Amateur Photographer & Cinematographer (1933)

August gth, 1933 to AMATEUR PHOTOGRAPHER p 6 CINEMATOGRAPHER a NEWS, NOTES AND MATTERS OF IN¬ TEREST FOR ALL CINEMATOGRAPHERS USING AMATEUR CINfi APPARATUS. Cinematography mateur Take Care of Your Cine Camera By SIGURD MOIR. All kinds of plans are made and precautions taken to ensure that production will not fall flat through avoidable causes. One matter that should never be overlooked concerns the cleaning of the camera, important details of which are referred to in the notes which follow. “ OO and so’s processing is not too good ; see how they’ve scratch¬ ed this film about ! ” A young and very enthusiastic cinematographer is speaking in the vestibule of one of the London clubs. He holds in his hands a 100-ft. reel of 16-mm. film, and by his indignant tones it is apparent that he is not feeling very pleased about it. Now I know that 16-mm. instru¬ ments— not merely automatic cameras and projectors, but also the expensive apparatus used in factory processing — are so designed that it is practically impossible for the image portion of the film to become affected in the manner complained of by our young enthusiast. So I take the film and commence to unroll the leader strip (which, I am careful to inform the owner, must not be allowed to come into contact with the flooring). A brief scrutiny is sufficient to show that the trouble could easily have originated with the worker himself. “ Take a look at your camera to¬ night,” I suggest, " and see how much grit has got into it.” * * * He now writes that he has removed a grain or two of sand — sufficient to prevent the recurrence of such trouble in future essays. A Clean Interior. This goes to show how essential it is to preserve the interior of the camera in a condition of perfect cleanliness. Gritty particles and sand within the instrument are liable to much shaking about during the shooting, and they can easily cause lateral scratches affecting more or less lengthy stretches of the costly celluloid. Only a single particle may become taken up with the exposed film— and this can, if the cinematographer be sufficiently misguided to “ tighten ” his spool on taking it from the camera, scratch not only the emulsion but the harder safety-base as well. Nor are sand and other gritty particles the only dangerous intruders. Trouble has also been experienced with an equally disagreeable substance known as film-wool. Most camerafs that have been operated to expose any appreciable amount of film will show a small accumulation of this woolly fluff ; and since the accumula¬ tion tends to occur round about the framing aperture in the gate, all the affected pictures will lack those clearcut edges without which technical perfection is impossible. Ordinary dust and dirt, too, can do a great deal of harm in the interior of a cine camera. Vibrations set up by the automatic drive are amply sufficient to set the tiny particles in motion, and where they come to rest upon the film emulsion they can both prevent the formation of a complete image and partially impede the even action of processing solutions. Optical Parts. Such particles are, however, usually more troublesome where they accu¬ mulate on parts of the optical system and view-finder. Patches of dust upon the lens can, for example, cut down the effective value of a large aperture ; and they can in certain other cases lead to serious defects affecting picture definition — if not, indeed, to badly blurred images. Quite apart from the lens, optical parts proper to the view-finder equip¬ ment are occasionally affected by dirty or dusty deposits. In these Bathing Pools both at the seaside and inland are now in full commission and offer excellent subjects for amateur cinematography. 138 23