Arriflex IIC ground glass

[Jon O'Brien]

Hello, I'd like to take the ground glass out in my Arri IIC and make some marks on it with a chinagraph pencil. Does it need any recalibration afterwards to make sure everything is lined up exactly? Is it best if a camera technician does this, or can a typical operator without much camera tech knowledge do this easily? Thank you.

[Jon O'Brien]

Hi Dom!

I've been waiting to see when you post again here, to catch your attention. What do you think of my question above.

Kind regards,

All Australians appreciate what Melbournians are currently going through, with another lockdown. I wish you all well.

[Dom Jaeger]

Hi Jon,

sure you can remove the ground glass yourself no problem.

Do you have a manual? The procedure is described in there.

http://www.duallcamera.com/Arri 2C.pdf
 

At Panavision we used to mark ground glasses lightly with a soft pencil like a 2B if we needed to add lines. Can be fiddly, and hard to get it accurate. We used a jig to hold the gg and a vertical height gauge to hold the pencil and slide it along to make the line. We would sharpen the pencil at an angle on sandpaper to get a razor edge. We had to get it exact of course.
The ground surface is easily damaged, so you don’t want to be rubbing out the pencil mark too often, or using a hard pencil to mark it.

A less damaging option is to use small bits of sticky tape, with the edge forming the line, but that’s even more fiddly, and you have to be careful because the gg seats on the edges of the flat surface where the marks are. That seat is crucial to the distance setting, matching the film plane, so best not to mess with that surface by sticking stuff to it unless you’re very careful. When you refit the gg it just slides in until it hits the end and it’s good to go. Your camera may or may not have the locking clasp to secure it.

Probably lots of 2C ground glasses sitting in drawers in rental houses around the world never being used any more.

Thanks for the wishes, yeah back to home schooling and iso! We’ll be right.

[Simon Wyss]

The Arriflex II C ground glass frame can be pulled out with a paper clip bent open. You push it back in place.

Jon, I’d like to ask you something, would you please see a PM.

That was a matter of seconds. Dom beat me.

Edited July 13, 2020 by Simon Wyss

[Satsuki Murashige]

On 7/13/2020 at 2:11 AM, Dom Jaeger said:

A less damaging option is to use small bits of sticky tape, with the edge forming the line, but that’s even more fiddly, and you have to be careful because the gg seats on the edges of the flat surface where the marks are. That seat is crucial to the distance setting, matching the film plane, so best not to mess with that surface by sticking stuff to it unless you’re very careful.

Good tip, Dom!

I did one project with custom taped frame lines on my 3C, not realizing it could change the ground glass focus distance. Luckily the film turned out ok, but it’s good to know before going in.