Page 8 - RD_2022-09

The rectangular film magazine is exactly Rod Thomas was a workmate of mine at the
opposite the lamphouse on the turret. To swing Commonwealth Film Unit Laboratories back
the turret you pulled a lever and chain, exactly in the early 1950s. He was just a nice quiet
like the lever and chain on an old fashioned plodder and was regarded by most as a bit of a
high level toilet cistern. I always expected to dreamer.
hear the camera "flush" but all it did was to
raise the turret allowing you to swing the Ah yes, but what was he dreaming about? That
magazine around to a stop over the lens, where was soon to be revealed, much to everyone's
it was accurately positioned by a large pilot pin surprise. In a nutshell it went something like
as the turret was lowered. this: Rod wanted to make 16mm movies but
could not afford the camera, so he bought a
The magazine held 400 feet of 35mm Plus-X wartime GSAP (Gun Sight Aiming Point)
negative film, that's enough to shoot 6400 camera, a small 24 volt camera used in the
single frames, so you didn't have to reload very wings of fighter aircraft to record machine gun
often. The magazine also held the picture hits on enemy aircraft. It held a standard 50 ft
aperture with an adjustable mask for single or Kodak film magazine giving 1 minute 20
double frame, the film plate and pressure pad, seconds filming time.
and an extremely accurate wind-on sprocket.
This was activated by a Maltese cross system Shortly after, Rod arrived at work with his
from a cinema projector. little GSAP camera sporting a beautiful home-
made 400 ft magazine with an electric motor
A small hand wheel with a finger slot wound drive on the take-up and a 24 volt power pack
the film on after each exposure, a bit like for both camera and take-up motors. Wow,
dialling a telephone, one turn for a single were we impressed!
frame, two turns for a double frame. The
camera could be used for limited animation. Then Rod knocks up a reversal processing
machine to develop his films, followed by a
A foot switch operated the lights for a brief 16mm step printer, a 35mm to 8mm reduction
exposure (two seconds I think). As the camera printer, a fine precision 8mm perforating
had no shutter the whole operation was carried machine and a splitter (for making 8mm prints
out under darkroom safelight conditions. Below: A Cinevex label and some fading memories
are all I have now of Rod Thomas. My deepest
The exposed filmstrip (anything from 2 ft to 10 regret is that I did not take photos of my workmates
ft in length) was then removed from the and their wonderful achievements.
camera and processed using a home made
miniature rack and tank system. This tank
system was used to process both the camera
negative and positive prints made on Jock
Sturrock's home-made printer- this printer was
a little gem.

The above procedure was used for custom
made filmstrips. However, for large print
orders for schools, etc. SVE used a Debrie
printer with a loop attachment and a
continuous processing machine that could
process a thousand feet of film in no time at
all. This was home-made too! Well done Jock.

8 REEL DEALS September 2022