Jordan 8mm film (with a little help from 35mm stills)

[Charlie Blackfield]

I just uploaded a 6-minute film from my travels through Jordan last November. You can watch it at http://vimeo.com/88901889

I used my 1956 Paillard-Bolex B8, with film stocks Wittner PXR100 and Wittner Chrome 100D, and also a Pentax K1000 35mm stills camera, with Kodak Ektar 100 and Ilford PanF Plus 50.

I assume the vertical lines you can see throughout most of the Standard 8 footage may be an x-ray issue? The films were all x-rayed three times in the hand luggage (on departure at London Gatwick, on arrival at Amman, and then again on departure at Amman). Considering this was simply a bit of holiday fun, I'm not too bothered about those stripes though.

Charlie

[David M. Leugers]

The line(s) in the movie footage appear to be emulsion scratches caused by a bit of crud in the gate of your Bolex camera. As more film was run through the camera, the scratch lessened due to the film burnishing down the bit of crud as it cut through the emulsion. It is possible this was done during development, but the registration of the scratch in the frame looks to me like it was done by the camera. Often times if the emulsion is being scratched by the camera, fuzz will build up in the corners of the frame. Was this visible when looking at the film? If so, it could only be your film gate as the culprit. Careful inspection of the gate and cleaning such as with a cotton swab soaked in acetone will do the trick and give you the steady pristine images your pocket Bolex is known for. 8)

Loved the film and music!

[Charlie Blackfield]

Thanks a lot, David, for this advice. In hindsight, this does make a lot more sense than my initial suspicion of x-ray damage. After all, it did puzzle me a bit that the lines appeared roughly in the same place in all the films (and all two halves of the films - given the nature of Double 8 ). I did brush the camera gate on occasions, but Petra, in particular, was a very dusty location (and so was Mount Nebo where I did the first Standard 8 recordings). I'll try to give the Bolex a good clean before putting the next roll of film in there.

Charlie

[Andreas Wideroe]

Thanks for posting.

The line you see in the middle of the film is indeed not related to X-ray, but something scratching the film. Clean and inspect your gate before you roll your next film.

X-ray damage looks more like fog pulsing or lightleakage moving across the image. I have had this on a 500T film when travelling from LAX to Norway 10 years ago. If I find it I will post it here for reference later.

Keep on shooting! I love to bring my 8mm camera on vacations.

Andreas

[Charlie Blackfield]

Well, over a year on from this, the mystery of the vertical line(s) in my Jordan film has been solved.

I recently took my Bolex B8 to Colorado, after having given the film gate a good clean. However, the films I shot there just came back with even worse scratches. Having just had another good look at the camera, I found that there was a screwhead protruding into the film feeding mechanism. The screws of the aluminum (I guess?) thingy opposite the pressure plate were both loose, the top screw in particular. I noticed that some of my older B8 films (back to at least 2011) had very thin vertical lines as well, so the problem with this screw must have very gradually developed. I fastened the screws now, will give my B8 a thorough testing, and hopefully shoot more Standard 8 film soon.

Charlie