American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1959)

mobiles and Cadillacs, so, too, the Cine-Voice exceeds its stablemates in number. The 100-foot film capacity Cine-Voice was first intro¬ duced in 1949. The advent of commercial television programming changed the destiny of the Cine-Voice, for newscasts became a highly important part of daily video programming, and a vast new market for newsreel footage on 16mm film was opened up. TV news cameramen found the Auricon Cine-Voice, with its portability, reliability, and high-fidelity sound recording, ideally suited to their needs. Thus, the small, moderate-priced single-system sound camera suddenly became an important tool in the professional field of cinematography. The little 12-pound camera is today the workhorse of almost all TV newsreel men, and has been subjected to more modifications than records can recall — many of them described from time to time in these pages. Since its initial debut, the CineVoice sound camera has been extensively redesigned by the manufacturer, is now known as the Cine-Voice II, and features an optical three-lens turret plus many other improvements. It may be purchased as a silent camera with a single-lens mount instead of turret, but minus the sound equipment, for around S480.00. Equipped com¬ pletely for sound, it may be had in combinations of equipment and accessories at prices ranging up to a little over Sl,000.00. The sturdy, machined aluminum case of the camera is well designed for both appearance and balance. The new, heavy-duty 3-lens rotary turret takes all standard 16mm “C” mount lenses of any focal length, also Cine Kodak bayonet-mount lenses when equipped with “C” mount adapters. The finder, located on left side of camera, shows a large view of the scene and has adjustment for paral¬ lax. Its basic field of view matches that of the ISmm wide-angle lens. Professional-type transparent amber-color mattes are provided that drop into a slot to alter the finder field of view to match other lenses ranging from 17mm and 25mm, to the 2 and 3-inch telephotos. The camera mechanism is mounted on Neoprene-rubber cushions for quiet running and to prevent any camera noise being picked up by the recording microphone. Actually, the camera runs so quietly that a red warning light is a fixed accessory at the rear to indicate when camera is running. The rotary shutter has a fixed opening of 175°, which provides an exposure of l/50th of a second per frame at the standard sound speed of 24 fps (36 feet per minute) . The film gate is directly behind the picture-taking lens and consists of the aperture plate and pressure plate. In the gate the film moves over a series of stainless-steel balls — a patented feature designed to eliminate film-emul¬ sion pickup and to insure sharp, in-focus pictures. The film pull-down is self-engaging and made of case-hardened and tempered steel, precision ground to size — all of which makes for rock-steady pictures and quiet film flow. A balanced flywheel is an integral part of the CineVoice camera mechanism. Its purpose is to provide smooth, steady film motion so essential to recording a sound track on the film completely free of the variations in sound commonly known as “wows” or “flutter.” Thus, the camera cannot be stopped instantaneously on a single frame of film, as with amateur cine cameras that are COMPACT, PORTABLE, easy to handle, the Cine-Voice II outfit complete with amplifier-mixer, batteries, and microphone, may be had with a single carrying case, as shown above, or with the equipment dis¬ tributed in two smaller cases. spring-driven and have no flywheel. When the Cine-Voice camera is switched off, a few frames of film will continue past the film gate before the drive mechanism slows to a complete stop. This is of no particular disadvantage, as it is usually necessary in editing to cut out a small section of the film between scenes to achieve the desired continuity, pace and timing. A footage indicator on the back of the camera shows the amount of unexposed film on the spool. Standard equipment is a constant-speed 115-volt A.C. Continued on Page 566 THE CINE-VOICE II may also be equipped for magnetic sound recording. The Auricon “Filmagnetic” recording unit (in circle) — an optional feature — may be installed at fac¬ tory at time camera is purchased, or at any time in future. SEPTEMBER • 1959 549