Filmshooting

The old battery pack might have been 8.4V with a centre tap of 4.2V, hence labelled + and - 4.2V. A small amount of over-voltage is usually OK, a fully charged battery will measure 10% to 15% over the nominal voltage, so appliances need to be capable of working off a voltage range. If the old batter...

Canada Balsam hasn't been used to bond lens elements for many decades. These days manufacturers generally use UV cured optical cement, but there are a number of different products available. See: http://www.optical-cement.com/cements/products.html#anchor720308 A cheaper option is to just use a consu...

Gianni's collection would be great to use! Otherwise, after a quick check on Uk eBay there's a few cheapish options: Minolta Minoltina for £12.50 which is like the Canonet, spools fit into a custom cartridge for easy turning. Sankyo 8-CM for £15 Best bargain would be a Bolex K2 for £10, but...

Hi grot, Cine-Kodak was the name Kodak gave to virtually all their movie cameras, starting with their first one, which was also the first 16mm camera, later named the Cine-Kodak Model A. That came out in 1923, along with 16mm film. Later on there were Cine-Kodak Models B, BB, E, K, M, Cine-Kodak Spe...

It should turn clockwise but not anti-clockwise, ie it shouldn't turn as film passes over it but act as a break.

I'm pretty sure that on Bolex Pocket cameras like the B8 the take-up spindle has a single spring leaf that needs to lock into one of the spool slots, so it doesn't matter about the 3 or 4 spline thing. (At least that's how my D8 is, I don't have a B8 here to check but I don't recall them being diffe...

I don't think a macro lens will work better, anamorphic projection lenses normally won't focus closer than 5 feet anyway. For closer focus you need to use a diopter in front.

Hi Miles, yep pretty much what you said for focussing. You need to focus both, so setting the anamorphic to roughly the distance then fine focussing with the prime (or zoom) is the way to go. Most of those anamorphic projection lenses lose about 1/3 stop, which is pretty much what you found going fr...

Blooming is a type of tarnishing that occurs on certain glass types and has the interesting effect of increasing the transmission of light - on lenses this creates a brighter, higher contrast image. It was noticed in the 19th century that some older telescopes seemed brighter than newer ones, but no...

Hi Joel, the L position is for normal running, E is for single frame. The 2,4,8 numbers adjust the lightmeter and thus the automatic iris by one stop each increment, presumably for lens filter compensation (since the meter is not through-the-lens but beneath it). So for example setting it to "8...

..the focal length number has no other real purpose than providing for determination of field of view (ie. for any film/sensor formats). In other words there isn't much else you do with such a number. On the contrary, there are many reasons why you need to know the focal length of a lens, beyond de...

I did come up with one more question. The reflex control section of the manual says to use a shutter speed of 1/65 at 18fps, that seems fast. Is this due to light loss with the reflex viewfinder? Unless I'm misunderstanding how the reflex system works I wouldn't think there would be any light loss....

I've got 3 of these cameras but none of them have the socket to the right of the run button like yours. The position would seem to place it leading straight in to the mirror and claw drive gear in the film chamber side, maybe its a modification to give a synch pulse to an external sound recorder? It...

There are a number of field of view calculators and comparators online, for example: http://www.abelcine.com/fov/ http://www.panavision.co.uk/services/image-calculator.asp or cinematography phone apps which do all that and more: http://www.theblackandblue.com/2010/03/22/toolkit-useful-iphone-apps-to...

I'd have to agree Jean-Louis!