16mm

[Pj]

The Keystone A9 is a simple 16mm camera, it’s incredibly easy to load with film, after all it was aimed at the ordinary person. It's clockwork and I like is not having to charge the batteries or look for power outlets to run the camera and a bonus point is that the camera can accept c-mount lenses too. My camera was originally for double perf film, the large sprocket in the centre of the camera that the film wraps around had two sets of teeth, one set at the top and the other at the bottom. I removed the large sprocket it is soft aluminium which is easy to file. I then used this camera with single perf film, it was quite fun, I was impressed as the camera produces incredibly steady images.

I wanted to modify the camera to Super 16, but time and again I was told that a Super 16 modification would be too complicated and not worth it for this camera. As I widened the gate I realised that the shutter was too small and wouldn’t cover the extra width for Super 16, but when I realised that I could easily replace the shutter with a slightly larger one I made a new shutter slightly larger and attached in place of the original shutter.

To centre the lens I changed the front plate and positioned it 2mm to the right. Now I have a camera from the 1940’s which is a proper Super 16 camera and when I use modern lenses and film stock like Kodak’s Vision 3 50D, the images look as good as any taken with any modern professional 16mm camera, I will be uploading a short film I've made soon. It’s been fun doing this mod.

Pav

[David M. Leugers]

My first roll 16mm camera was an A12 and I can attest to the steady and sharp images this simple camera could produce. I once was reading about an annual film contest for amateur 16mm film makers in an old magazine from the 1960's. I was stunned to see so many of the winners in this international contest had shot their films on one of the Keystone A series cameras... Mine came with an Elgeet 25mm f1.9 lens that was every bit the equal of the Switar 25mm f1.5 on my Bolex for sharpness, contrast and overall image quality. The price of the tool is not as important as the results it can produce.