Zeiss Ikon Moviflex Super

[cameratech]

I just got one of these cameras, a very high-end standard 8 model, but unfortunately it didn't come with a manual.

After playing with it a bit I suspect there's no way to override the automatic aperture control, but perhaps someone with a user manual could confirm that's the case. I guess I could always just open it up and disable the iris motor (or work out which battery connection controls either the meter or the iris motor and disconnect that) but it seems odd to me that such a top-of-the-line camera wouldn't have some sort of manual override.

Thanks!

[Will2]

Haven't worked with the Moviflex Super. Can you find a picture and post?

Not to hijack, but here's a much older Zeiss camera that I love, the Movikon 8.

[Rudat]

It should be possible to control the iris manually but as i don't know the camera i can only guess from pictures on the internet and iris control on newer moviflex cameras. When aperture is changing, is there any button or a knob turning? My Moviflex GS8 aperture control works (or it should work but the camera is dead) as "manual" simply by holding the turning knob not allowing the iris motor to change the aperture. On your camera it may be the knob below the lens besides the exposure eye that makes the trick... Try to hold it if it turns when aperture changes, but again i'm only guessing and don't even know if the knob has anything to do with the iris control... :?

[cameratech]

Here's a picture of the beast:



and one giving a sense of scale:



For a R8 camera it's huge, nearly the size of a Bolex H8 held horizontally. The zoom is a Zeiss 7.5-30 Vario-Sonnar, which I'm looking forward to testing, it should be easily up there with the sharpest zooms ever made for R8 or S8. The iris is a proper 6-blade design rather than the 2-blade 'cat's eye' iris you find in a lot of cine auto-exposure systems. The pressure plate/side rail pressure look to be very well designed, so it should be extremely steady too. There's a 9-pin socket at the back, and weird things like a contact switch in the gate that activates through a perf when the film is positioned for exposure (basically a frame sensor) which makes me think the accessories for this thing must have been pretty awesome. Unfortunately it came out not long before S8 was launched, and was so hideously expensive that not many were sold, certainly not outside Germany.

Rudat- thanks for the suggestions about overriding the auto-iris. I think I figured it out .. if you hold the run switch on the camera body down without depressing the inner switch the auto iris doesn't come on. You could also hold the aperture dial as you suggest, but the noise of the iris motor fighting your finger is awful!

Will - I love those older Movikons too, shot some of my favourite footage with them. The horizontal 'stills' body design seems to help keep the camera quite stable when you hold it. And people think you're taking a picture rather than filming them!

[Will2]

What a hunk of metal! I bet it weighs a ton. Looks great, nice rounded edges on everything.

[cameratech]

aand here it is stripped:





State of the art in 1963!

Three separate motors for drive, zoom and iris, feedback sensors in both the gate and take-up drive gear, 9-pin accessory socket for variable speeds, remote start and possibly even a time-lapse intervalometer - I can't think of another Standard 8 camera that was so ambitious in utilising the latest technology. All metal housing, but moving to plastic for some of the gears. Bit of a pain in the arse to dismantle (like so many Super 8 cameras that would follow in this one's footsteps), but the iris motor is noisy and slow and the zoom collimation is out, so I had to get in there.

Probably regret it in the morning.. :o

[Joel Pierre]

I have purchase via eBay a Zeiss Ikon Moviflex Super camera.

Since I have not the camera manual, there are features that I do not understand.

Could you enlighten me ?

1) What is the lock latch on L and E positions? What are the numbers 2, 4 and 8 ?



2) What is the connector under the eyepiece of the camera ?



3) The axis of the reel do not rotate when the camera motor rotates. Is it normal ?

[cameratech]

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" would compensate for a 3 stop light loss. You don't need to worry about compensating for shooting at 48fps, the lightmeter automatically adjusts.
The connector under the eyepiece is for some accessory that I have yet to discover.
The take-up spindle should definitely spin when the camera is running.

Dom

[Joel Pierre]

After partially disassembled the camera (the side of the axes of the film reel), I was able to unjam the motor shaft that was blocked. The mechanism works now. But the camera only runs at 16fps. At 48 fps, the motor stops (?). The lighmeter does not work (the engine is running, but has no effect on the iris).