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WTB: Ikonoskop A-Cam SP 16 and/or Aaton A-Minima


Gregory Murtha

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I have used both the Aaton Minima and the A-Cam SP-16, both are modern Super 16 cameras and they both have their advantages and disadvantages.

 

The Aaton Minima is a small camera that is portable and light, it accepts ‘special’ 200ft loads of film, totalling 5 minutes and it has a great prismatic viewfinder, the camera accepts Aaton time-code, its crystal synced and very quiet making it ideal for sound work. For me the only issue is that it usually comes with a PL lens mount, though it can come with a Nikon mount, PL lenses are some of the best professional lenses available.

 

PL lenses are expensive they are usually rented; they can be big and heavy, making the outfit cumbersome. The biggest factor to consider with this camera is the specially wound 200ft loads of film, the film is wound emulsion out, Kodak no longer sells the special loads for the Minima, making the camera ‘defunct’ for many, but you can load film yourself in a darkroom, although you need to be careful with those special 200ft spools, alternatively film labs will do this for you.

 

A-Cam SP-16

This camera is smaller and lighter than the Minima as it takes 100ft daylight loads which last 2 minutes 30 seconds. It’s tiny and the design is like a handle thus holding it is easy. It has a c mount for lenses, c mount lenses aren’t very expensive and there are many from high quality cine lenses to CCTV lenses, they all tend to be very small.

 

The camera has crystal speed control, but it is noisy and earlier versions tend to be very loud, the small 100ft is not that easy to load as the film needs to be loaded through a complicated coaxial path in the camera, plus the 100ft finishes very quickly, the loud noise and short runs make it unsuitable for most dialogue work. The biggest disadvantage of this camera is its lack of a ‘real' viewfinder, I believe that for any sort of work you need a proper reflex viewfinder.

 

Pav

Edited by Pavan Deep
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