faqs: Camera hints and tweeks for old models

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).

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.

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 )

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.

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.

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.
CP16R

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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Ikonoskop A-Cam www.ikonoskop.com
Contemporary (2003) Swedish super 16 camera . Cheap (£4k new inc 9mm lens) small (238x108x64 mm) & light (1½kg). 6 to 37,5 fps & timelapse.
100ft daylight loading reels. C mount lenses.
Cons: parallax viewfinder. (video assist. is non-reflex too).
Note there are 2 versions, the 1.5/series II is more robust. Earlier versions had problems with light leakage durring timelapse, and sliping film transport.

Du-All camera (New York) can reflex the Ikonoskop A-Cam see www.duallcamera.com/

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