Home Movies and Home Talkies (Jun 1933-May 1934)

138 HOME MOVIES & HOME TALKIES THE daylight loading spool is bo frequently used in conjunction with the amateur 16-nim. movie camera that we take it very much for granted, but it is a very real question as to whether it is the best device for its particular job of containing film ready for loading, and keeping it free from light fogging both before and after exposure. The problem has become more acute now that the film makers have given us high speed panchromatic film. The Professional Way The professional film user puts his trust in a light-tight film box and so careful is he that even the tiny chutes in this are closely sealed when the film box is not attached to the camera. That principle is the result of many years of experience, and it seems to me that there is an excellent case for the general adoption of a similar device in sub-standard cameras. Something of the kind is already in existence in the ' charger "or " cassette "used in such cameras as the Pathe Motocamera," the Zeiss-Ikon Kinamo," the older Agfa Movex," the Simplex Pockette, and the Siemens & Halske. Let us examine the advantages and disadvantages of the two systems. Spool Advantages First of all the spool has the overwhelming advantage of established custom. ||If your camera takes daylight loading spools you can buy, anywhere in the world, any one of halfa-dozen or so brands of film which will fit your camera. This, of course, gives the spool a very strong position, but not an unchallengeable one. The charger on the other hand, is only obtainable loaded with the brands of film specified by the makers of the camera, and it is almost impossible to obtain any other kind of film. This, however, is merely a question of policy, and could be remedied with ease if the necessary demand arose. Charger Points Much more serious is the fact that any one make of charger will only fit one make of camera, so that the man who is travelling witli his cameia either has to take with him a complete supply of film or is faced with the possibility of being stranded in a far country without material for his camera. Again it is a question of policy, and it would be to the general interest of the whole movement and of the whole industry if manufacturers, instead of trying to reserve to themselves somewhat mythical advantages, adopted a " get-topether " spirit and pooled their technical information and, if need be SPOOLS OR y CHARGERS ^ By St. John Inkerman some of their patent rights, in evolving a set of standards for chargers which would be available for any and every camera, and could be loaded with any brand of film. The spool, again, has an advantage that, when loaded, it is no larger in circumference than the roll of film MAKING A JOB OF IT' Photo: Kitflnii r,,'s.-< Aijency Members of the Cambridge University Cinema Society are recording stage by stage the erection of the new University Library, designed by Sir Giles Scott. The complete film will be exhibited in industrial circles, and a copy will be presented to the Library as a record which it contains while the charger, from the nature of its design, must be large enough to enable the transfer of its contents from the feed portion of the interior to the take-up portion during exposure. This makes a bulkier package for sending through the post and brings the possibility that the film may shake loose in the large space during transit. In the latest design of chargers, however, this extra space has been cut down to the minimum, while a sinaple device holds the film quite stationary. These, then, are the superior features of the spool, but they are, after all, unimportant features compared with the main function of the two devices. We pay the film makers 26s., or 32s. 6d. per 100 feet of fihn. The scenes we secure on that fiim are sometimes worth to ourselves as many hundreds of pounds as the shillings we pay. Surely, then, we have a right to demand that every care is taken by the manufacturers to ensure that that priceless shot which can never be repeated shall not be utterly ruined by light fog. Can we always be certain of this with the daylight spool ? Light Protection The protection of a film from light is achieved in a spool by the tight fit of the leader between the flanges of the film. A displacement of the tiniest fraction of an inch of one of the flanges is sufficient to let in a stream of light to fog the film. It is one and a-quarter inches from the core of the spool to the edge of the flange and a spool can easily be bent by l-oiocking or dropping. Of course nobody makes a practice of knocking or dropping a spool, but accidents will happen, and they generally happen to the most important of our films. So that, in a way, we are playing with chance from the moment when we uncap the spool to the moment when we shut the camera door. That is why we are told to load in the shade. A professional cameraman can load his instrument quite safely in the glaring sun of a midsummer's day without togging his film. We, who are not experts, should be able to do the same. The charger gives us that facility. When the Film Jams I have said, accidents will happen, and sometmies the camera jams. Have you ever , known that helpless feehng when your spool-loading camera jams in the middle of open country with no friendly dark room available ? " Shall I open the camera and chance it ? How much wiU be fogged ? " Ah, how much ? There's the rub. With the charger you can open the camera safely at any with the sure knowledge that a few inches of film will be fogged. And if your camera is loaded with a charger of, for instance, super-pan., and you want to take some titles on ortho. stock, there is no need to waste the rest of the pan. in order to empty the camera. You merely take out the charger, insert a charger of ortho. and then, when the titles are finiished, load the charger of pan. once more. (Continued on page 150) time, only