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Schematic drawing needed for Auricon/yoder 16mm mag
Hey, old film guys!
One of the little historic treasures in my office is a left-over 16 mm movie camera that our guys used to shoot mag-striped news film on, back in the very early 70’s, before we moved on to quad tape and umatic porta-packs. It’s an Auricon, adapted by the famous Mr. Yoder. It just oozes cinematographic manliness from every angle.
This pic shows a complete camera, with the mag on top
I’d like to use ours as a decorative piece in the office to show off our “roots” to visitors and remind us all of how far we’ve come, but it is missing the adapted Mitchell film magazine.
Classic mickey-mouse-ears type Mitchell mag, 7-inch, 400-foot reels. I thought what I might do is build a fake prop magazine, just to make the camera display a little nicer, look more “complete”. So I’m looking for a dimensional drawing in jpeg or pdf form, from which I can make templates to build up a fake mag in wood and foam.
If you still have one of the real-deal Mitchell magazines, and can throw it on a big flatbed scanner (both sides), I could make the prop one look photo-realistic (from a few feet away, anyhow). Failing that, I’ll take even a simple tracing on paper. Or if you have a link to a dead-on side-view picture of one of the mags, that would be better than me just guessing at dimensions.
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13 Replies
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Try eBay for the real thing. Also, this link: https://www.b-roll.net/forum/archive/index.php/t-8892.html. Also this one: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Mitchell-Camera-Corp-Movie-Film-Camera-Cartridge-Magazine-Reel-16-1299L/111423472401?_trksid=p2047675.c100011.m1850&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140602152332%26meid%3D36c47fb58a8041b29fb91d95511b0f39%26pid%3D100011%26prg%3D20140602152332%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D10%26sd%3D360786047369
Rick Wise
Cinematographer
MFA/BFA Lighting and Camera Instructor Academy of Art University
San Francisco Bay Area
https://www.RickWiseDP.com -
Rick beat me to the punch, I was out earlier and about to respond, when I saw his reply come in.
My suggestion too was to hit eBay… or as my hero Ron Swanson says, “the electronic bay dot com.” Mitchell mags are always quite plentiful there, and usually relatively cheap. It boils down to one of those “What is my time worth” kinds of things.
I have mags, but no Mitchells or Auricons. If you really want to make one though, I think a friend has some. I’m not home right now though, I’m on location down at the gulf coast this week, but I can check when I get back home in a week or so.
We built a similar behind-glass display for the folks up at educational TV here in their lobby with lots of old photos, a rainbow “Johnny Carson” curtain, and several old cameras (we had to scour eBay for vintage sticks for some of them)… it was very cool (even have a bigass Norelco turret-front studio camera in the display), so your project has a lot of potential.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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Saw ebay, don’t want to spend $100 when I can make a prop one for $15.
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OK, I kept searching farther back on ebay and finally found some pictures where the lens was very close to 90 degrees, so I think I’ve got it. The plan is to massage these in photoshop and print them out on a heavy stock, glued to a foam base shape I’ll cut out with the hot-wire rig I use for making RC planes.
Just for giggles I made a couple of ten-dollar offers for real ones, but I don’t expect they will be accepted. These babies tend to go for a hundred or better.
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If you make a fake one, don’t forget the take-up reel belt… it is missing on the photo above. Something like black shock cord would look authentic.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The Auricon still has a rubber o-ring attached to a drive cog… is that what you meant? Also, the eye cup has cracked from brittleness. Considering making a copy using Sugru.
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I’m not sure what I was thinking… the belt wouldn’t show on the pic you embedded above, my brain wasn’t fully in gear. The belt goes on the other side (the “starboard” side of the camera). It goes around a pulley on the rear (takeup) core of the mag and disappears into the camera body. I seem to recall some that actually had a belt on the front (feed) core as well… but I can’t really envision what that would have been for. If you display the camera oriented so that you see the viewfinder side, you won’t need the belt. I’m SOO glad I brought it all up (insert eyeroll here).
I needed to replace a couple of viewfinder cups on my 35mm cameras (when I still had them) a few years ago… I was able to find suitable replacements cheap from Edmund Scientific (or whatever that has morphed into these days). Used to be such a cool place.
T2
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Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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The analogue to the old Edmund store you remember is alive today, and it’s called American Science & Surplus. You’ll love their catalog. The store is the catalog, come to life. Very quirky.
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“I seem to recall some that actually had a belt on the front (feed) core as well… but I can’t really envision what that would have been for.”
That’s not a belt on the front – it’s a kind of brake, to help keep a little tension on the film supply reel, and not have it unspool inside the mag when the motor drive suddenly halts. Usually it’s just an adjustable tension band, from what I can tell of my quick study of film mags so far. But yeah, “my” auricon has the belt drive o-ring in place to engage a rear external pulley. I’m going to have to find something at the hardware store that’s about the right size for those external pulleys. And I’ll put actual bolts thru the foam prop where the rollers go, which helps sell the illusion of 3-d depth.
Handling this beast makes me nostalgic for the little super-8 cameras I worked with in junior high. I still have a working projector, but know of no affordable source for the blank film and processing anymore.
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[Mark Suszko] “That’s not a belt on the front – it’s a kind of brake, to help keep a little tension on the film supply reel”
That’s a little odd… every mag I’ve ever used or seen before had internal tensioners, usually little spring-loaded gadgets inside that (barely) pushed against the feed core. But a lot of these older cameras had what some people might think of as “creative” engineering, so it’s not surprising. Most of the cameras I’ve owned through the years had coaxial mags (feed and takeup side by side) which worked completely differently, but even the couple I’ve had with linear mags still just used a spring “brake” on the feed side. Oh well, live and learn.
[Mark Suszko] “know of no affordable source for the blank film and processing anymore.”
Processing is harder (the lab I used to use no longer soups film, only telcines now), but it still can be had. It just usually has to be shipped off now, which is a pain. I think you can still order stock from Eastman Kodak, they still keep their filmstocks listed as a product, not sure. I still have a couple of drawers full of shortends and recans in my fridge. I’d happily give it to anyone who would actually use it. Most of it is 35mm but there might be a roll or two of 16mm.
T2
__________________________________
Todd Terry
Creative Director
Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.
fantasticplastic.com
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