Beaulieu R16

I just bought a new lens for the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. Schneider – Kreuznach Variogon 1:2 / 18-90. It came with a Beaulieu R16 16mm film camera attached. I bought it of ebay for the same price you normally just get the lens and was a bit sceptic in the process as the seller couldn’t tell me much about the lens or the camera because he just inherited them. But as it turned out the package was one of the more delightful I got lately. The camera came in original leather bag with additional battery. It looks to be in working condition. It is capable of speeds up to 64fps and it even has automatic aperture control.
I am now looking to buy some 100′ rolls of 16mm film stock and am searching for the labs still developing in the area where I live, because I would really like to film a few things on it. Just for the fun.

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The camera looks beautiful. It’s quite heavy but the ergonomics are quite interesting.

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You hold the camera for the battery and press the power on button below. With the same hand you also press the shutter when you want to shoot.

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The lens looks o.k. with no scratches or fungus. Aperture blades are clean. If you want to use it on a c-mount to micro 4/3 adapter you have to unscrew the motor that controls the aperture which leaves the lens a bit exposed (I would have to find a cover for the exposed part) but I think there won’t be much problems with that. It also resolves the problem which is frequent with big c-mount zoom lenses. They are too wide at the mount end of the lens. C-mount has a flange depth of 17.52mm as opposed to 19.25mm flange depth of micro 4/3. That means that the c-mount must be recessed in the adapter and that can be problematic for the lenses that have wider ends and have to be modified to fit in the adapter.

This lens is not to wide at the mount end even though is quite a big lens as it has a constant aperture of f/2.0 throughout the all focal lengths. I have this test to check if the lens would cover the Super 16mm circle of the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera. I fitted it to my Sony NEX-5N camera and calculated the difference between the crop factors.

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This is how it looks on the NEX-5N at 18mm. Quite a bit of vignette on 1.5x crop Super 35mm sensor.

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But if you calculate for the 3x crop factor of the Super 16mm sensor it fits perfectly. The lens covers a bit more than what is needed which eliminates the the vignette and anomalies of the lens at its edge.

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It is not as wide as I would like it. 18mm translates to 54mm (full frame) on the Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera so it is a perfect normal lens. But I would need another lens on the wide end from 8-16mm.

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This is the lens at 90mm. There is even less vignette on the tele end it almost fits my NEX.

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This focal length translates to 270mm lens (full frame) with aperture of f/2.0 which is quite impressive. Now I need to search for wider lenses with c-mount. It probably won’t be a zoom lens as they are big and expensive. Maybe a small vintage lens. I will see. Definitely will need a Tokina 11-16mm as would be also perfect for the Sony NEX-FS700. I could even go with the Panasonic 12-35mm f/2.8 with the stabiliser. Will let you know after I do some more research.
Until than I hope to shot something on the 16mm film. If you want cooperate or help in any way please let me know. Until then.