Sitemap
Index
Print Page
Enlarge Text
Reduce Text
Member Loginéclair cameflex
Viva la difference!
THE AMERICANS CALLED IT A CAMERETTE.
THE FRENCH NAMED IT A CAMEFLEX.
THE CINEMATOGRAPHERS WHO USED IT CALL IT EXTRAORDINARY.
This one camera is a reflex camera allowing through the lens viewing. It can film in 35mm or 16mm with little more than a change of a film magazine. Its filming aperture accepts full aperture in an anamorphic format or sound academy format or 16mm format as required.
It can very simply be adapted to change from a four perforation pull down to a 2 perf pull down for Techniscope. It can be mounted in the Came blimp with full use of focus and aperture control if synchronous sound filming is required. It can be mounted in a waterproof housing with just a change to a low profile magazine. It can film single frame time lapse and animation cinematography in each format. It can, of course be tripod mounted using a Came tripod with a dovetail base slide or on a conventional tripod. It can be hand-held with the magazine being balanced on the shoulder.
Haskell Wexler ASC, Oscar winning American cinematographer filmed extensively with his Camerette in the 1970’s. Samuelsons Paris replaced the turret with a hard front and mounted Panavision lenses for use in the 1980’s.
I became acquainted with the Cameflex in 1954 when Queen Elizabeth made her first visit to Australia. I was a newsreel cameraman with Australian Movietone News accredited to film the Royal Tour of Australia. The chief cameraman at British Movietone News, Paul Wyand, and soundman Reg Sutton brought a Cameflex with them to film a feature length documentary in Cinemascope called ‘The Flight of the White Heron’. This was the first non-fiction film shot in Cinemascope.
This camera was just so different to what I was used to. The camera comes in two parts. The body contains the mechanism and the lens turret. The magazines contain either 35mm or 16mm film as required and are pre-loaded and then onto the camera body.
The turret has 3 lens positions with 218 divergence allowing lenses of various physical lengths and angles to be mounted at one time and not intrude into the taking image. The lens aperture in the turret is bronze and the lens is mounted by inserting and rotating the bayonet base into the turret port. The lowest lens port on the turret is for the lens in the taking position. One port is optically centered for full aperture anamorphic filming.
The viewfinder which allows viewing through the reflex shutter rotates through 3608 and can also be adjusted for left or right eye viewing. The eyepiece moves in and out to block light entering when the eye is not at the eyepiece. The shutter angle is variable from 35 to 200 adjusted by a knob from outside the camera body.
Service on a day-to-day basis is simple. Lubrication oiling parts are located on the camera body through several holes and the twin 35mm pull down claws are easily accessible. A gelatine filter holder is held in place by a locking screw and mounted behind the lens but is so close to the film plane that the slightest speck on the gelatine will photograph and should not be used. It can however be used most successfully to hold mattes for FX. A matte box can be mounted on rods attached to the tripod and these rods will also take an anamorphic lens attachment.
The Cameflex has several sized magazines, 100ft, 200ft and 400ft in both 35mm and 16mm and will take film wound either emulsion in or emulsion out. A tachometer is mounted on the left side of the camera body and the unused film footage is indicated of the outside of each magazine.
To change from 35mm to 16mm it is necessary to change the film magazine and the film aperture plate. This is done by removing the gelatine filter slide and placing the 16mm aperture plate inside the 35mm aperture and holding it in place with the gate holder inserted in the filter slot – clip on the 16mm magazine and start shooting. The camera motors – there are many and can be easily changed with a screwdriver. If the camera is to be mounted in the Came blimp it is only necessary to fit geared rings over the standard camera lens for focus and aperture in order that they will mesh and be controlled externally.
On its release 50 years ago in Paris the Éclair Company stated the Cameflex to be the most versatile of modern motion picture cameras.
I leave you to decide.
POSTSCRIPT…
A bit more about the Cameflex.
By Butch Calderwood, ACS
In the mid fifties the BBC developed a camera with the name ‘Double Camera.’ It was a standard Cameflex and a 17.5 mm magnetic recorder driven by a single motor and encased in a fibreglass blimp. It was bulky and heavy but had two advantages; it was silent when running and once the clapper was put on the head of the roll it could be turned on and off and maintain sync. It did not remain in service for very long.
from Australian Cinematographer - Issue 15