioned by many working professionals but still a good, pro quality lens. eBay has the odd Cooke from time to time, a caveat is that it's real hard to find a lens that's good in all ways. All the ones I've bought, except for one from Isaia, had good glass but had to have small repairs and bench collimation.

 

PL mounts are nice to have, I believe Les Bosher gets $1600 for his conversion, Visual Products can also give you a quote. I thought about doing that, and may eventually, but spent the money on lenses instead - I live in a cinema backwater and rental is a pain. Instead I've built up a small self-contained kit for myself. I don't have everything I need for every shoot but at least I can shoot something on a whim.

 

I got my grease from Arri and use turbine oil otherwise.

 

The nice people at Intervalometers, who make time lapse and animation motors, have posted a 2C manual at: http://www.intervalometers.com/cgi-bin/ax....ual-60pages.zip

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It can run on 12V, but won't maintain speed if the voltage drops even slightly.

 

When i first shot with a IIC i hooked it to a 12V battery. I could clearly tell from the running sound that speed was changing wildly. I got 16V batteries and shot the steadytest again...

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When i first shot with a IIC i hooked it to a 12V battery. I could clearly tell from the running sound that speed was changing wildly. I got 16V batteries and shot the steadytest again...

You took my quote out of context. I believe I made it clear that 16V was my recommendation. The original poster asked about using a 12V source. At this end of the range, there's a significant difference between say, 12.1 and 11.8 volts, when used specifically with the constant speed motor.

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Thanks guys. In the meantime I bought grease and oil from arri, lubricated, found a 16V battery belt and shot a small test. Speed looked constant at 24 and Today I'm off to technicolor to see how it came out.

 

I will let you know how it went. Also, I'm looking to get a variable speed motor to rent in NYC for tomorrow...

 

:)

 

thanks.

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Test came back.

 

The test I shot with my 2C and a 35mm Superspeed came back and it looked... great. I watched it in a screening room at Technicolor and the image was very, very stable - no play that I could see. What is interesting it was shot on an old piece of film stock (10 years) and it came out looking really good...

 

:D

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