Bolex Gear Fun

This is the gears in place

A while back I got a 16mm camera. That’s not a camera that is really small (ho ho) it is one which uses 16mm wide film. This is all part of my “get Rob into the movies” project. The snag is that the camera I got uses “double perf film” which has holes down both sides. Modern film is “single perf” to leave more room on the film for a wider picture. But if you put “single perf” film into my camera the pins on one side have no holes to go into and the film jams up. Above you can see one of the rollers in the camera with pins on both top and bottom. The solution to the problem is quite simple. Just remove the top row of teeth from the roller.

So the first step is to remove the roller from the camera. This turned out not to be easy. A crucial component needs to come out first which was held in by a screw that would just not budge. You can see it on the top left hand side of the picture . The screw has some damage to the slot, the result of numerous failed attempts (some by me) to undo it. However today I had another go, motivated by the thought that if I don’t do this I effectively own a paperweight that looks like a movie camera.

We need to make sure we file off the pins on the top

And I succeeded. Above you can see the two rollers which now need to be “de-pinned”, a process that involves a file and a fervent prayer that the rollers aren’t made of hardened steel.

Double Perf for the win!

Made in 1992. I’m sure it’s fine

A while back I got a movie camera. And now I’ve got some film for it. It’s 16mm double perforation (holes on both sides - very important) black and white film which originally came from Russia. I’m not that fussed whether it takes pictures or not (although I plan to try and find out). I really wanted it so that I could make sure that the camera mechanism works correctly before I spend some cash on proper film.

Enter the Bolex

It does look good though

I’ve found a way of making photography even more expensive and difficult. I’ve bought another movie camera. This time it is a Bolex H16. My particular model was made around 1950. It’s clockwork and came with three lenses. Two of which work.

All I need to do is undoo that screw in the middle

The camera uses “double perforation” 16mm film which goes from the top spool to the bottom one. The perforations are there so that the camera mechanism can pull the film down one frame at a time in the film gate. A little pin or “claw” moves up and down grabbing each perforation, holding it still while the camera takes a picture on it and then moving on to the next frame. The original 16mm film had perforations on both sides, but later versions did away with the second perforation to make more room for the image. Single perforation “Super 8” cameras, made from the late 1950’s are more desirable because this film is much more common. Double perforation film seems to be only available in the ‘states.

You can convert a “double perforation” camera into a “single perforation” one by getting rid of the little spikes on one side of the wheels that pull the film into the camera. I might have a go at doing this, but first I want to run a film through the camera to prove that it works properly. I can wind it up and press the trigger and everything moves and makes a very satisfying “movie camera” sound, but I really need a bit more than that. So, now the hunt is on for some suitable film.

Not Quite so Failed Filming

I’ve inverted the image because it is a negative

I took another look at the failed film that I developed yesterday. It turns out that if you shine a really bright light through the film you can see a kind of image. What you can see above is a car on the bottom right of each frame parked in street that is going away from the camera, some trees along the top of the frame and some buildings down the left hand side. Admittedly it is hard to spot these details but I have managed to convince myself that the pictures are there and that the camera is working as it should. I’ve also convinced myself that developing your own cine film at home is a stupid idea.

So the next step is to save up some pennies (or sell a camera) to afford a proper cartridge of film and developing.

Failed Filming

I think the date on the film is 1980

The plan was simple. Take some footage with the Bolex 150 Super 8 camera and then develop it to see if we can see anything. Above you can see the Super 8 cartridge that came with the camera. It would normally be sent back to Kodak for processing (which was included in the price) but I don’t think they are still providing the service. So put the film in a dark bag, pulled out the length we had exposed and then popped it into a developing tank.

Getting into movies is turning out harder than I expected

Turns out that 40 year old colour film developed in black and white chemistry doesn’t do anything useful. I was hoping for at least some evidence of an image that I could use to check if the Bolex 150 was working correctly. I think we are going to have to bite the bullet and order a cassette of film.

Back to blogging

I’ve no idea if it works or not. But with these looks it doesn’t nave to…..

They say that the perfect is the enemy of the good. This causes me no end of problems. As an example, consider this blog. A perfect blog would have an entry every day with interweaving narratives which are sprinkled with humorous bon-mots and apposite pictures. But over the last few weeks I’ve not had the time to make a perfect blog. And every time I’ve considered writing a post I’ve thought about the effort needed to make my blog perfect, groaned inwardly (and sometimes outwardly) and gone off and done something else instead.

So I’m going to settle for good enough. When I get a bit of spare time I’ll go back and fill in the gaps and make everything my idea of perfect, but I’ll also stop stressing about having everything present and correct before adding the next post. Over the next week or so I’ll be filling in gaps and making things as perfect as I think I need. And I’ll be blogging when I get time.

As for today: I spent a bit of the morning helping to get rid of some iron railings and to celebrate the success I bought a movie camera for less than the price of a video game….