American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1963)

ZOOM NAVITAR Elgeet offers Vidicon television cameras and 16mm cameras the first Zoom Navitar, a manually-controlled 4:1 zoom with a 20mm to 80mm range— f : 1 .8! This new lens achievement is optically compen¬ sated to hold focus through the entire zoom action. Fourteen elements— covers Vidicon format— resolves 600 lines— linear zoom action by ring— list price: $400. For information, write for Catalog 2080-CZ18. -an-s rhii OPTICAL COMPANY, INC. 303 Child St., Rochester 11, N. Y. Q. 1 laving just purchased a second¬ hand Bell & Howell 16mm Magneticoptical sound projector , / would like your opinion as to the feasibility of utilizing it to record the narration for a series of instructional films I am producing. Is the sound obtained with this machine considered of professional quality? In other words, is the quality commercially acceptable? I plan to transfer the original sound recorded with this machine to sound-striped re¬ lease prints by direct re-recording. Are there any hazards to be encountered here? — R. R. L., Portland. Oregon. A. General Film Laboratories, in the April, 1961, issue of its monthly publication, Rewind . featured a com¬ prehensive article dealing with the re¬ cording of magnetic sound on striped 16mm film which we believe will an¬ swer most of your questions. We have prevailed upon General to permit us to condense and reprint the article here, hoping it will prove helpful to you and to a number of other readers who have written to us on the same subject: Bell & Howell Company, in 1952. in¬ troduced its 16mm projector capable of reproducing not only the standard 16mm optical sound track, but equip¬ ped also to record, erase, or play hack sound on a magnetic stripe applied to the edge of a 16mm film. Much was promised by the new type of sound projector (Now, you, too, can he a sound motion-picture producer!” ), and many new problems were raised (“How do 1 know some joker won't erase my words and put on his own version?” “Will the stripe stick on the him?” “How long will the sound last?”) Now, nine years later, what has happened? What is our experience? How is the magnetic stripe track being utilized ? On the negative side, owning and operating a magnetic projector didn't automatically, of itself, create a capaide producer out of just anybody. Some who bought the new projectors, and had somewhat vague ideas about the machines helping them solve pro¬ duction or promotional problems, were disappointed. But, on the positive side, the avail¬ ability of magnetic striping on him and of combination 16mm optical — magnetic sound projectors had certain specific and definite advantages for Technical Questions and Answers both the producer and user of educa¬ tional and industrial films. First and most obvious, by utilizing a magnetic stripe on 16mm print ma¬ terial and a combination magneticoptical projector, sound may be easily recorded, erased or changed at will. Second, a magnetic stripe may be utilized on already-processed original or print material to make possible a sound track where optical sound was not provided for. Third, a magnetic stripe can be varied in width so that, for example, instead of the normal full-width (100 mil I track, a 50 mil track may be placed to cover only half of the width of a normal optical track — so that eith¬ er the optical or the magnetic sound may be played in projection. Fourth, within limits, magnetic sound striping is the most economical choice for a sound track when him has been exposed in the camera, for a sin¬ gle showing and throw-away, or when a very few prints are to be ordered. This must be measured against the availability of magnetic projectors wherever the him is to be used, and also against the possibility that more prints might be required later on — in which case the standard optical track would eventually be the more eco¬ nomical. Fifth, a magnetic stripe may be placed on unexposed camera him for single -system projection — recording sound on the location and at the same time as the photography is being ex¬ posed. This is a special situation use, subject to most of the limitations that optical single-system sound has. And, sixth, the full-width I 100 mil) magnetic stripe has the potential of ac¬ cepting a practical range of sound from approximately 50 to 8000 cvcles. Now, how does theory translate into practice? Let’s take up our last point, hrst — the quality of the recorded sound. True, the wide stripe does accept the sound range mentioned, but there are other important and limiting factors. On the production side, there is microphone design and placement, acoustics, and the basic compromise on him move¬ ment that’s necessarily built into a pro¬ jector-recorder. To be a projector, him movement must be intermittent. To be a recorder, him movement — ideally — should be constant. Continued on Page 309 268 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, MAY, 1963