Made in 1992. I’m sure it’s fine
A while back I got a movie camera. And now I’ve got some film for it. It’s 16mm double perforation (holes on both sides - very important) black and white film which originally came from Russia. I’m not that fussed whether it takes pictures or not (although I plan to try and find out). I really wanted it so that I could make sure that the camera mechanism works correctly before I spend some cash on proper film.
It does look good though
I’ve found a way of making photography even more expensive and difficult. I’ve bought another movie camera. This time it is a Bolex H16. My particular model was made around 1950. It’s clockwork and came with three lenses. Two of which work.
All I need to do is undoo that screw in the middle
The camera uses “double perforation” 16mm film which goes from the top spool to the bottom one. The perforations are there so that the camera mechanism can pull the film down one frame at a time in the film gate. A little pin or “claw” moves up and down grabbing each perforation, holding it still while the camera takes a picture on it and then moving on to the next frame. The original 16mm film had perforations on both sides, but later versions did away with the second perforation to make more room for the image. Single perforation “Super 8” cameras, made from the late 1950’s are more desirable because this film is much more common. Double perforation film seems to be only available in the ‘states.
You can convert a “double perforation” camera into a “single perforation” one by getting rid of the little spikes on one side of the wheels that pull the film into the camera. I might have a go at doing this, but first I want to run a film through the camera to prove that it works properly. I can wind it up and press the trigger and everything moves and makes a very satisfying “movie camera” sound, but I really need a bit more than that. So, now the hunt is on for some suitable film.
I’ve inverted the image because it is a negative
I took another look at the failed film that I developed yesterday. It turns out that if you shine a really bright light through the film you can see a kind of image. What you can see above is a car on the bottom right of each frame parked in street that is going away from the camera, some trees along the top of the frame and some buildings down the left hand side. Admittedly it is hard to spot these details but I have managed to convince myself that the pictures are there and that the camera is working as it should. I’ve also convinced myself that developing your own cine film at home is a stupid idea.
So the next step is to save up some pennies (or sell a camera) to afford a proper cartridge of film and developing.
I think the date on the film is 1980
The plan was simple. Take some footage with the Bolex 150 Super 8 camera and then develop it to see if we can see anything. Above you can see the Super 8 cartridge that came with the camera. It would normally be sent back to Kodak for processing (which was included in the price) but I don’t think they are still providing the service. So put the film in a dark bag, pulled out the length we had exposed and then popped it into a developing tank.
Getting into movies is turning out harder than I expected
Turns out that 40 year old colour film developed in black and white chemistry doesn’t do anything useful. I was hoping for at least some evidence of an image that I could use to check if the Bolex 150 was working correctly. I think we are going to have to bite the bullet and order a cassette of film.
I’ve no idea if it works or not. But with these looks it doesn’t nave to…..
They say that the perfect is the enemy of the good. This causes me no end of problems. As an example, consider this blog. A perfect blog would have an entry every day with interweaving narratives which are sprinkled with humorous bon-mots and apposite pictures. But over the last few weeks I’ve not had the time to make a perfect blog. And every time I’ve considered writing a post I’ve thought about the effort needed to make my blog perfect, groaned inwardly (and sometimes outwardly) and gone off and done something else instead.
So I’m going to settle for good enough. When I get a bit of spare time I’ll go back and fill in the gaps and make everything my idea of perfect, but I’ll also stop stressing about having everything present and correct before adding the next post. Over the next week or so I’ll be filling in gaps and making things as perfect as I think I need. And I’ll be blogging when I get time.
As for today: I spent a bit of the morning helping to get rid of some iron railings and to celebrate the success I bought a movie camera for less than the price of a video game….
Rob Miles is technology author and educator who spent many years as a lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Hull. He is also a Microsoft Developer Technologies MVP. He is into technology, teaching and photography. He is the author of the World Famous C# Yellow Book and almost as handsome as he thinks he is.
Begin to Code with JavaScript is now available for purchase and download. You can find it here
