Need help regarding a 16mm Camera

[Colorburst300]

I was at a local thrift shop today and picked up a strange find.

A Bell & Howell Duo-Speed Zoomatic Autoload 16mm camera. This camera takes a 16mm film CARTRIDGE. an original is still inside the camera. The camera itself works and runs fine though it could use a good cleaning. but bottom line is it WORKS, and it has the manual crank on the side to wind the cartridge, though I don't know why that would need to be done to a cartridge (know nothing about 16mm yet).

anyway, for 15 bucks it can't be that bad, even if I just clean it up and put it in my vintage pile. I would just hope they still make this 16mm cartridge so I can use it, and hope someone could process it. Any information please? someone's got to have 16mm knowledge. Thanks in advance.

Mike

[Colorburst300]

Excuse me, I double checked this camera...

The film cartridge inside says "Bell & Howell Autoload 8mm Cartridge"

The film inside this cart. is the same size as 16mm, double-perf, both sides. I have 8mm movies here at home and they're half of what I see here.
Help?!?!

[c_77]

What do you mean by cartridge? Are sure you're not talking about the spools? I don't believe 16mm cameras use cartridges (at least as far as I know). Are you sure you didn't score a super 8? If you are unfamiliar with super 8 and their cartridges look at this site.

http://www.kolumbus.fi/puistot/

Good luck!
Chris

[c_77]

Mike, welcome to the world of super 8!

I got into this hobby the same way you did. I found an 8mm Kodak at a local garage sale. You can still find film for that baby I believe from somebody named John Schwind, who may still deal it.

With 8mm they would shoot the roll until it stopped, then take out the film and flip it over and continue on the other half. It almost looks like 16mm film except it is cut in half down the middle for processing. You get back a roll with holes on only one side to project!

JOHN SCHWIND
P.O. Box 1233, DIXON, California 95620, U.S.A.
Telephone (707) 678-2942
Website www.city-net.com/~fodder/
For hard to find film stocks in Standard-8, Super-8 doublerun and 16mm.

http://www.rmicweb.org/resources/

http://www.8mm.filmshooting.com

Good Luck,
Chris

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 08, 2002 03:10 PM: Message edited by: c_77 ]</font>

[Greg Crawford]

I'm old enough to remember 16mm cartridge film cameras.

No one sells the film in cartridge for it any more. If you have an old cartridge you might be able to re load, but I'm not sure.

With so many rushing to DV, 16mm camera prices have ben going down...not on the pro Arri stuff mind you, but your B & H's , KODAK K100's etc.

Might be able to find some good buys if your looking for something that works opposed to something for your collection.

[mcarter4121]

been there, bought that.
Yep, it's Regular 8mm. You load the cartridge just like loading a camera; then, after the film is all exposed on one side and you are outside in the sun just flip over the cartridge without fogging the film inside of it. Better under a tree. If you had several already loaded, so much the better.
It is a cool system. The carts are hard to find.
Take the exposed film out of the cartridge, put it back into the can and send it out to be processed. You keep the cart.

[Colorburst300]

Thanks for all the input on this camera.

Yes, it does seem to be just a regular 8mm, and I feel stupid for not seeing the cartridge print "8mm Cartridge" yelling up at me. I decided to just put it up on eBay cuz I'll never use it. I'd rather stick solely with super-8, though I thought the camera was a 16mm and that's why I grabbed it. Oh well.

~M