FAQs -Film Cameras Camera Manuals

Obviously not a definitive list, just a few things to look out for.... please e-mail us with additions for these pages
see also: neg size comparisons. Connector pin-outs . Lens mounts

16mm & Super 16mm Cameras

Aaton A-minima www.aaton.com Contemporary small/ light (2kg) reflex super 16 camera . 200ft daylight loading. PL and Nikon lens mounts. Cons: propriatory Kodak daylight loading spools, (Fuji stock not avaliable on Minima spools).

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Arri Media (Heston, London). 0208 848 8881 fax 0208 756 0592

Arri 16ST circa 1960s noisy, poor viewfinder, slow lenses. value: £300-£1500. Typically: Arriflex 16 ST: arri bayonet mount c/w variable speed motor, 0-50 fps, 400' magazines, magazine motor, to Arriflex Super 16 ST: PL mount c/w variable speed motor, 0-50 fps, 400' magazines, magazine motor, matte box, 8 volt batts

Arriflex 16S/ 16ST Introduced in 1952 and the first Arriflex 16mm. designed as a MOS camera, uses a "bowtie" spinning mirror reflex design. 3-lens turret accepting Arri Standard mount lenses. Uses a straight viewfinder tube in the "door". Some 16S cameras have a Carl Zeiss Jena viewfinder with a non-removable eyepiece, Most 16S have the standard viewfinder with a detatchable eyepiece. The 16S has internal capacity for 100ft of film, divergent lens turret (designed to help prevent wide angle prime lenses from seeing the ends of longer primes mounted on the turret), the motor is mounted behind the camera allowing for a flat bottom, and the ground glass is mounted near the eyepiece. The 16S takes 400 ft magazines, or the rarer 200 foot magazines. The magazines use a separate torque motor that can be removed from one magazine and placed on another.

Arriflex 16 SB: the most common variant of the 16S. The SB has one stainless steel Arri Bayonet mount and two Arri Standard mounts.

Arriflex 16M, essentially a 16S without internal film capacity. It uses a different 400ft film magazine than the 16S.All 16S accessories, except magazines and torque motors are compatible with the 16M. The magazines, although similar to the 16BL magazines are not compatible with the 16BL.

The 16S was designed as a standard 16mm camera (its design predates the Super16 format by 20 years). It is not an easy camera to convert to Super16 because of the design of the gate and mirror. However Arriflex did make around 25 Super16 Arriflex ST's (with the Bayonet mount turret).

Arri SRI value: around £10k but dependant on accessories and condition

Arri SRI - SRII Camera Manuals

Typically: Arriflex 16 SR II highspeed PL: c/w integral crystal motor, 24/25 fps, variable speed 8-150 fps, 400' mags, 12 volt batts, extension viewfinder, eyepiece leveller or Arriflex 16SRII PL: c/w integral crystal motor 24/25 fps, variable speed 5-75 fps, 180 degree shutter, 172.8 for super 16, 400' mags, extension viewfinder, eyepiece leveller,12 volt on board batteries, 16mm ARRI follow focus.Or Arriflex 16 SR III PL: c/w integral crystal motor, 24/25 fps, variable speed 5-75 fps, adjustable shutter 45, 90, 135, 144 172.8 and 180 degrees, 400' mags, extension viewfinder, eyepiece leveller, 24 volt on board batts, heated eyepiece, pistol grip, time code.

If running at 25fps or less you can reduce camera noise by reducing the size of the loop on the film magasine by one frame. Reducing it by much more than one frame may cause the film to snap.

SRII built in light meter is just behind the lens above the mirror, in the light path to the viewfinder and is very suceptable to damage by blowing air (can-air etc) into the lens port (which you should never do...). it's an expensive repair (upto £1000).

Old batteries don't last long and are expensive to replace. Most power per buck to be had with external 12v lead acid (pref lead acid gel batteries) on an external lead or similar with NiCads. eg Maplin type: YUASA rechargeable NP 2.1-12 (about £17) and charger Maplin RPL405 (£35). Don't use Lithium-ion batteries, they have a high contact/start voltage that can damage older circuit boards without over-voltage protection. Power plug on the camera is a 4 pin XLR, Pin1=0v, Pin4=12v, Pin2 & Pin3 not connected.

Arri SR2/S16, with zoom, studio matte & follow focus, extension & 35mm eyepiece see Camera Manuals / PL mount

SRI-II S16 conversion, several companies have proprietory S16 conversions, only the Arri conversion seems to rate with users as a consistently reliable mount.

Viewfinders: SRII if hiring for a super 16 shoot ask for a 35mm eyepiece (35BL), the standard 16mm doesn't quite cover the full s16 ground glass without moving your eye from side to side.

lenses: SRI/SRII = Arri Standard mount, most S16 conversions = PL mount. Arri S to PL adaptors are avaliable (Optex) and most original standard primes 12mm or longer will cover S16 gate, wider than 12mm they tend to vingnette (crop the corners). Optex converted Zeiss 12-120 zoom becomes more like 15-135mm in it's S16 reincarnation. (see http://www.optexint.com/sales/lensacc/lensmoun.htm )

SR2 values, body circa £10k, mags £1k etc (2002)

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Beulieu R16

There were 2 models one with built in autoexposure (R16RX), one with just a built in centre weighted light meter. Don't expect the cesium cell used to work the autoexposure to work in a camera now almost 40 years old! Value: £300-£800 depending on condition, attachments etc. £900 full kit, cased, mint.(1999)

Pros: small and light, not too noisy (though it is said they were not popular with cameramen durring the vietnam war....).
Lack of use tends to gum up the film spool transport such that the take up spool mechanism doesn't slip as it is supposed to and drags film over the claw and backplate, you get to know this when 100ft of film goes through the gate in under a minute and the rushes are dark and blurred. If the camera hasn't been used in a while run a few spools of used film through it with the side cover off. The problem WILL clear. More problematic are worn claw mechanism which can affect pull down through the gate, the lab will notice erratic frame position and possible nicking of the neg. sprocket holes.

Good original batteries for this camera, that form part of the hand held grip, are hard to come by but they can be "repaired". See widescreencentre, London. Alternatively buy rechargeable 7.5v model car battery from Maplin and fit to 5 pin DIN plug to power the camera from the external supply socket. You can work out which pins by putting a multimeter on the pins while the camera is powered from the original battery.

Usually the back-focus on the original Angeneux zooms is good enough to use the zoom to focus (ie zoom in to focus, pull back and the focus will stay).However the Beulieu R16 is different to other cameras that have a fixed ground glass in the same plane as the film neg., the reflex viewfinder MUST be set up correctly for the cameraman's eye or else you cannot rely on it to focus in sync with the film plane. This done with the (hopefully original) Angeneux zoom lens at full zoom, full aperture and set to infinity: adjust the eyepiece to focus on the object (so you must be pointing at the moon, stars or something a long way away....). Now point the camera at an object 5 feet away and focus pull the lens to the 5ft mark (still on full zoom),(mine had a 5ft mark, chose something around 4-7ft that is marked on the lens barrel): the object should still be in good focus, adjust the eyepiece to check. If the 2 settings are different there is maybe a back-focus problem with the lens or it isn't screwed in to the lens turret properly. Usually you would assume all is OK and just set the eyepiece up for the crosshairs in the viewfinder. You can't know if the lens barrel markings are correct for this camera except by examining footage shot. So be careful of fitting other c-mount lenses to the Beulieu, eg those off a Bolex (where the distance between the lens centre and the backplate is shorter than the Beulieu). In theory if you setup the eyepiece with the original Angeneux, it should be right for other lenses on the turret -so you could check if the barrel marks tally.

In regard to film-making the problem with this camera is it was designed as a newsreel camera, and is fine as setup above for one cameraman, on set however everyone is peering down the lens and someone is going to be unable to resist adjusting the eyepiece to suit their vision (the image WILL appear wrong for say someone who is short sighted, like wearing someone elses glasses, compared with the person who focused it). From then on the viewfinder is out for the cameraman, who will naturally adjust the lens to focus....

Mags: internal daylight loading 100', optional external 200' mag. The external mag has it's own take up motor and can be noisy (but so is the camera!).
Lenses: came with Angenieux 12-120 lenses. C mount. The Beulieu R16 doesn't lend itself to S16 modification, mainly because of the reflex prism not covering the s16 frame. Some have been sucesfully modified by enlarging the gate... but the viewfinder only covers the standard 16 area, and is off centre for s16.
Neg: Beulieu has a single claw pull down, you can use single or double perf stock.

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Bolex

Bolex H16 originally just a clockwork camera (1936), a reflex model H16RX was introduced in 1956. Lenses: C mount. Clockwork/motor attachment. value £300-500. (S16 conversion add ~£750) full size pictures: Bolex RX4 H16 camera with a Switar 18-86mm f2.5 lens OE H16RX Bolex RX5 with POE Zoom lens 16-100mm

All the RX models have variable shutter angle and can be fitted with a fader, enabling in-camera fades and lap disolves. note the RX models require lenses with an RX designation (or else they focus infront of the film plane...) although longer focal length C mount lenses will focus, but the barrel markings are inaccurate or need re-callabrating.

Bolex E16 lenses: C mount. Motorised, good S16 modified examples around.

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Cinema Products CP16R
Crystal Sync Speeds of 24 or 25 fps; Variable speeds of 12, 16, 20, 28, 32, 36 fps. Film Capacity: 400 ft.(PLC-4) or 1200 ft. magazines Shutter opening: 156º Semi-Automatic Exposure Control System Chrystaslate System (adds an auto-slate frame marking lamp/ bloop tone signal/ sync pulse output signal) typically Angenieux 10 - 150 mm f2.3 zoom lens J-5 Zoom motor control system 20V Batteries.

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Eclair NPR Camera Manuals cons: heavy, awkward shape, dark viewfinder. pros: some modified to PL lens mount for more modern lenses. There are S16 modified NPRs around. Bit noisy, most of it through the lens.

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Wolensak FASTAX WF-41 High Speed rotating prisim 16mm camera. Holds 400' spools. 2 motors, 38lbs, approx 16" high

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35mm CAMERAS Camera Manuals

Arriflex 35mm. often used as second unit cameras. brief history: was the first reflex 35mm camera (1937). 3 lens port turret, arri bayonet lenses. Variously updated, 35-II (1946), Arri IIA (1953), Arri IIB(1960 a variable shutter added), Arri IIC (1964,.fixed 180 degree shutter), Arri 3C: PL mount lens and adjustable 165 degree shutter. Picture is a Arri IIB Weight: 17lb (400ft load) Motors: Variable:16vDC, 24-28vDC. 80fps - 32vDC. but governor, synchronous and animation type motors also available. Mags: 200ft and 400ft (displacement type). lenses: Arri standard mount lenses (same as 16mm)

Arriflex III MK II outfit BNCR PV PL, 24/25 integral crystal motor, variable shutter 15-180 degrees, 400' mags, 12v batteries, variable speed control 5-130, forward and reverse.

Arri III MK I outfit PV BNCR PL, 24/25 integral crystal speed motor, 4-50 fps, variable shutter 135/144/172.8/180 degrees, 400' mags, 12v batts

Arriflex 435 outfit PV 24/25 integral crystal motor, variable shutter 15-180 degrees, pivoting door, 400' mags, 24v batts, variable crystal speed 1-150 fps, forward/reverse, levelling eyepiece.

Mitchell NC The Mitchell rack-over BNC was the camera of choice for major motion picture production from just before the beginning of World War II through to the advent of the Mitchell BNCR in December 1967. The first was made in 1934, the second in 1935, and third 1937. Because of the war, there was only one camera made between 1939 and 1946, (sno.18, in June 1941). After the war production by Mitchell Camera Corp. increased dramatically and by 1947 they were making 32 a year!, (serial nos 32 - 64). The age of Hollywood in the 1950s' was about to roll and a Mitchell BNC was still the camera of choice, but Mitchell were unable to satisfy world demand, for several years a copy was made under licence by Newall Engineering Ltd. in Peterborough, England. Mitchell manufactured 364 BNCs, #1-365, (there is no #13), many now over 60 years old, are still the work horses of the animation and motion control industry, renowned for the precision and accuracy of the film transport mechanism -better that of many modern cameras. NC stood for News Camera, BNC was the blimped version (a huge aluminium cast housing). more on the Newall

lenses: most sold with Bausch+Lomb Baltar lens BNC, or Cooke, Cooke pancros (in BNC mount).

Mitchell 35R
The NC but now as a reflex camera... from 1967 to 1980s.
The picture shows a model (sn around 175) with 110 Volt Mitchell Synchronous Motor and rotating 3 lens turret, other versions have single BNCR mounts, video assists, Fries (24/25 & variable crystal speed 4-150fps) or more sophisticated Jackson Woodburn (digital crystal speed 0-150 fps) for/rev, 28v motors. Variable shutter, 400/1000' mags top or rear mounted. The Panavision Gold uses the same film transport/gate mechanism, see Panaflex.

lenses: most sold with Bausch+Lomb Baltar lens, at best f2. but there are Canon, Arri and various anamorphic lenses etc in BNCR. Some cameras are modified to PL mount.

PANASTAR:
MK II: 24/25 integral crystal motor, variable shutter 45-180 degrees, Panaglow, levelling eyepiece, follow focus, 500' mags, matte box, 24v batteries, variable crystal speed 4 - 120 fps in one frame increments, forward/ reverse.

Eyemo Bell and Howell model 71 (type A-7) originally featuring 3 arm offset turret, direct viewing through the lense by means of a prismatic focusing magnifier combined with the use of an alignment gauge, critical focusing on ground glass, offset drum eye piece with positive finders. 400 ft magazines, speeds ranging 8-12-16-24-32-48 FPS, used with ratchet winding key or motor (as picture). The white lenses in the picture are Miltar "c" type. .

Often used as a stunt camera. With a crash box housing this is a small indestructible camera (without a magasine the body accomodates 100ft of film) Eyemo JAR conversions from the original winding film advance to 24v DC motor and the addition of a Nikon mount:

35mm Sync Sound Cameras

PANAFLEX PLATINUM : 24/25 integral crystal motor, speeds from 4-36 fps, for/rev, variable shutter 50-200 degrees, Panaglow, levelling eyepiece, follow focus, left hand grip, right hand grip, 500' mags, matte box, 24v batts.

PANAFLEX GII: 24/25 integral crystal motor, variable shutter 50-200, Panaglow, levelling eyepiece, follow focus, 500' mags, matte box, 24v batteries, variable speed 4-36 fps. Based on the Mitchell R35 (but different motor, lighter and quieter mags).

PANAFLEX: lightweight 24/25 integral crystal motor, speeds from 4-32 fps, fixed shutter 172.8 or 180.

Arriflex BL IV: BNCR/PL Arriglow system. 24/25 integral crystal motor, variable shutter 144/172.8/180 degrees, 400' mags, 12v batteries, extension viewfinder, variable speed control 5-32 fps, pistol grip, follow focus, matte box, eyepiece leveller.

Arriflex BL III: BNCR/PL 24/25 integral crystal motor, variable shutter 144/172.8/180 degrees, 400' mags, follow focus, matte box,12v batts, extension viewfinder, variable speed control 5-32 fps, eyepiece leveller, pistol grip.

35mm: Through the video assist of an Arri 3C, (though the 185/166 figures have been added for clarity). The overall frame is approx 3x4.

Lightmeters:

Minolta

Gossen

Links:
Optex
Arriflex Arri Media (3 Highbridge Oxford Road Uxbridge Middlesex UB8 1LX ) Tel: 01895 457100 Fax: 01895 457101
Van Diemen
Old Camera database http://www.xs4all.nl/%7Ewichm/cinelist.html