Anyone here own a Leicina Special?...

[slashmaster]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but it's my understanding that these cameras have pin registration with a fixed pin and a camshaft that lifts the film off the pin just before it moves to the next frame? So I guess the pin would be 2 frames above where the film gets exposed, but where would the claw that moves the film to the next frame be if a pin is where it normally is? I've been trying to google pics of one but can't find a pic of the gate itself. If you have this camera and your not in the middle of a cartridge can you please take a pic?

[sciolist]

I've sent a PM.

[silverhalide]

I've got two. I just pulled one out and I really don't see any evidence of pin registration.

Here's a picture: http://www.suburbs.com/filmshooting/leicinagate.jpg

Here are some films shot with them:

6/66 with automatic exposure in use:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5-k4NAER4Q

10 mm with broken meter, manually metered:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeB8sJXUhVk

6/66 with automatic exposure, long film:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpknBGGfQv4

[silverhalide]

Well heck if that didn't stress me out. As I was putting away the Leicina, I realized I have several cameras with AA batteries in them, just plotting to destroy them. Emptied them out...

[slashmaster]

Well heck if that didn't stress me out. As I was putting away the Leicina, I realized I have several cameras with AA batteries in them, just plotting to destroy them. Emptied them out...

Thanks for sharing the pic and video's! I like just about all your films! Yeah, Sciolist straightend me out on that. They don't have pin registration but I guess the registration is a bit better than a regular super 8? Hard to tell unless you're comparing footage shot on a tripod. Yeah I'm still trying to clean up some damage from batteries left in a camera too long myself. Thinking of trying a q-tip in alcohol? Are you the one on here who has a Logmar camera or am I thinking of someone else?

[silverhalide]

It all depends on the specific camera. The general rule seems to be that lower mileage higher priced cameras are best, and cheap, old cameras are worst. My favorite S8 camera to shoot with is Nikon R10, but I really wish it had a folding handle. I don't have any of the high-grade canons. I was about to buy a 1015xl or whatever that model is when I finally gave up on S8 and decided to go 16mm all the way.

You can get pretty fantastic image quality from a tiny camera with this combo: https://vimeo.com/166597936

[pip]

I think there were a number of posts in the past on this forum by Santo arguing that the construction of the Leicina gate was such that minimal friction would affect the film passing through the gate thereby reducing the risk of any judder.

[silverhalide]

Well heck if that didn't stress me out. As I was putting away the Leicina, I realized I have several cameras with AA batteries in them, just plotting to destroy them. Emptied them out...

Thanks for sharing the pic and video's! I like just about all your films! Yeah, Sciolist straightend me out on that. They don't have pin registration but I guess the registration is a bit better than a regular super 8? Hard to tell unless you're comparing footage shot on a tripod. Yeah I'm still trying to clean up some damage from batteries left in a camera too long myself. Thinking of trying a q-tip in alcohol? Are you the one on here who has a Logmar camera or am I thinking of someone else?

Thanks. No, I'd love to have a Logmar but they were just too expensive for me.

[slashmaster]

Thanks Pip, I'll look for Santo...

Thanks Silverhalide, you really like those magazine cameras don't you? Have you tried modifying a cartridge to accept single perf? I loaded and ran a couple magazines in that brown bell and howell with the hatch in back. You know the one? Loved the smell of its grease and the feel of it. The Revere cameras smell just the same. Wonder what kind of grease they use?

[silverhalide]

Thanks Pip, I'll look for Santo...

Thanks Silverhalide, you really like those magazine cameras don't you? Have you tried modifying a cartridge to accept single perf? I loaded and ran a couple magazines in that brown bell and howell with the hatch in back. You know the one? Loved the smell of its grease and the feel of it. The Revere cameras smell just the same. Wonder what kind of grease they use?

Yup, dig the 50' magazine cameras. Retrocine.com is working on a retrofit to make EK 50' cartridges accept 1R film.

Kiev made single perf 50' mags. I haven't had very good luck with them.

Good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V8Kqx-MKDo (the soundtrack should be interpreted as sarcastic)
Bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co8WFk9ZwiM
Mixed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IThCHzf65oY

[slashmaster]

Thanks Pip, I'll look for Santo...

Thanks Silverhalide, you really like those magazine cameras don't you? Have you tried modifying a cartridge to accept single perf? I loaded and ran a couple magazines in that brown bell and howell with the hatch in back. You know the one? Loved the smell of its grease and the feel of it. The Revere cameras smell just the same. Wonder what kind of grease they use?

Yup, dig the 50' magazine cameras. Retrocine.com is working on a retrofit to make EK 50' cartridges accept 1R film.

Kiev made single perf 50' mags. I haven't had very good luck with them.

Good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V8Kqx-MKDo (the soundtrack should be interpreted as sarcastic)
Bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Co8WFk9ZwiM
Mixed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IThCHzf65oY

Nice! Think the Kiev magazines are better?... What happened with the focus on the 2nd one? Did you really forget to focus or did the spring in the magazine not push the film up to the gate all the way? I can see one of the loops wasn't big enough in one of the magazines. I think I'd only use these cameras when I really needed something portable. But doesn't that B & H 200 smell nice? Mine did:)

[aj]

Considering OP, the camera doesn't have a registration pin or anything else 'special' in its gate design.

I think there were a number of posts in the past on this forum by Santo arguing that the construction of the Leicina gate was such that minimal friction would affect the film passing through the gate thereby reducing the risk of any judder.

Elsewhere it is was mentioned a number of times that the Leicina Special had a gate made of some space-age artificial fibre. It is not so. Even if it were it would not make a difference as the gate part of the camera inter-locks with the plate of the cartridge and forms an air-channel through which the films travels without touching the plate or gate

Some cameras from Nikon and Minolta have very small ramps up and down of the gate who force the film backwards in the air-channel. Nikon R8 and R10 have stop-pins for both directions which keep the film in place when the claw is not pushing the film. The Mekel super-8 has a real registration-pin and a LED to print a dot near the frame. I am not sure if the Polaroid Super-8 version had a registration pin.

[slashmaster]

Considering OP, the camera doesn't have a registration pin or anything else 'special' in its gate design.

I think there were a number of posts in the past on this forum by Santo arguing that the construction of the Leicina gate was such that minimal friction would affect the film passing through the gate thereby reducing the risk of any judder.

Elsewhere it is was mentioned a number of times that the Leicina Special had a gate made of some space-age artificial fibre. It is not so. Even if it were it would not make a difference as the gate part of the camera inter-locks with the plate of the cartridge and forms an air-channel through which the films travels without touching the plate or gate

Some cameras from Nikon and Minolta have very small ramps up and down of the gate who force the film backwards in the air-channel. Nikon R8 and R10 have stop-pins for both directions which keep the film in place when the claw is not pushing the film. The Mekel super-8 has a real registration-pin and a LED to print a dot near the frame. I am not sure if the Polaroid Super-8 version had a registration pin.

Thanks AJ!.. Yeah, just looked at the ramps on some of my cameras gates... B & H 670-xl has one, the canon 518, the elmo 240-xl all have one. Couldn't check the others, they're in the middle of cartridges. Have not seen such ramps on a regular 8 or 16mm camera yet have you? I thought the Mekel was only a polavision camera? If one could be found at the right price I would pull tri-x or vision 3 50d out of its cartridges and stick it in a polavision cartridge!

[sciolist]

I thought the Mekel was only a polavision camera?

There are two versions of the camera. They're described here: http://super8wiki.com/index.php/Visual_ ... e_8_Camera and http://super8wiki.com/index.php/Mekel_300. The cameras were designed by Mekel Engineering and both have pin registration.

[aj]

Considering OP, the camera doesn't have a registration pin or anything else 'special' in its gate design.

I think there were a number of posts in the past on this forum by Santo arguing that the construction of the Leicina gate was such that minimal friction would affect the film passing through the gate thereby reducing the risk of any judder.

Elsewhere it is was mentioned a number of times that the Leicina Special had a gate made of some space-age artificial fibre. It is not so. Even if it were it would not make a difference as the gate part of the camera inter-locks with the plate of the cartridge and forms an air-channel through which the films travels without touching the plate or gate

Some cameras from Nikon and Minolta have very small ramps up and down of the gate who force the film backwards in the air-channel. Nikon R8 and R10 have stop-pins for both directions which keep the film in place when the claw is not pushing the film. The Mekel super-8 has a real registration-pin and a LED to print a dot near the frame. I am not sure if the Polaroid Super-8 version had a registration pin.

Thanks AJ!.. Yeah, just looked at the ramps on some of my cameras gates... B & H 670-xl has one, the canon 518, the elmo 240-xl all have one. Couldn't check the others, they're in the middle of cartridges. Have not seen such ramps on a regular 8 or 16mm camera yet have you? I thought the Mekel was only a polavision camera? If one could be found at the right price I would pull tri-x or vision 3 50d out of its cartridges and stick it in a polavision cartridge!

Possibly there are even more cameras with the little ramps I know the R8 an dR10 do have them. So does the Nikon 8x Super Zoom and the Minolta D10. Clearly Japanese designers and engineers then already had a clear understanding and insight of the working and troubles of super-8 cartridges.

This air-channel, which I only came to understand the importance of later, makes all this pressure-plate fanatism laughable and the collimation obsession an illusion. These have no purpose. Don't use lenses at aperture 1.0 or 1.2 and think to reduce the air-channel, it will wreck the pick-up drive in the worst case