10 responses to “Links”

• 

  Julian January 27th, 2009 at 02:36

  I just received my camera and lenses from Bernie O’Doherty who serviced the camera (it was loud and experiencing flicker problems), 2-400′ mags, and collimated the lenses. Let me say that Bernie did an excellent job on my camera (at this point, the best it’s run since I’ve owned it, which has been for 8 years… and I’ve shot with it frequently). His service went beyond my expectations, and he brightened my viewfinder for a discount price. (it indeed is brighter). Furthermore, earlier this year he collimated a problem Kinoptic 5.7 mm lens for me that has never looked right, though I have sent it to other techs. Bernie is really pleasant to deal with, and will treat you right regarding prices. He’ll tell you the rate, and if he finds anything amiss he didn’t expect, he’ll e-mail you for approval before continuing the repair. What can I say? He does good work. I recommend him highly.

  Reply

• 

  Kelly January 27th, 2009 at 02:37

  I contacted Bernie O’Doherty to have him laser my ground glass with his Naturalite process. I also sent my stripped camera body and viewfinder to Bernie for some maintainence. Bernie agreed to “toast” my ground glass, and disassemble, clean, inspect and re-lube the body for a mere $100 over the price of the ground glass work. While it was apart, he also opened my orientable finder and mopped out some fungus one of the elements had cultured.

  “Though I was expecting a cleaner, brighter image through the finder, I was startled at just how dramatic the difference was! The best illustrative analogy I can make is; previously, the image looked similar to the view through a filthy windshield as you are driving into the sun. Dark…. no contrast. My first impression is that Bernie had kicked that windshield out of it’s frame! The image was almost as clean as the view through my 35mm Canon SLR.

  Being interested in picking Bernie’s brain a bit, I took the 250-mile drive to Boston to pick up my finished camera. He escorted me into his “dungeon” and I was awed! It was a wonderland of technical toys, parts, cameras, charts, tools…. piled in a fabulous, functional strata of disarray. I felt like the Sorcerer’s Apprentice as I watched the bubbly man scamper about. With a proud gleam in his eye, Bernie ushered me out the door an onto the street which looks out over Boston Commons. In sunny daylight conditions, with the iris maxed, I wasn’t even aware of the glass’ grain. Upon shutting it down to f22, and looking to a sky/shady building composition, the grain became slightly apparent. It was like handling a completely new camera.

  I must compliment Bernie. What a neat guy!! He may be the most pleasant man I’ve ever met. I knew from reputation and hear-say that he was a gentleman, square shooter, and knowledgeable technician.

  Reply

• 

  Flatus_Gass November 7th, 2010 at 04:34

  BEWARE!!!!!!

  It would take far longer then I have right now to tell you of our experiences with our multiple ACL systems. We foolishly opted to buy many ACL systems, since it would only cost as much as a single Arri SRII package.

  BAD BAD CHOICE!

  We have now spent more on servicing our ACLs and the unbelievable amount of problems they’ve had, then buying the Arri system, and possible even an additional Arri system as a B-camera. I strongly and loudly urge everyone to NOT believe what you’ve read about the two “master” techs for Eclair cameras. One on the east coast, and one on the west, you know who I mean.

  After no less then 10 trips to both of those so-called Eclair experts, we were out thousands of dollars and STILL didnt have cameras that were production-ready. The amount we spent combined with the time we lost was enough to drive anyone, even the most motivated film lovers, into buying a digital camera. To say these techs are irresponsible and/or wholly unqualified anymore would be an understatement. We finally sent our systems over the Visual Products, and had to have much of what was done to our cameras undone by them. And it wasnt cheap. Everything needed to be re-fixed, from our GG, shutter, mirror, motor, and the entire viewfinder systems on both cameras. What a nightmare.

  Again, we could have bought TWO Arri systems for what we spent just servicing our Eclairs. Hindsight is 20/20. But we had so much invested, and commercial assignments quickly approaching, so we had no choice but to pay to have all these issues fixed. And by the way, each “service” we had performed initially ended with us shooting a film test, of course. So with the amount of trips our cameras made to our first two horrible choices in techs, the film tests alone (which had to scanned to HD, so we could see if the problem was gone) was over 2 grand. Then combine the shipping costs for each trip, then what we were charged by these clearly inept and highly unqualified techs, combined with our final massive service cost from Visual Products (who I have no reason to doubt….yet), and as I mention, you now have the cost of two Arri SRII systems. Which are, of course, far newer, far more upgradable, far more reliable, and not really that expensive in this current environment where everyone is bending over backwards to buy a Red camera. I have seen very well looked-after SRII systems for just a couple grand. Just a handful of years ago they were still crazy-expensive.

  Anyway, buyer beware. If you must go down this road of buying 30+ year old Eclair cameras, then run film tests immediately, and when (not “if”) you need it serviced, dont be cheap and send it to someone just because the forums are inundated with posts CLAIMING an individual is good. We know not one, not two, but three other clients of these same techs, and their stories are eerily similar to ours.

  After our expensive last batch of service at Visual, we shot 400′ of tests, which are being scanned now. If they have solved our many problems (some of which werent even problems…until those two techs got their hands on them), then I will come back here and praise the people at Visual Products. They cost more, of course. But how can you put a price on your images? I am always amazed at how some people will spend ridiculous amounts on their projects, without first getting their systems completely production ready.

  So learn from my mistakes. In my defense, I totally bought all the praise these guys were getting on pretty much every forum out there. I mean, if tons of people are praising their work, what’s to worry about? It’s only after dealing with many more techs later, then I heard some of the nicknames these two individuals had been given by other techs who had to fix their previous mistakes.

  I’ll post again after I’ve evaluated our test footage, and hopefully give Visual Products a thumbs up.

  Be careful!

  Reply

  • 

    Jason November 23rd, 2010 at 02:57

    Thanks for posting that information. It’s a bummer to hear about the bad experience with your ACLs and all the repair work. I’ve had good experience with the techs you mention but I will agree with you that Visual Products is an extremely professional shop. I have had excellent experience with them. Paul Scaglione is a fantastic tech.

    I suspect anyone could have a bad repair experience with an SRIII or any other film camera, but you are right the SRIII is a newer, fully professional industry camera. You would expect them to be in better shape, have more repair options, etc. I’ve never personally seen one anywhere near that price you mention, but I expect to see them going cheap these days, as are all film cameras.

    I hope your ACLs are running great now. It sounds like you are doing professional work so I hope you’ll share here or on the forums when your project is done.

    Reply

  • 

    Erkan Umut February 18th, 2011 at 19:08

    Thank you for sharing these invaluable information.
    I am a cinematographer, and an owner of a latest make ACL II set and have no problems at all.
    But if you ask, “What do you shoot with this stuff?”, then my answer will be just “garbage”.
    But if you ask “What do you use as a professional?”, then my answer is ARRI (35IIC, 35III, 435, 535, 16SRII, 16SR) and AATON (XTRprod, 35-III) for sure. I use these brand-name cameras for nearly 15 years. They never gave a trouble except a warning of AATON 35-III in a hazardous environment.
    I do rent them from a good house for my work rather than using my owned cameras.
    They need regular maintenance, which I could not afford.
    By the way, what I like in ACL is spinning Focal Plane shutter, it helps to reduce the skipping in fast speed pans a lot. Nowadays, Panaflex cameras use the same.

    Reply

• 

  Hughes April 9th, 2011 at 08:39

  Personally, I am calling ‘BS’ on Flatus_Gass story. That whole thing smells to me just like the name. Ironic how he won’t mention the names of the ‘two techs’ (if it is true then you have nothing to fear unless its all hot air) who couldn’t fix his cameras, but is more than happy to mention Visual Products over and over and over, who may have fixed everything, but he hasn’t gotten the final results yet so he doesnt know. But he plugs them, *by name*, in advance! WTF? You just never know where loyalty is born. Am I the only one that thinks this STINKS? Welcome to the club.

  And all the ACL’s you bought were all lemons? And you kept buying more? Like my cousin Jethro says,”Boy, you sure like to go back for a beating, don’t ya?” Did you pay $5 a piece at a garage sale for weak, first generation ACLs and expect to turn them all into Arri S3′s for $1000 each? Everyone loves a Cinderella story! But you expect me to believe you are professional and you didnt know how costly such upgrades or repairs can be before buying? I am green and even I know that! Only takes a few phone calls and reading up.

  You wrote, “dont believe all the forums inundated with posts…” Amen to that. I ain’t believing… YOUR post! I guess I should send a camera to someone few know or who doesnt have a proven track record. Why didn’t anyone else think of that? BTW, I bet your superduper ‘commercial work’on your newly repaired ACL’s looks awesome.

  Reply

• 

  Mike Foy May 9th, 2011 at 20:15

  Heres a positive story about servicing these cameras:
  Our current ACL package consists of both an ACL1 and ACL2 body with 5 mags (with rods, matte box, FF). Both ACL camera bodies have been converted to U16 by Bernie O’ at Super 16 Inc. My experiences with both Julie and Bernie have been amazing! I consider them friends for sure. When I first bought my ACL1 I got ripped off on EBAY and the camera motor was fried and everything was loose (although the seller claims it worked great). Anyway, I sent it in to Super 16 inc. and the ACL1 got overhauled for the first time. Bernie found me a new 75fps HD motor (which are very rare) and the camera was running perfect… quiet and smooth, with a brighter viewfinder. Then in Mexico on location the camera had a bad fall and got smashed on the cement. I thought the camera was cursed, but I sent it in again and Bernie fixed it no problem, and made it better than stock. He gave me a deal on a replacement for the lens that got smashed, and discount on the service (which this time included the U16 conversion with remarked GG). He gave me a discount because he felt bad for me and the poor camera. The ACL2 we picked up last year on EBAY worked great from day 1 – but we didn’t want to risk wasting any film so we had it converted to U16 as well. The DP we bought the ACL2 from contacted me a few months back to see how his camera was doing (he is also clearly an ACL fan). Currently both cameras run quieter and smoother than stock and they shoot widescreen 16mm film (which cuts well with HD). With an Arri B or PL mount you can rent Zeiss glass and the results are amazing. Personally I really like these cameras and am happy to know I can send it in to Bernie and have it back sooner than a local repair on a HD camera. IMO, for the size, price and features set(synch sound at 24fps, plus multi frame rates up to 75fps) there is no better 16mm camera on the market today (if it is properly serviced). I would also like to note that I have also dealt with Visual Products for some accessories (recommended to me by Bernie from Super 16 Inc) and Paul was very helpful and super nice as well. Thanks to those who are still keeping this stuff alive… cheers!

  Reply

• 

  Alain August 25th, 2011 at 18:30

  Who is August Loessberg?

  Not certain who he is or what services he provides?

  Reply

• 

  Konrad October 28th, 2011 at 09:28

  Would anyone recommend a Arri super 16 or Eclair ACL super 16?

  I’m leaning towards an Eclair ACL super 16 because it’s hard to beat the price, but I’m now a little worried about buying one because all the post listed above… Is this camera really nothing but trouble?

  Thank you in advance for your reply.

  Konrad

  Reply

  • 

    Jason October 28th, 2011 at 18:59

    The Arri areis definitely more “industry standard” but also are much pricier than the Eclair. Aaton are also fantastic cameras. Obviously it’s not fair to compare a 10 year old Arri with a 30 year old ACL in terms of reliability and ease-of-use. But, if you start with a decent camera and keep it maintained then it will give you great footage. Film is expensive, though, compared to shooting on a DSLR or other digital camera. You have to budget for camera service.

    Reply