Paillard Bolex

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Bolex International SA

logo
legal form Bolex International SA
founding 1925
Seat Yverdon , SwitzerlandSwitzerlandSwitzerland 
Website www.bolex.com

Paillard-Bolex was a division of the Swiss precision engineering company Ernest Paillard & Cie, in which cine film equipment was manufactured. The original family business is based in Yverdon in French-speaking Switzerland . Production took place mainly in neighboring Sainte-Croix .

Driven by the economic crisis from 1929–30, company director Albert Paillard was looking for new products for new markets. At the beginning of the 20th century, the up-and-coming company produced pencil sharpeners, calculating machines , metronomes , music boxes and gramophones .

The mostly young and innovative engineers developed typewriters as early as 1914 , which were produced under the brand name HERMES , an international breakthrough for the company, which now has 1,000 employees. The next fine mechanical miracle from the Paillard works was to be the portable HERMES Baby . In the mid-1930s it was one of the smallest typewriters in the world and soon appreciated by journalists and writers. In 1929 the company began to work on the project of a spring film camera for travel. In September 1930 Paillard bought the bankrupt Geneva joint stock company Bol. Bolex was a registered trademark since 1924. It belonged to Jacques Bogopolsky and Charles Haccius.

In April 1935, the first examples of the Model H were sent to England, France, Germany and Italy to be offered and advertised by dealers. The first H cameras for 16 mm film intended for sale left the factory in June 1935. Paillard-Bolex continued to sell the narrow-film devices sold by Bogopolsky until 1936.

World success H-camera

Paillard Bolex camera, model H 16 Reflex 5

The film camera, model H, was available for 16 mm film and for 9.5 mm film , and from March 1938 also for double-8 film . H 9 presumably no more than 100 were sold. The H 8 became the ultimate in small films. In the early models, the names PAILLARD BOLEX are printed with varnish on the leather, whereby, as far as we know today, there were four different types of design. There are also known models without any designation. Romain Talbot, Berlin, sold H cameras with their own name badge “Errtee”.

The outstanding features of the H 16 were originally an automatic film threading system, a coupling between the spring and the mechanism, two options for winding the spring, and a very extended lower range of image frequencies.

Paillard Bolex spiral spring.JPG

With the automatic threading function, the Paillard Bolex H cameras are loaded very quickly and always correctly. Thanks to the clutch, you have the option of turning the film back and forth as far as you want using the hand crank. The spring could be tensioned with the foldable key taken over from Bol, accessory code SLUZE, on the core or with a foldable crank over the barrel. In the early models, the spring can be re-tensioned while the film is running. A long, slim centrifugal governor of special construction facilitates precise setting of the frame rate between 8 and 24 per second, even finer than with the Ciné-Kodak Special from 1933.

The H cameras have a lightweight design with two aluminum plates in an aluminum die-cast housing. The die-cast parts came from INJECTA , Teufenthal. A trimmed revolver for three lenses is not wider than the housing in the middle position. The opening angle of the rotary disc shutter is 190 degrees to serial number 100'400 97'800 respectively. This comparatively large opening was achieved with a somewhat "steeper" control element in the gripper frame for faster film pull.

A shaft viewfinder adjustable to 15, 25 and 75 mm lens focal lengths with (incomplete) parallax compensation , carrying handle with spring steel blade and ⅜-inch tripod thread in the bottom of the housing completed the construction program. The external design of the camera corresponded to the aesthetics of a wristwatch and handbag: shiny metal and imitation leather .

In 1936 an adjustment prism was added behind the upper lens opening. In 1939 a single frame counter was available that was screwed to the side of the housing and coupled to the crankshaft. Over the years, the picture counter was moved inside and a new shaft viewfinder that was adjustable to eight focal lengths was delivered. In 1952, Kern stereo equipment appeared . A sliding base, "Rack-Over", was launched in 1953 by Toledo Cine Engineering, Ohio. In the same year, Tullio Pellegrini, San Francisco, offered the installation of a slide that was adjustable in the barrel. In 1954, the double grabber and a balanced lock with an opening angle of 145 degrees (144 degrees effective) were introduced (from serial number 100'401). In 1956 reflex finders came, in 1959 an adjustable shutter and in 1963 the extended gripper shaft for synchronous motors.

Gradually, various changes have been made, such as folding levers on the turret disc, reversed film side guides or loop formers that pop open when the cover is put on. This also includes invisible things such as nuts on the retaining screws of the mounting bracket or the movable brake cup of the controller. The idea of ​​combining the winding crank and the hand crank, although patented, has not been carried out.

On the one hand, the double prism reflex viewfinder introduces a length offset into the beam path, which is why special lenses marked with RX were built, and on the other hand it has an asymmetrical geometry that becomes more noticeable the more the object distance is shortened and the lens extension is lengthened. The standard models are better suited for macro and micro shots than those with reflex viewfinder. H cameras with large floors can also be placed on the rackover from Paillard.

Pocket cameras

In 1940 the model L 8 appeared for the double-8 film available since 1932. The name stands for Lady or Elle . It is a derivative of the Filmo 8 by Bell & Howell (1935). The models B 8, C 8 and D 8 were added to this compact handbag camera by 1966, which in turn were expanded to include zoom machines. With the zoom lens or in the form of the S, P and K models with a permanently attached handle, the concept of the pocket camera has been lost. The 7.5 MACROZOOM model finally offered the closed outer shape.

Thanks to their simple system and the first-class manufacturing quality, the Paillard pocket cameras can be overhauled at a reasonable cost. As long as double-8 film is available, it will be usable.

Projectors and accessories

In 1936 the Paillard-Bolex Model G came out, an apparatus built in several format variants that became obsolete after the war. The M 8 from 1949 is one of the best projectors for normal 8 film. A generously dimensioned control disc for the gripper and oil felt lubrication with central supply characterize the device. It can run from 12 to 25 images per second, but was replaced in 1961 by the low-noise model 18-5, which unfortunately only plays 18 images per second in normal mode, but also 5 images per second without flicker. The 18-5 L is the Super 8 version. The Super 8 COMMAG projector SM 8 was built by SILMA in Italy.

In 1960 Paillard-Bolex began to deliver the S series (sound) for 16 mm film, the adventurous development of which is still being researched. While its plastic gear works very quietly, stroboscopic discs with the wrong number of holes are installed. B. not 18 frames per second are set, but in reality it is 18.1818 B./s. In the case of the S-311 and S-321 models, the distance between the optical axis (center of the image window) and the magnetic sound head cannot be maintained correctly, which is why Paillard had to offer standard-compliant head modules in exchange for free. The film channel and gripper system are first class. In contrast, the device feet, the casing frame made of chipboard and the rubber springs for suspending the mechanics are unstable.

As an accessory, Paillard-Bolex offered the 16 mm and 8 mm rackover base for the H-camera, the "eye-level focus", tripods, handles, intermediate tubes for close-ups, a macro device, title devices, underwater housing, Electric motors, film gluing presses, rewinders, spools and more. Suppliers were Linhof, Hugenschmidt, Novoflex, Perfectone, Neuberger, Posso, Grundig and many others. The optical solution to the parallax problem with pocket cameras, "Proxirect", was supplied by Hermann Schneider & Co., Hamburg. The M 8 synchronizer can be used in many ways, from synchronizing devices to projectors. It works exactly with a toothed roller. The synchronizer 18-5, on the other hand, sometimes causes poor image stability because the power supply to the projector motor can be interrupted just as the gripper is set down.

In the wide world

After the first sales successes in Europe, Paillard began to gain a foothold in the New World from 1937 through the American Bolex Company in New York City.

Documentary filmmakers appreciated the relatively light and versatile Paillard Bolex. The 16 mm film format was further developed for schools, industry and science, because the material was cheaper than the usual normal film . The amateurs and hobby filmmakers were left with the 9.5 mm and double-8 formats, later also Super-8 and single-8.

In 1960 Paillard-Bolex was one of the most renowned companies in the technical "high-end" sector. The company now has over 6000 employees in Yverdon, Sainte-Croix and Orbe. An estimated 10,000 people work for Paillard worldwide. Paillard was thus one of the largest industrial companies in what was then French-speaking Switzerland . However, the patriarchal style of management met with little approval from the employees.

The H camera is an often misunderstood product. Launched as a luxury take-away item, the "H" was not built for heavy lenses. Therefore, a locking screw and a clamping device were introduced on the objective nosepiece so that the nosepiece disc is not lifted off the front. Leaf springs replace the helical spring in the central retaining sleeve. The H 16 Reflex received stiff competition with the Beaulieu Reflex 16 from 1958. This camera was actually designed for three compact lenses for reportage, three kilograms lighter than the ARRIFLEX 16.

The break-in of Paillard-Bolex began after the Super 8 film cassette of the "yellow giant" Kodak, which was launched in 1965 . The revolutionary one-way principle of the American film manufacturer and the newly developed cameras from other manufacturers slowly but continuously brought Paillard to his knees. The meager success with the Bolex 16 Pro, built as a joint venture between ARRI and Paillard from 1966, contributed to this. At the turn of the year 1969-70 Paillard-Bolex was bought by the Austrian film equipment manufacturer Eumig .

After Eumig went bankrupt in 1982, there was a management buy-out of the 16mm sector, which has since traded under Bolex International, SA. A small group of technicians are still assembling cameras from parts of existing stock.

Numerous Paillard-Bolex cameras are still offered on the used market and bought up by enthusiasts and collectors. At some American universities, Paillard-Bolex-H 16 are compulsory training materials in the entry-level courses for film classes. Paillard Bolex cameras are very popular with animation film makers because of their technical versatility and their low price. For commercial exploitation, models for Super 16 film are mainly used today.

d16 - the digital Bolex

In 2012, Bolex International allowed a US startup under Joe Rubinstein, camera developer in Los Angeles, to use the name for a digital cinema camera . The “Digital-Bolex” has a Kodak CCD sensor with super 16 oversized film , a C-mount lens connection (PL-mount also available, more should follow) and recording on an internal hard drive and Compact Flash cards in CinemaDNG format. The delivery of the first cameras to US addresses began in December 2013, and a first firmware update was released in March 2014. Bolex planned to bring this new camera to the international market in 2013, however, the international orderability became without direct involvement of Bolex International made possible by Digital Bolex in May 2014.

One of the unique features of the Digital Bolex D16 is the hand crank. The D16 uses the crank to set the camera's functions (exposure, focus, frame rates, etc.), but the camera will likely offer the ability to control video recording using the crank. Since the camera records in discrete, individual frames (RAW), it is conceivable that the camera can be configured to record individual images according to the crank speed of the operator. This ability can bring unmistakable effects, appearances like in the days of the silent film crank cameras. It is unclear whether this function will or has been integrated into the D16.

The D16 is supplied with the "LightPost" program from the Munich company Pomfort in order to process the raw image sequence files ("debayering") and to manage the files.

A monochrome version with the same sensor, but without a color filter over the pixels, is also available.

The cost of developing the camera was raised through crowdfunding.

At the end of June 2016, the manufacture and sale of the camera ceased.

literature

  • Paillard présente ses caméras, ses projecteurs. Leaflet 223 × 276 mm, March 1938
  • Paillard-Bolex Cine Cameras, the Cine Cameras for the 'Professional Amateur'. CINEX Ltd, London; 24 p., 6 "× 9"
  • Movie Makers, Amateur Cinema League ed. 1926-1953
  • Andrew Vivian Alden: Bolex Bible. Everything You Ever Wanted to Know But Were Afraid to Ask; An Essential Guide to Buying and Using Bolex H16 Cameras . A2-Time-Based-Graphics, Huddersfield 1998, ISBN 0-95330-751-4 (English)
  • Andrew Vivian Alden: A Bolex History. Cameras, projectors and accessories . London 1999 ISBN 0-95330-750-6 (English)
  • Andrew Vivian Alden: Time-Lapse and Stop-Motion Animation using the Bolex H16. Or click-wait and click-fiddle . A2-Time-Based-Graphics, Huddersfield 2001, ISBN 0-95330-752-2 (English)
  • Heinrich Freytag: Narrow films with Bolex 8 . New edition "The beautiful books of Strache", Stuttgart 1962 (German)
  • Gerald Reynolds Sharp: Bolex 8mm. Guide . 5th edition Focal Press, London 1962, ISBN 0-24044-722-0 (English)
  • Laurent Tissot: E. Paillard & Cie SA. Une entreprise vaudoise de petite mécanique (1920–1945). Entreprise familiale, industrial diversification et innovation technologique . Delval, Cousset (Friborg) 1987, ISBN 2-88147-036-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1]
  2. ↑ digitalbolex.com
  3. ↑ [2]
  4. ↑ [3]
  5. ↑ official announcement on the Bolex website
  6. ↑ [4]
  7. ↑ Article ( Memento of the original from October 11, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. in creativeplanetnetwork, April 2012 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.creativeplanetnetwork.com
  8. ↑ http://www.digitalbolex.com/d16m-native-monochrome-raw/
  9. ↑ Project page on kickstarter.com