Eclair ACL motor

Keneu Luca · September 5, 2005

I've been reading some of the posts here about Eclair ACL cameras. One of the most important things stressed is the cameras problems with pulling 400' mag loads.

So, a heavy duty motor will be fine - what is the other motor known as? The motor that wil have trouble pulling the load? Is it a "multi speed motor"?

Will the non-heavy duty motor pull a 200' load perfectly? Is it only a problem with the 400'?

What exactly is the problem with pulling the 400' load and how often will such a problem occur? Is it guarneteed to happen everytime?

What if you load a 400' mag only half way (with 200' of fiilm)? Can this be done?

I know - tons of questions. I expect a full report on my desk by Monday morning.

Thanks.

Edited September 5, 2005 by Keneu

Greg Gross · September 7, 2005

Hello Keneu,

The older camera motors sometimes have a hard time pulling a full 400' mag-

azine. I'm speaking now of a motor that has a lot of hours on it. They perform

okay with just 200'. Notice I'm saying may! I just got off the telephone with my

mentor and he informed me about what I'm writing here. On your test footage

look for flickering in the neutral tones and especially white. He told me that you

need to make big enough loops with the film. Without big enough loops your film

will be black! Originally the ACL was designed for only 200' magazines. The earlier

motors would burn out when pulling a 400' magazine.These were 24/25 fps. Tobin

is developing a motor- TXM-24A, Part#TCS-TXM-24A. The price is to be announced.

Contact Cinema Technic.

Greg Gross

Dimitrios Koukas · September 8, 2005

I've been reading some of the posts here about Eclair ACL cameras. One of the most important things stressed is the cameras problems with pulling 400' mag loads.

So, a heavy duty motor will be fine - what is the other motor known as? The motor that wil have trouble pulling the load? Is it a "multi speed motor"?

Will the non-heavy duty motor pull a 200' load perfectly? Is it only a problem with the 400'?

What exactly is the problem with pulling the 400' load and how often will such a problem occur? Is it guarneteed to happen everytime?

What if you load a 400' mag only half way (with 200' of fiilm)? Can this be done?

I know - tons of questions. I expect a full report on my desk by Monday morning.

Thanks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Keney,

I ve done one feature film with eclair ACL and believe me it was a really painfull experience.

There have been many mods done to this cameras and some of them were from Eclair.

I want you to describe me how the take up side looks like, or post a photo of it, so I will know wht type of magazines you are using, the old ones or the newest ones.

The older ones have a weird mechanism with a rubber sprocket inside the take up side that attaches to the exposed! film and winds it up. This has to be about 5mm thick and not aged, if less than that then u will have a jam at about 30 meters of film.

About the loop, too big will make the film ''scratch'' itself in the magazine sides, I believe the best loop side (that Eclair recomends) is 12 -14 frames, for 200' mags and a minimum of 14 frames outside the magazine for 400' mags.

No problem if you easy the load with 200' on a 400', if u have a new magazine,wich I suppose you don't, (none of us have!), but If I don't have any description of the magazine then I can't be more specific.

I have repaired both of the ones I was using with some new sprockets that I ve found in a video repair shop! that worked excellent.

No jams no chips.

Also the heavy duty motor, most of the times has to do with the currency u are providing to it, u definately want new fresh batteries or more amperage batteries that can handle the load too.

Regards

Dimitrios Koukas

Edited September 8, 2005 by Dimitrios Koukas