Notes from April 2007

Aaton overhaul

My Aaton was sent via GPX to Seattle for an overhaul. The eyepiece will be thoroughly cleaned and aligned and camera quieted. It was a little disconcerting when I compared the brightness of the Aaton eyepiece to my Eclair, which seemed damn close by comparison. Years of poor cleaning methods, glues holding the prism together breaking down and discoloring, and lubricants off-gassing and coating the optical surfaces can all add to the general lack of contrast and dim nature of an eyepiece.

April 16, 2007  –  permalink

Northwest Film Forum donation of Steenbeck

Borrowed Ray Larson's van and drove up to Seattle last night to pick-up a Steenbeck 1201 being donated by Northwest Film Forum. The idea is to use John's method of borrowing timecode pulses that drive the counter in order to trigger sync my USD and slave a Pro Tools session to the Steenbeck's 24 frame picture. I was happy to discover the machine is in excellent condition despite coming from an educational facility. It required very little cleaning and only needed lubricant at several points on the rollers.

April 02, 2007  –  permalink