Help please!!!!

[simon1680]

I need help finding the best film camera, preferably 16mm to start making old school home movies. I've been looking at bolex h16, keystone a7, and a few others. PLease help.....

[Mmechanic]

Make yourself a budget. There are too many cameras around to let technics decide alone.

The cheapest ones you can find with eBay or so cost $15 to 50. You can have luck and secure yourself a camera in good condition but most of the times you end up with money for nothing. Cracked plastic gears, completely stuck lens, something hooked off inside.

Although relatively sturdy the Revere 101/103 have plastic gears and other parts that deteriorate. Believe me, I know them inside out. Kodak K-100 mostly have rust inside, they’re prone to it. Argus also aren’t the best. Canon Scoopic has a built-in lens, not a bad one, but it limits you nevertheless.

The next level would be Keystone, Agfa, Nizo, the old Bolex (not Paillard-Bolex!), Pathé, GIC, Beaulieu, Warner, DeVry, Suchanek-Meopta, Zenit Krasnogorsk, and such. Don’t pay more than $200 for one of those.

Then Paillard-Bolex H-16, Zeiss-Ikon Movikon 16 (obsolete claw geometry), Eumig C 16, Ciné-Kodak Special, Facine, Suga, ETM P 16, Bell & Howell Filmo, and others. Reasonable price up to $500.

Professional cameras: Mitchell 16, Arriflex 16, Eclair NPR, Eclair ACL, Aaton, Cinema Products, Frezzolini, and more.

As soon as you want a reflex viewfinder you enter the professional field. Amateur reflex viewfinder systems like the one with Pathé WEBO M, Alpha Kiew (USSR), Paillard-Bolex H, Beaulieu R all have inherent flaws. For example, you cannot use all C-mount lenses with a Paillard-Bolex H-16 Reflex. Some have too long a mounting thread and all others must be stopped down beyond f/3.3 and or have a focal length longer than 50 mm (2") in order to deliver sharp pictures. Only specially designed and marked RX lenses can be used with the iris wide open. RX C-mount lenses were made by Kern, Schneider, Angénieux, and Benoist-Berthiot.

Figure out whether you want to make films or only shoot about. Try to imagine whether you would carry around a tripod for steady images. There’s the difference between a souvenir filmer and an amateur filmmaker. Professional filmmakers rely on supports for 99 percent of their work. Brackets are available and monopods. Most everything can be made lightweight and easier.

But the beginning is the camera itself, that is certain. If you want to listen to a trained and experienced film technician: buy an all-metal camera with at least one C-mount thread, one that was not used much, and one that has a big flat base. A Paillard-Bolex H-16 would be a good choice. The standard model is used together with its rackover support. It allows you to focus a lens precisely on the built-in ground glass prism. Reflex models allow for continually focusing also during a take (with the problem of a sometimes dim view due to the stopped-down lens). In worse lighting conditions a tube finder is brighter. The Ciné-Kodak Special has a reflex viewing system that can be used prior to shooting. The original two-ports turret has a proprietary lens mount. Some CKS have been modified to C-mount. The CKS offers almost as much trick possibilities as the H-16 does. Its 200-ft. magazines can be valuable although the younger H-16 Reflex models accept 400-ft. magazines.

So much for today. Oh, I almost forgot: we haven’t spoken of all the rest, yet. Projector, rewinds, splicer, . . .

[silverhalide]

For 16mm: Bolex H16 RX5 with Kern RX lenses, Kodak K100, B&H 70DR. No matter what you buy, plan on having it serviced before using it.