Arri S Super/Ultra 16mm Mod.

Gabe Agoado · May 7, 2016

Can an Arri S model be modified to shoot Super or Ultra 16?

Also, I shot MOS with an Arri S before, I don't remember how quiet it was. Can these cameras be used to shoot sync sound with a heavy blanket or barney placed over them?

Tyler Purcell · May 7, 2016

It's pretty loud, even with a blanket, it will be audible. Also, most of the motors are not crystal sync.

I don't think it can be modified to shoot S16 due to the mount type, it's not really movable. Some people put a fixed mount on the front, but then you still have shutter angle issues and of course, ground glass re-alignment, which I believe is impossible on the S/M.

James Jeffrey Cotter · May 7, 2016

The S is loud as hell but there are blimps out there from Arriflex and Cine 60, probably others. There is an Arri blimp for an S for sale right now on ebay but I bet its heavy as all get out. I have a blimp for a 35II and its similar in appearance and was a lot.. To make it super sixteen you would have to make it hard front and even then I do not think the geometry works out.

Bill DiPietra · May 8, 2016

You're better off putting the money for the conversion into a Super16 SR-II or III. I bought an SR-II package off of ebay for less than 2K.

Tyler Purcell · May 8, 2016

I've been working with a few SRI and SRII's which have been converted recently. I've been shocked to find the gate and backplates still have standard 16 guides. This means, the area of the frame reserved for the soundtrack previously and now used for picture, is being squeezed by the gate and backplate as it runs through the camera. I was horrified by this idea because true Super 16 cameras don't have this issue at all.

One side note, the SRI/SRII's are pretty loud as well. I would consider them borderline sound cameras, you need some sort of cover to do sound-critical filmmaking. Mostly this is due to the old school mechanical drive on the magazines.

By contrast, the Aaton LTR/XTR's are nearly silent. I recently purchased an LTR 54 which was modified with XTR components to bring it up to modern Super 16 spec. Having used SR's for my entire life previous, for almost all of my sync sound filmmaking, I'm to this day shocked how quiet my LTR is. Yes, you'll still get the ever typical scraping of the film inside the magazine if its loose. You'll also get a tiny bit of gear noise from the mechanical drive (fixed on the XTR) but in reality, the camera in my opinion, is the quietest camera for the money. I'm glad they fixed many of those issues on the XTR, but they are a bit more money used because they're in a lot of ways, a better camera.

Gabe Agoado · May 8, 2016

In that case I will stick with my K3. It's surprisingly quiet.

Matthew W. Phillips · May 8, 2016

In that case I will stick with my K3. It's surprisingly quiet.

No offense but, compared to what?

Gabe Agoado · May 8, 2016

No offense but, compared to what?

Compared to a Scoopic MS, another K3, and some Super-8 cameras. I got lucky with it because it's one of the "new old stock" ones with the dials in English. I've never had it cleaned, but even compared to an older one with Russian dials that I rented (which had been cleaned recently) it was 1/2 as loud.