Arriflex 16mm BL on Steadicam

[Henry Gelhart]

Hi

I will shoot a student feature tomorrow and they are filming with an Arriflex 16mm BL.

It's kinda old camera with that top mounted magazine (yepp, no Steadi-mags available) and it appears

to be one heavy piece of metal. Uarrgha.

 

Honestly, I have never met such an old camera and I have no clue how to mount it on the Steadi.

And I'm afraid that the weight will move and move... from the front to the back, because of that top mounted mag.

 

The dop told me that he might have a SRII in stock if everything goes wrong...

 

 

Any advices for the mounting and the mag?

Or shall I run far far far away?

 

 

 

-Henry

Edited March 27, 2009 by Henry Gelhart

[Martin Newstead]

Yep, Its a heavy piece of metal indeed. It sounds obvious but make sure it has a video tap.... I did a short years ago and the thing turned up without one, spent a sweaty half hour gaffering a pulnix to the viewfinder.

Also make sure you can power it from your sled.

This is why its important to have prep time, ideally you should be sorting all this out now, not while you are standing around on set scratching your head!

The SR2 is more steadi-friendly if you can get it.

[Alec Jarnagin SOC]

Henry,

 

While transferring some old video tape to DVD the other day I found some behind the scenes footage of me flying a 16 BL on my model 2. Yes, it is far from ideal for Steadicam but it certainly can be done. Your dovetail plate should go directly to the bottom of the camera. BE AWARE that if the camera screw is too long and the metal tip of the screw touches the metal top of the screw hole, the camera will run (this is how the pistol grip start/stop works). Use a relatively short screw and if you have a problem, cover the end with tape to prevent metal contact.

 

The mag and film movement is not as bad as you may fear (for short takes) as the camera is fairly heavy for a 16mm (but certainly not heavy) and the film is light. I assume you are not attempting the opening of "Bonfire of the Vanities" here.

 

Focus gear. Like the early incarnations of its 35BL big brother, the 16BL uses a lens housing to make it quieter. You'll need to attach a focus gear to the housing, or use another lens and forgo the housing (and deal with a louder camera).

 

Good luck.

 

EDIT: Just saw Marty's note. Yes, make sure you have a video tap! That's right, I was using an old eye-piece tap. Power to camera is a 4-pin XLR (pin 1 ground; pin 4 12V+). You'll want to power any tap directly from your rig as powering through the camera will introduce massive noise. Yeah, get the SR if you can.....

[John Jaquish]

Henry,

 

While transferring some old video tape to DVD the other day I found some behind the scenes footage of me flying a 16 BL on my model 2. Yes, it is far from ideal for Steadicam but it certainly can be done. Your dovetail plate should go directly to the bottom of the camera. BE AWARE that if the camera screw is too long and the metal tip of the screw touches the metal top of the screw hole, the camera will run (this is how the pistol grip start/stop works). Use a relatively short screw and if you have a problem, cover the end with tape to prevent metal contact.

 

The mag and film movement is not as bad as you may fear (for short takes) as the camera is fairly heavy for a 16mm (but certainly not heavy) and the film is light. I assume you are not attempting the opening of "Bonfire of the Vanities" here.

 

Focus gear. Like the early incarnations of its 35BL big brother, the 16BL uses a lens housing to make it quieter. You'll need to attach a focus gear to the housing, or use another lens and forgo the housing (and deal with a louder camera).

 

Good luck.

 

EDIT: Just saw Marty's note. Yes, make sure you have a video tap! That's right, I was using an old eye-piece tap. Power to camera is a 4-pin XLR (pin 1 ground; pin 4 12V+). You'll want to power any tap directly from your rig as powering through the camera will introduce massive noise. Yeah, get the SR if you can.....

 

I'll be dealing with a similar issue soon (but unfortunately don't have the option of an SRII!). My rig has a 2-pin lemo out on the sled (for which I have a d-tap adapter, if that helps) and is powered by 14.4v Anton Bauer batteries. Also, the camera's power is a 3-pin XLR input, not 4-pin.

 

Is there any way to 1) safely power the 12v 16BL from my 14.4v sled and 2) any way to adapt the 2-pin lemo (or d-tap) to the 3-pin XLR input?

Edited March 23, 2011 by John Jaquish