Pretty cool Mike! You have purchased a Bell & Howell Filmo 70A. That model looks to be from the first year of production 1923. I have 3 of those and I do have the paperwork with one that was purchased in April 1923. I also have the HR variant made in the late fifties with the 3, lens rotating turret. Bell and Howell Filmos are serious photographic equipment, even though they were produced for amateur film makers. In fact, they were so well made, the Eyemo was based off of the Filmo for "professionals" introduced in 1925 that shoots 35mm film! Registration is rock sready on the Filmos and Eyemos! You have found a great cine camera for $30! Please do yourself a favor and purchase some fresh film stock and really injoy the beautiful images that can be made with your Filmo along the the Cooke lens. Remember....with Filmo what you see through the spyglass sight-glass, you get!
Thanks for all the info Kellee!! I really love this little camera, so incredibly rugged. I've had several 70 series cameras in the last 25 years or so and now feel like I need to grab another. I even had an Eyemo fairly recently (sold it about 2 years ago) but unfortunately, never got to shoot any film through it :( I do plan on running some fresh(er) stock through this camera, really need to see what it can do. Thanks again!!
Boa noite. Tenho uma Bell e howell deixada de presente por um tio já falecido. Tenho procurado vídeos de como funciona essa maravilhosa máquina. Encontrei alguns vídeos, inclusive esse que achei bem legal. Minha deve ser da época de 20 a 30. Sabe dizer se ainda encontra carretel, filme e base para ela, essas peças não tenho. Obrigado
Looking great! Like a dream sequence. As simple as this camera might be, it's very solid engineering that still works after a century. Great music choice! Always sweet hearing a real Hammond organ in classic 1970s-ish (from the drums you can tell it's much more recent) pop/rock music with a country music flavor!
It reminds me as a young fella with my Quarz M 8mm camera some 50 years ago. Foolishly I moved over to super 8 and a poor quality camera. I love what you do with film.
I just bought one but realized after that it wouldn't wind and the shutter was very stiff. I wanted to see what was holding it up, so I unscrewed the face cover. After wiggling it around, the shutter button sprung off, sparks went flying and the whole camera jumped up violently. Turns out one of the teeth was damaged (probably from someone over winding) and taking the cover off released all of the tension in a second! Looks like a neat camera despite that though. Cool to see how well the results of that old film turned out.
Wow! Glad you are ok!! I've heard horror stories about the springs in some 16mm cameras and how dangerous it can be to mess with them. Thanks for watching and commenting, I appreciate it!
Nice ! Great images on 80 year old film from a 100 year old camera ! This really came out well, thanks. I am thinking of purchasing a BH 70DR. Just trying to decide between that and actually spending the money for an Arriflex. Great content.
Thanks, Cecil! Man, that's a tough decision. While I love my Arriflex, it really is nice having a great quality hand crank camera. These 70 series cameras are like little tanks and with the DR's 3 lens turret, you get a nice focal range. I actually use my hand crank cameras about twice as much as my Arri 16S, probably because it's just so much easier.
@@alexinnewwest1860 Just for you (well, and me, lol), I weighed it. Comes in at right about 4 lbs. 12 ounces or 2,178 grams without film. It's a beast!
Awesom that you still get so good images out of such an old film. Was also immediately impressed by the steadiness of the frames. Great little camera, that also looks very good on the shelf.
For really old film id recommend setting the aperture all the way open and filming on a very sunny day From the looks of this though id say it was pretty good for its age
My God how wonderful! I think it can weigh more than 3 kilograms, I don't know in pounds but the results are magnificent for the years that this camera has. I have missed more moving images like you sitting or cars passing because I love the effect of 16fps the change of frames. But it is a fantastic experiment. Soon I see you making a video with the lumiere cameras! Each video is HAPPINESS, thank you!
Beautiful footage, wow! I would definitely make a dark, art film with it, mostly horror or an Avant Garde Death Black Metal music video, like the band Portal or the ambient band Amber Asylum. Please do show when you use a modern film in it, both black and white and color. And if you have some friends willing to act a little bit
So very good. Absolutely enjoyed this with all the roughness and "problems" in the film quality of footage. You probably could not get this authentic vintage look by digital manipulation on your computer using video editing. Nice upbeat soundtrack gives a timeless poetic quality to otherwise somewhat static footage.
Wow considering the age of the camera and film this project turned out pretty good. It would be interesting to run some modern fresh 16mm and see what you get. It believe it would be pretty darn good. Again Mike, awesome content!
I have this camera! Same set up and all and I am getting my G3 tank tomorrow! I am rather new to all this however and I'm having a hard time finding a good black and white reversal development guide for 16mm and double 8mm film. Do you have any pointers or know where I can find information about this? Thank you and this video was really great.
That's awesome! I love this G3 tank, so easy to use but it's pretty labor intensive compared to the Lomo type spiral tanks. I really don't process film as a reversal, although you can do it quite well in these Morse tanks. There are a few more steps involved for reversal and quite honestly, unless you're planning on projecting the film, I don't see a whole lot of reason to do it. Most B&W Reversal films can be easily shot and processed as a negative. Although this guy doesn't give his recipe, he does show his process for reversal in his Morse G#. You might find his video helpful: ruclips.net/video/y5HPD5tcdg4/видео.html Thanks and have fun with it!!
@@tunuvielluv8553 This is what you need: www.ebay.com/itm/165343748040?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=oN--0JkFTKW&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=e-ltyKp0QMm&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
I have 2 of the 70a models from 1926 and 1927 but I have only one Cooke lens to share between the two. I want to use my 1950s cameras first before I use my 1920s cameras and my oldest camera the film counter is totally stuck and no amount of oil and heat is getting it to move.
That's awesome! Do your 70A cameras have the "70A" marking or label anywhere on them? I can't seem to find it on mine. My 70DR and 70DA cameras were all marked as such. Just wondering if B&H called these old one 70A but didn't label them. Thanks!
@@Filmboy24 I think my next film will be on my bell and Howell but it will be done on the 70HR. I will buy double perf film for my third film and use my two 1920s cameras.
This is interesting. I have a 1923 Filmo but it is jammed up since it has no oil. If it's oiled it should work. I also have a 50 foot roll of film expired in the 1950's that I thought was garbage but this video makes me think it could be usable. Did you shoot the film as iso 50 or did you overexpose it?
Thank you! Yes, give that old beast some oil, it's amazing what a few drops will do for these old cameras. As far as the old film that I used in this video, yes, I just rated it at 50 ISO and hoped for the best. I wasn't sure what to expect from this old stuff, so I figured that would be a good starting point.
Thanks for the reply. I have heard that the iso should be dropped for every 20 years that the film has been expired so if it expired 70 years ago I would think that would be a 3.5 stop increase but it seemed to be ok for you!
@@corgis6801 Yes, the very general rule of thumb has always been 1 stop for every 10 years past expiration. I've noticed though that B&W film holds up very well over the years, much better than color film, so I really don't worry too much about it. It's really a guessing game, unless you know the exact storage history of the expired film.
@@Filmboy24 fair point I have had color film turn to junk after 5 years if it's not stored properly but BW film in simular conditions was OK. I found my film in the box with the camera so safe to say it was never touched or cooled for at least the last 65 years. Impossible to tell if it was stored in a basement or attic however so it would be guessing.
I have the same camera from my great-grandfather. My question does someone have to load the camera in the dark so you don't expose the film? Thanks in advance
Hey Jess, nope, you don't have to be in total darkness, as the 100' loads come on daylight spools. This simply means that the sides of the reels are solid, so light cannot hit the film. You will expose a little on the outer layer though.
That's a great question, Alex, I should have mentioned it in the video because it's actually a little perplexing. The lens itself is not a C-mount lens. It's kind of in between the thread size of C-mount and D-mount. When you unscrew the lens from the camera, there is an adapter screwed into the lens port. This adapter is C-mount, however, the threads on the camera body are inset so far that none of my other C-mount lenses actually catch them. I was able to get one of my other C-mount lenses to turn about 1/8 of a turn on this camera before it was tight. Felt like it would come right off if you bumped it too hard.
Funny. RUclips recommended a video. So I watched it and this guys explains the reason. It’s called Filmo 70 series 16mm Movie Film Camera - 16mmAdventures
@@alexinnewwest1860 I've seen that video and a few of his videos before. He stopped putting out videos a few years ago but I wish he didn't. I honestly don't think he's right about unscrewing to focus though, all of my footage is in pretty good focus and I never did any of that. With a non-reflex camera and no focus marks on the lens, you'd never know how to achieve any focus at all by unscrewing the lens. My theory is that they simply changed the mount later on to accommodate the "standard" C-mount lenses. Probably never thought about having any lens(es) other than the original one on it in the beginning. Fun fact: you should check out that guy's other channel (it's his main one that he's had for years). He has almost 2 million subscribers. It's called "Townsends". It's about the 18th Century lifestyle.
I would love to see a fresh film on this historical camera.. I will wait❤
On my list 😀
Too cool! The iPhone appearance in a film with a silent picture look/feel was very (ironically) awesome!
Haha, thanks David!!
Pretty cool Mike! You have purchased a Bell & Howell Filmo 70A. That model looks to be from the first year of production 1923. I have 3 of those and I do have the paperwork with one that was purchased in April 1923. I also have the HR variant made in the late fifties with the 3, lens rotating turret. Bell and Howell Filmos are serious photographic equipment, even though they were produced for amateur film makers. In fact, they were so well made, the Eyemo was based off of the Filmo for "professionals" introduced in 1925 that shoots 35mm film! Registration is rock sready on the Filmos and Eyemos! You have found a great cine camera for $30! Please do yourself a favor and purchase some fresh film stock and really injoy the beautiful images that can be made with your Filmo along the the Cooke lens. Remember....with Filmo what you see through the spyglass sight-glass, you get!
Thanks for all the info Kellee!! I really love this little camera, so incredibly rugged. I've had several 70 series cameras in the last 25 years or so and now feel like I need to grab another. I even had an Eyemo fairly recently (sold it about 2 years ago) but unfortunately, never got to shoot any film through it :(
I do plan on running some fresh(er) stock through this camera, really need to see what it can do. Thanks again!!
@@Filmboy24 You're welcome, Mike! If you ever run across an Eyemo 71A that you want to sell, I'll buy it! Have a good weekend!
Boa noite. Tenho uma Bell e howell deixada de presente por um tio já falecido. Tenho procurado vídeos de como funciona essa maravilhosa máquina. Encontrei alguns vídeos, inclusive esse que achei bem legal. Minha deve ser da época de 20 a 30. Sabe dizer se ainda encontra carretel, filme e base para ela, essas peças não tenho. Obrigado
Very nice.....See .....the older the better. Nice job Miguel
Hehe, Thanks Pop!!
Considering the drawbacks of the film, this turned out great, Mike! Can't wait to see some fresh stock filmed in it!
Thanks, CJ!!
That chair 🪑 looked angry 😆. Nice 😊
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Looking great! Like a dream sequence. As simple as this camera might be, it's very solid engineering that still works after a century. Great music choice! Always sweet hearing a real Hammond organ in classic 1970s-ish (from the drums you can tell it's much more recent) pop/rock music with a country music flavor!
Thanks, Christian!!
It reminds me as a young fella with my Quarz M 8mm camera some 50 years ago. Foolishly I moved over to super 8 and a poor quality camera. I love what you do with film.
Thank you, John!!
I loved the way it looked. So darn cool!
Thank you, Rene!
Fantastic video! That lens looked great! Image was so steady! Love to see some new film in that camera!
Thank you!! New(er) film in this camera is at the very top of my list now!!
Super steady!
I just bought one but realized after that it wouldn't wind and the shutter was very stiff. I wanted to see what was holding it up, so I unscrewed the face cover. After wiggling it around, the shutter button sprung off, sparks went flying and the whole camera jumped up violently. Turns out one of the teeth was damaged (probably from someone over winding) and taking the cover off released all of the tension in a second! Looks like a neat camera despite that though. Cool to see how well the results of that old film turned out.
Wow! Glad you are ok!! I've heard horror stories about the springs in some 16mm cameras and how dangerous it can be to mess with them. Thanks for watching and commenting, I appreciate it!
Nice ! Great images on 80 year old film from a 100 year old camera ! This really came out well, thanks. I am thinking of purchasing a BH 70DR. Just trying to decide between that and actually spending the money for an Arriflex. Great content.
Thanks, Cecil! Man, that's a tough decision. While I love my Arriflex, it really is nice having a great quality hand crank camera. These 70 series cameras are like little tanks and with the DR's 3 lens turret, you get a nice focal range. I actually use my hand crank cameras about twice as much as my Arri 16S, probably because it's just so much easier.
That was great! I’m surprised at how sharp that old lens is. I think that camera has real potential!
Thanks, Alex! Me too, I honestly expected a much softer, out of focus-ish image with this tiny little, old lens. Very pleasantly surprised.
Definitely. I’m curious of what this camera weighs
@@alexinnewwest1860 Just for you (well, and me, lol), I weighed it. Comes in at right about 4 lbs. 12 ounces or 2,178 grams without film. It's a beast!
Yikes that is a beast
Mike, that films as old as me and I think it's done a lot better. None of my local thrift stores ever have cameras let alone classics like that.
LOL, but thankfully we don't turn to vinegar as we age. I got real lucky finding this camera, it's not that common around here either.
The size of the camera is nice and small for 16mm. Perfect for traveling and filming. Great find and amazing results!
Thank you, Ryan!!
Awesom that you still get so good images out of such an old film. Was also immediately impressed by the steadiness of the frames. Great little camera, that also looks very good on the shelf.
Thank you!! You're absolutely right about the steadiness of the images, I was very pleasantly surprised.
Great educational review, Thank you
Thanks so much!!
For really old film id recommend setting the aperture all the way open and filming on a very sunny day
From the looks of this though id say it was pretty good for its age
Thanks! I probably should have done that in hindsight, though I don't think I ever exceeded 5.6. Really need to try it with some proper film.
@@Filmboy24 would love to see how it looks with ektachrome film but you could try a color negative reversal process first to see how well it works
Good job! I thought it looked really good. I have this particular camera and struggle with its limitations
Thanks, Ted!!
Great result with a double vintage setup (camera & film that is). Looking forward to what you might get with fresh film.
C'mon Dave, we both know you meant triple vintage 🤣🤣
As always, I appreciate your input!!
My God how wonderful! I think it can weigh more than 3 kilograms, I don't know in pounds but the results are magnificent for the years that this camera has. I have missed more moving images like you sitting or cars passing because I love the effect of 16fps the change of frames. But it is a fantastic experiment. Soon I see you making a video with the lumiere cameras! Each video is HAPPINESS, thank you!
Beautiful footage, wow! I would definitely make a dark, art film with it, mostly horror or an Avant Garde Death Black Metal music video, like the band Portal or the ambient band Amber Asylum.
Please do show when you use a modern film in it, both black and white and color. And if you have some friends willing to act a little bit
Thanks!! I would love to shoot a crazy art piece with the other 4 rolls of this film. It really does lend itself to a dark theme.
So very good. Absolutely enjoyed this with all the roughness and "problems" in the film quality of footage. You probably could not get this authentic vintage look by digital manipulation on your computer using video editing. Nice upbeat soundtrack gives a timeless poetic quality to otherwise somewhat static footage.
Thanks so much, Geoffrey!!
Wow considering the age of the camera and film this project turned out pretty good. It would be interesting to run some
modern fresh 16mm and see what you get. It believe it would be pretty darn good.
Again Mike, awesome content!
Thank you so much!! I'm pretty encouraged by these results. I'll hopefully be getting to some fresher stock in it soon!!
I have this camera! Same set up and all and I am getting my G3 tank tomorrow!
I am rather new to all this however and I'm having a hard time finding a good black and white reversal development guide for 16mm and double 8mm film.
Do you have any pointers or know where I can find information about this?
Thank you and this video was really great.
That's awesome! I love this G3 tank, so easy to use but it's pretty labor intensive compared to the Lomo type spiral tanks. I really don't process film as a reversal, although you can do it quite well in these Morse tanks. There are a few more steps involved for reversal and quite honestly, unless you're planning on projecting the film, I don't see a whole lot of reason to do it. Most B&W Reversal films can be easily shot and processed as a negative.
Although this guy doesn't give his recipe, he does show his process for reversal in his Morse G#. You might find his video helpful: ruclips.net/video/y5HPD5tcdg4/видео.html
Thanks and have fun with it!!
Great video! I just inherited one of these but it’s also missing the wind key. Where did you find your replacement key?
Thank you!! I found my wind key on eBay.
@@Filmboy24 I’ll have to keep my eye out then! All I can find is a whole new camera that is lucky enough to still have the key.
@@tunuvielluv8553 This is what you need: www.ebay.com/itm/165343748040?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=oN--0JkFTKW&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=e-ltyKp0QMm&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
@@Filmboy24 hey!! Thanks so much for the link! Hope to get some fun footage.
I have 2 of the 70a models from 1926 and 1927 but I have only one Cooke lens to share between the two. I want to use my 1950s cameras first before I use my 1920s cameras and my oldest camera the film counter is totally stuck and no amount of oil and heat is getting it to move.
That's awesome! Do your 70A cameras have the "70A" marking or label anywhere on them? I can't seem to find it on mine. My 70DR and 70DA cameras were all marked as such. Just wondering if B&H called these old one 70A but didn't label them. Thanks!
@@Filmboy24 I don’t think so. And my two have a more silver plated logo. Did you look at the patent dates inside your camera?
@@oldradiosnphonographs Mine doesn't have a patent date inside, it's stamped "Patent Applied For".
@@Filmboy24 I think my next film will be on my bell and Howell but it will be done on the 70HR. I will buy double perf film for my third film and use my two 1920s cameras.
This is interesting. I have a 1923 Filmo but it is jammed up since it has no oil. If it's oiled it should work. I also have a 50 foot roll of film expired in the 1950's that I thought was garbage but this video makes me think it could be usable. Did you shoot the film as iso 50 or did you overexpose it?
Thank you! Yes, give that old beast some oil, it's amazing what a few drops will do for these old cameras. As far as the old film that I used in this video, yes, I just rated it at 50 ISO and hoped for the best. I wasn't sure what to expect from this old stuff, so I figured that would be a good starting point.
Thanks for the reply. I have heard that the iso should be dropped for every 20 years that the film has been expired so if it expired 70 years ago I would think that would be a 3.5 stop increase but it seemed to be ok for you!
@@corgis6801 Yes, the very general rule of thumb has always been 1 stop for every 10 years past expiration. I've noticed though that B&W film holds up very well over the years, much better than color film, so I really don't worry too much about it. It's really a guessing game, unless you know the exact storage history of the expired film.
@@Filmboy24 fair point I have had color film turn to junk after 5 years if it's not stored properly but BW film in simular conditions was OK. I found my film in the box with the camera so safe to say it was never touched or cooled for at least the last 65 years. Impossible to tell if it was stored in a basement or attic however so it would be guessing.
@@corgis6801 I would probably overexpose it by about 2 stops if it were me then. I feel like that would be a relatively safe bet.
Are these C mount Mike? I am thinking of buying one
Yes they are, Nasser.
I have the same camera from my great-grandfather. My question does someone have to load the camera in the dark so you don't expose the film? Thanks in advance
Hey Jess, nope, you don't have to be in total darkness, as the 100' loads come on daylight spools. This simply means that the sides of the reels are solid, so light cannot hit the film. You will expose a little on the outer layer though.
So cool I'm planning to try it out in the near future. Thank you
Oh I forgot to ask. Is that a C mount lens?
( I’m assuming so since B&H invented c mount)
That's a great question, Alex, I should have mentioned it in the video because it's actually a little perplexing. The lens itself is not a C-mount lens. It's kind of in between the thread size of C-mount and D-mount. When you unscrew the lens from the camera, there is an adapter screwed into the lens port. This adapter is C-mount, however, the threads on the camera body are inset so far that none of my other C-mount lenses actually catch them. I was able to get one of my other C-mount lenses to turn about 1/8 of a turn on this camera before it was tight. Felt like it would come right off if you bumped it too hard.
That is very interesting. Do you think it was like that from factory or perhaps the first few layers of threads have been stripped out
@@alexinnewwest1860 Definitely from the factory. Not sure what the initial thought was, maybe the mount change shortly after.
Funny. RUclips recommended a video. So I watched it and this guys explains the reason. It’s called
Filmo 70 series 16mm Movie Film Camera - 16mmAdventures
@@alexinnewwest1860 I've seen that video and a few of his videos before. He stopped putting out videos a few years ago but I wish he didn't. I honestly don't think he's right about unscrewing to focus though, all of my footage is in pretty good focus and I never did any of that. With a non-reflex camera and no focus marks on the lens, you'd never know how to achieve any focus at all by unscrewing the lens. My theory is that they simply changed the mount later on to accommodate the "standard" C-mount lenses. Probably never thought about having any lens(es) other than the original one on it in the beginning.
Fun fact: you should check out that guy's other channel (it's his main one that he's had for years). He has almost 2 million subscribers. It's called "Townsends". It's about the 18th Century lifestyle.
I have Ansco info if you need it.
Thank you, Nicholas!
@@Filmboy24 This includes a few PDFs.