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Javier Illanes

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Hello,

I needed to post this comment and ask for some advice. It is sad that my first comment in this forum is about a negative feedback of a supposedly good reputable camera service engineer, but I just felt that I have to tell this.

I have been reading this forum for many years, although I never commented until now. I am self taught filmmaker with a burning passion for analogue film, so this forum was a fantastic help and guidance over the years. 

I bought an Arriflex 16 s/b camera 4-5 years ago from Cinema Camera Engineering Company in Los Angeles. I contacted them through their website and they were incredibly professional and attentive. The camera was serviced and arrived in perfect conditions. Everything was working really smooth. I was really happy with the purchase. Over the years, I bought some prime lenses, accessories and I built my rig following advice I read on topics and comments from members of this forum such as Tim Carroll and others. It wasn´t easy trying to understand everything by my own. I bought few great books like The 16mm Camera Book by Douglas Underdahl which helped me on my path to filmmaking. I grew a very close loving relationship with this camera. 

In the last two years I didn´t use the camera at all. Having some upcoming projects in the next months, I figured that after such a long time it would be better to have the camera serviced and lubricated for another 5 years.

I searched for a good camera service in Europe since I am located in Barcelona. After doing some research and reading few comments on this forum, I decided to contact Les Bosher in England. I sent him the camera a few weeks ago and I received it back yesterday. 

To my surprise, the camera has come back with so many issues:

- The door cannot be completely closed. When I close it, it moves. Light can probably leak in, and it is also moving the viewfinder throwing the image inside all over the place. 

- I cannot push the level to open the door all the way to AO open position. It stays in between. Before it snapped at AO.

- I notice more friction when rotating the lens turret. Before it was smoother. 

- Also, I think the supply feed spool now is like the other way around. I am not sure, but I think before it was smoother clockwise and now it aint easy to move. 

- The persicope viewfinder has some issue and moves changing the position of the image inside.

- The eye focus of the finder do not stay hard when I tighten the knobs, so I am loosing the position of the focus for my eye really easy when touching the finder. 

- I sent him two lenses (Arri 8mm and 16mm) I bought online over the years to have them cleaned and make sure the were collimated and adjusted to the camera. Now I cannot move the focus of the lenses. The Arri 8mm focus is really stiff. It is hard to move it. 

- I also did a tape and eye focus test with both lenses from 1 meter and 2 meter distances. In order to focus the chart on the wall, I have to pull the focus to infinity, yet the chart isnt completely in focus. So this could mean the flange focal distance in the camera is out of alignment?

I am just really surprised at this kind of work. The camera was great and I feel now it is unusable.  I phoned him yesterday and ask him what went wrong. Then I sent him a couple of videos showing the problems. Yet, today I havent got a response. I just feel really disappointed and I cannot understand this lack of professionalism. Not to mention, the communication by email was not good at all, and he missed some details of my address when he sent me the camera, so the delivery company couldn´t deliver the camera and it was sent back to England, then back again to Spain with the right address. It took more time and stress than usual. 

I am going to phone him again today and ask for a refund. I want to send the camera to someone else who can restore it back to perfect mechanical condition. I think after seeing the poor work that was done to the camera, I am afraid to send it again to him. I just hope he agrees to refund me the money so I can use it for another better service. 

Do you guys recommend a good place to service an Arriflex 16 s/b camera? I am located in Barcelona, so somewhere here in Europe would be great.  Considering the bad experience I just had, I wouldnt mind to pay extra and send the camera to the States. 

I have found that DuallCamera or VisualProducts offer a service for Arriflex 16s. Are they reliable? 

I would appreciate your advice and recommendation. 

Javier

 

IMG_8977.jpg

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Sorry to hear about your bad experiences!

I had my Eclair ACL converted to super16 by Les some six years ago. I think the work was generally good, I also bought some accessories for my camera. Unfortunately there was one big issue. Light leaks. For some time it was a great mystery, Les couldn't give any answer to my problem. Then I found a hole in the lens mount... The problem had to be corrected by Bernie O'Doherty from http://super16inc.com/ If I remember correctly he had to readjust something in the movement as well.

The light leak problem has been present in other Eclairs converted by Les as well.  A while after I learned of another such camera (on Youtube) I contacted Les to ask if such problem was more prevalent. I never got a reply from him. Another ACL owner from this board has also shared his experience of Les not returning any emails or phone calls after contacting him due to some problems in his converted ACL.

As far as I know, Les is semi-retired. Already when I had my camera converted he told me that he doesn't always answer emails so fast as he's away. Certainly that doesn't seem to be the reason for all cases of silence from him...

I can heartily recommend Bernie. Shipping to US from Europe was/is not fun, but the results were good. I also had my ACL ground glass laser brightened by him, it was worth it.

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Sorry to hear about your troubles.

A friend of mine has used Georg Bogner in Munich and was very pleased with his service. Bogner used to be an Arri Technician as far as I know and opened up his own shop to service analog cameras.

http://www.cameraservice-bogner.de/album_5-2-3_004.htm

Maybe give him a call first.

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Thank you for your answers.

I will check both recommendations. Georg Bogner in Munich seems to very convenient. I will give him a call.

I have just spoken with Les Bosher on the phone and politely ask him for a refund.  He told me that he was in the middle of something and that he would answer my email later. I dont expect much from this. But who knows, maybe he has some decency and after reviewing the videos of the camera, he would come to his senses and contact me. 

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • Premium Member
15 hours ago, Heikki Repo said:

Further info: Georg Bogner has retired and only services Arris now and then.

I had no idea. Thank you for letting us know Heikki.

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  • 1 month later...

Hi Javier,

were you able to solve your problem? I forgot to mention in my first reply that even though it was Bernie who fixed the light leak, Les was always generous and helpful and compensated for the issue. (And really to be fair: if I had been using the ACL TS-mount and more "proper" cine lenses, the lens mount hole wouldn't have caused issues as it would have been blocked by the lens adapter.)

Anyway, that's not really related to your issue - just wanted to say that I have nothing bad to say about my correspondence with him. Hopefully you were able to solve the issues with him.

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  • 2 months later...
On 5/15/2020 at 12:06 PM, Javier Illanes said:

Hello,

I needed to post this comment and ask for some advice. It is sad that my first comment in this forum is about a negative feedback of a supposedly good reputable camera service engineer, but I just felt that I have to tell this.

I have been reading this forum for many years, although I never commented until now. I am self taught filmmaker with a burning passion for analogue film, so this forum was a fantastic help and guidance over the years. 

I bought an Arriflex 16 s/b camera 4-5 years ago from Cinema Camera Engineering Company in Los Angeles. I contacted them through their website and they were incredibly professional and attentive. The camera was serviced and arrived in perfect conditions. Everything was working really smooth. I was really happy with the purchase. Over the years, I bought some prime lenses, accessories and I built my rig following advice I read on topics and comments from members of this forum such as Tim Carroll and others. It wasn´t easy trying to understand everything by my own. I bought few great books like The 16mm Camera Book by Douglas Underdahl which helped me on my path to filmmaking. I grew a very close loving relationship with this camera. 

In the last two years I didn´t use the camera at all. Having some upcoming projects in the next months, I figured that after such a long time it would be better to have the camera serviced and lubricated for another 5 years.

I searched for a good camera service in Europe since I am located in Barcelona. After doing some research and reading few comments on this forum, I decided to contact Les Bosher in England. I sent him the camera a few weeks ago and I received it back yesterday. 

To my surprise, the camera has come back with so many issues:

- The door cannot be completely closed. When I close it, it moves. Light can probably leak in, and it is also moving the viewfinder throwing the image inside all over the place. 

- I cannot push the level to open the door all the way to AO open position. It stays in between. Before it snapped at AO.

- I notice more friction when rotating the lens turret. Before it was smoother. 

- Also, I think the supply feed spool now is like the other way around. I am not sure, but I think before it was smoother clockwise and now it aint easy to move. 

- The persicope viewfinder has some issue and moves changing the position of the image inside.

- The eye focus of the finder do not stay hard when I tighten the knobs, so I am loosing the position of the focus for my eye really easy when touching the finder. 

- I sent him two lenses (Arri 8mm and 16mm) I bought online over the years to have them cleaned and make sure the were collimated and adjusted to the camera. Now I cannot move the focus of the lenses. The Arri 8mm focus is really stiff. It is hard to move it. 

- I also did a tape and eye focus test with both lenses from 1 meter and 2 meter distances. In order to focus the chart on the wall, I have to pull the focus to infinity, yet the chart isnt completely in focus. So this could mean the flange focal distance in the camera is out of alignment?

I am just really surprised at this kind of work. The camera was great and I feel now it is unusable.  I phoned him yesterday and ask him what went wrong. Then I sent him a couple of videos showing the problems. Yet, today I havent got a response. I just feel really disappointed and I cannot understand this lack of professionalism. Not to mention, the communication by email was not good at all, and he missed some details of my address when he sent me the camera, so the delivery company couldn´t deliver the camera and it was sent back to England, then back again to Spain with the right address. It took more time and stress than usual. 

I am going to phone him again today and ask for a refund. I want to send the camera to someone else who can restore it back to perfect mechanical condition. I think after seeing the poor work that was done to the camera, I am afraid to send it again to him. I just hope he agrees to refund me the money so I can use it for another better service. 

Do you guys recommend a good place to service an Arriflex 16 s/b camera? I am located in Barcelona, so somewhere here in Europe would be great.  Considering the bad experience I just had, I wouldnt mind to pay extra and send the camera to the States. 

I have found that DuallCamera or VisualProducts offer a service for Arriflex 16s. Are they reliable? 

I would appreciate your advice and recommendation. 

Javier

 

IMG_8977.jpg

Hi, 

I am also in the process of having the Eclair ACL converted with Les, it's with him for the second time now as after having it for 6 months and sending it back to me, I opened the box to find the camera in bits as it wasn't packaged properly, partly ups's fault, but there simply wasn't enough packaging around the camera.  The magazine dented and snapped, and the viewfinder completely smashed, and he says he's unable to find a replacement.  Although he has been very helpful, I had to send it back at my own cost, and i'm still without a camera. 

He's in the process of re-repairing it now, but seeing as others have had issues with Les it worries me that things haven't been done correctly. But I'll see how it all comes back.  Les seems like a very friendly and chatty guy, but maybe i should've used Bernie. 

 

But until i get it back and test it I don't want to make a too negative verdict, but so far I'm not really impressed. 

 

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Hello Guys!

Apologies for my late reply. Les Bosher did eventually refund me the money. That was really helpful. 

I sent the camera to Georg Bogner. After a conversation on the phone with him I felt confident he would do a good job. And he did great! I have already received the camera and lenses and it feels new. He also proposed me to change few things like a better second Hand viewfinder. I am really happy and content with the results. Soon I will shooting a test and a music video. 

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