The hazards of buying brand new old cameras

[Phil_F_NM]

And also, I spent less than $100 over 6 months on one filmo and a few lenses. Looking at the 1948 and 1953 price list for my lenses and cameras, I have the equivalent of about $9000 in top notch gear when adjusted for inflation. And one of those cameras (70DL) was given to me by a fellow RFF member and it was in better condition than the one I bought (70DR!)
While I'm not shooting an Arriflex or a Bolex, I love the notion that I AM shooting a professional grade, combat ready ( possible combat veteran) camera that I can repair myself and that I can lube using any easily available sewing machine oil.
I like knowing that a single 1 or 0 getting knocked out of a code isn't going to ruin a whole logical block of footage; a digital scratch so to speak.
I want real images on real film to pass down (both still and motion) because there is less and less of that of my family these days and I want future generations to be able to see these images.
And it's just a lot of fun.

Phil Forrest

 

[Huss]

I like the direction this thread has taken.

 

[Phil_F_NM]

I like the direction this thread has taken.

Sorry to derail it!

Phil Forrest

 

[B-9]

Huss, don't mind us!

Any opportunity to talk FILMO is a fair one!

 

[Huss]

Sorry to derail it!

Phil Forrest

No please continue!

🙂

 

[B-9]

Phil,

What cool glass came with your latest 70?

Any interesting zooms in the kit!

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Now that NFL Films is no longer shooting 16mm and instead using Arri Alexa digital motion picture cameras, Kodak's biggest customer is gone. They used to expose something like half a mile of film per American football game during the pre, regular, and post-season. They just closed their lab in New Jersey to private customers (mere mortals such as me) and now do limited runs for the film programs at various universities in the region, Temple, my Alma Mater, being one of them.
So now we can grab this 16mm equipment at pennies on the hundred dollar bill but we have to be able to feed them. I almost grabbed a 35mm Bell and Howell Eyemo but figured I'd only be able to feed it for 4 minutes and 10 seconds, once every three months because I can only afford that much film, even at student discount.
I'm sure in some corner of the warehouse or in a closet somewhere at Alan Gordon, there are some new old stock 70DRs and 70HRs, all gummed up with the camera lube equivalent of cosmoline. The concrete of preservation lubes. They'd have to be boiled in a pot of water to remove all that junk after sitting for 50 plus years.
Interestingly, in our photo lab aboard the USS New Jersey, we have a truly MINT looking military version 70HR with a suite of Angenieux lenses (someone robbed the 10mm but the VF objective is still there.) When I walked in there for the first time anyone had been there in a decade, I picked up the camera, wound it up and it worked. It was a little dry sounding but everything was perfect on it.

As for NOS still photo gear, I was once given a Diax IIb camera with 3 lenses. That old chrome was so thick it could stop anything. I don't think more than one roll of film had gone through it in its entire 60 year existence. Pretty locked up, so I stuck it on top of my radiator in my apartment and it came to life for the few months I had it before selling it for whatever came next.

Phil Forrest

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Phil,

What cool glass came with your latest 70?

Any interesting zooms in the kit!

It was actually Sam (Crazy Fedya) that was very generous in getting me the 70DL. No zooms but I got a fast Elgeet 3 inch and a bunch of Kodak 1 inch lenses: two anastigmat f/1.9 and a Cine-Ektar f/1.9.
I stuck the Elgeet 3" on my 70DR next to a pair of Kodak Cine-Ektars: 15mm f/2.5 and 25mm f/1.4. I bought the 25/1.4 along with a Kodak Cine-Anastigmat 63mm f/2.9 for maybe $20 on ebay. Both were advertised honestly as "needing work" with one "having fungus." I took a chance and it turns out the 25/1.4 didn't have fungus but just a little lube outgassing. The 63mm was just dirty. Both cleaned up amazingly. The 63mm is on the 70DL right next to one of the 1" f/1.9 anastigmats. They belong together on the same roll of film.

Interestingly, I found out that all Cine-Ektar lenses have a thorium element in them. I can't find anything about the formulations specifically but have read that the "normals" 25mm and 40mm are Ernostar based designs but modernized with cracking good glass and a single hard coating. I'm tempted to get a mirrorless camera just to put these lenses on and see what they can do while I save up a bunch of 100ft footage to send off.

I have a Canon 17-102mm f/2 zoom but it won't fit on any Filmos with the viewfinder turret. I'm planning on giving that lens away, hung off the front of the next Bell & Howell coming sometime in the future. It's a 70DA, so the viewfinder is flat and won't bump into the lens on the turret.

I have about five different Morse G3 tanks on my ebay watch list at any one time because I'm tempted to do it all myself. As a matter of fact, I need to check the photo lab on board...

EDIT: should we take the Filmo, Arriflex, Bolex, Beaulieu, et al discussion to a new thread? Yes, there are other forums dedicated to this stuff but they aren't as lively.

ANOTHER EDIT: If anyone knows of a good source for Filmo straps, I am looking for two of them. Not a NOS dried up leather one. I may make one out of a dog collar.

Phil Forrest

 

[B-9]

Well if you give that canon away think of me!

Ive been looking around, as of yet I only have the standard 1" 3.5 that came with mine. I found my 70D at the bottom of a box lot I purchased at of all places a barn sale. It's not in very good condition which has me looking on eBay. It's all cheap enough I suppose!

Thanks for sharing your input on the glass, something to keep in mind.

Do we have a area for talking Filmo?

 

[Phil_F_NM]

Well if you give that canon away think of me!

Ive been looking around, as of yet I only have the standard 1" 3.5 that came with mine. I found my 70D at the bottom of a box lot I purchased at of all places a barn sale. It's not in very good condition which has me looking on eBay. It's all cheap enough I suppose!

Thanks for sharing your input on the glass, something to keep in mind.

Do we have a area for talking Filmo?

The Canon is already part of a kit I'm putting together for Randy Zauhar's kid who is at NYU film school.

I have a fun little Wollensak 1" f/3.5 "focus free" that I had to trim down the mounting threads on but haven't used yet. And I have too many Kodak M mount cine lenses. 4x 25mm f/1.9, 2 of them Cine Ektars, 2 Cine Anastigmats. I have just about figured out how to turn down the M flange to add a thread so it will fit right into C mount. Now I just need a machinist to do the work and the money to pay for it!

If you get S mount cine Kodak lenses, get the original Kodak type 2 adapters to make them fit C mount. The cheap adapters from China are made pretty bad and the design is maddening. They are cheap investment cast aluminum and the threads bind up awfully. With a little work they can be made to work fine but it is such a pain that I won't do it again. Original Kodak adapters are gorgeous brass.
I like the notion of shooting Kodak S mount lenses just in case I get a hankering to shoot a Model K 16mm. The native mount is Kodak S mount with various adapters. Those are very cool cameras, the BB and K. 100ft reels in a camera that is not unlike the size of a large encyclopedia volume. No turret but they are lighter and flatter than a filmo. And if you ever find yourself shooting a group of WWII reenactors, the BB or K fit right in. K even takes single perf and with some work can be super-16 converted.

Get that 70D working well. Have you had it apart yet? You'll have to modify the pull-down claw and the drive sprockets to shoot modern 1R film. Not to worry, the mod is easy for anyone who has any mechanical know how.

As far as talking 16mm, this is a still photography forum but we might be able to get a place in gearhead delights to talk motion picture. A lot of us former military photographers have motion picture experience as well so such a place may be apropos (I'm not one, I was shooting during the digital era.) None of us live in a non moving world. 😉

Phil Forrest