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Are these so much better than tape splicers? Are their splices less visible that tape? Can a film edited with cement be post striped for stereo sound? Where can Bolex splicers and cement be found (not auctions, please)... So many questions I'm affraid. Thank you for your comments.
Ruben
Bolex splicers are super precision instruments, fully metal made and work with a very high pressure. They grind both sides of the film and fit the grinded parts perfectly together, applying cement inbetween. The resulting splice is not thicker than the film itself. The design is made in a way, that a too large amount of cement does not spot the surrounding film, a big danger with many other splicers. What you afterwards can see from the splice, is a thin horizontal line going thru the middle of one frame. No problem for stereo striping, no sound drop-outs.
Tape splicers apply one tape at each side of the film, covering 2 or 4 frames, sometimes the place for the balance track and somtimes the border of the film.
Even when using duoplay tapes, which leave the space for both soundtracks unoccupied, the focus setting of the projector changes everytime a splice passes by, as the thickness is changing. Tapes which go over the border of the film to the other side of it, make the splice jump in horizontal direction, too, while the projected image becomes out of focus at the same time.
Tapes which only cover 2 frames are not very durable and can become a problem when striping. Cleaning and lubrificating a tape spliced film is another problem.
The Bolex splicer is often offered in second hand stores, but why not buy at ebay? I bought mine there for $20, like many other stuff, and I mainly made good expieriences. In shops, the price can go 3 times higher.
Pedro
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Thank you for your information, Pedro.
Ruben
There's only one Bolex cement splicer or are there more than one model? I ask because I've found a Bolex for 16, 9.5 and S8 and don't know if this is the talked about model famous for its accuracy...
Regards,
Ruben
I only know the S8/reg8 model... but there may be others.
Pedro
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