Chris Dodkin
West Coast Correspondent
Ladies and gentlemen, may I formally introduce to you, the big brother of the Eumig C3R, the Eumig C16R.
Launched in 1957, as a pro-am movie camera, the C16R has the same functionality as it's smaller brother, with a set of teleconverters which can be swung into place to change the field of view.
The prime 25mm lens has variable focus, and manual aperture - and is supplemented by the 0.5x and 2x teleconverters, giving effective 12.5mm, 25mm, and 50mm focal lengths.
It is a fast f1.9 coated optic, and you can see that my copy has a little coating degradation from the last 50+ years.
The teleconverters are also coated optics, and having them built-in on swing arms, makes for quick and easy use in the field.
Again, I have some coating degradation, but I suspect it won't really impact over-all image quality when I run a film test.
As each optic is swung into place, the swing-arm mechanism also moves a viewfinder optic in place, to change the field of view of the viewfinder to match the lens.
The whole solution is beautifully engineered, and has a very solid feel, with nicely formed turned controls.
The viewfinder itself is nice and large, with a dioptic adjustment for spectacle wearers, and a parallax control to effective move the field of view in the viewfinder to compensate for the viewfinder/lens offset at close quarters.
The viewfinder has a built-in active light-meter, which automatically adjusts for ASA and FPS.
The camera is clockwork, and has a very smooth crank action for winding it up.
The stored power in the spring is shown in a 'power meter' on the side, with four progress bars that change colour from white to red as the power is used.
In this way, you have a visual indication of remaining power whilst shooting, as well as a 'total footage used' meter to keep track of film shot.
The camera takes 100' spools of 16mm film, which should be loaded in subdued lighting - and unlike standard 8mm, the film only passes through the camera once.
The film compartment cover also has a depth of field calculator on the side, for 'in the field' calculations at various apertures.
Over all fit and finish are excellent, with high quality components and a good hefty weight.
The carry handle is a really heavy leather, colour matched to the camera detail
And the crank is heavily chromed, and beautifully engineered.
I'm looking forward to trying some 16mm film, and comparing this to the 8mm film I've already shot. 16mm is currently $50 for 100', plus processing and telecine - so it's rather expensive as a hobby!
Probably the last 16mm camera I'll be buying - I've run out of room on the camera shelf!!
Launched in 1957, as a pro-am movie camera, the C16R has the same functionality as it's smaller brother, with a set of teleconverters which can be swung into place to change the field of view.
The prime 25mm lens has variable focus, and manual aperture - and is supplemented by the 0.5x and 2x teleconverters, giving effective 12.5mm, 25mm, and 50mm focal lengths.
It is a fast f1.9 coated optic, and you can see that my copy has a little coating degradation from the last 50+ years.
The teleconverters are also coated optics, and having them built-in on swing arms, makes for quick and easy use in the field.
Again, I have some coating degradation, but I suspect it won't really impact over-all image quality when I run a film test.
As each optic is swung into place, the swing-arm mechanism also moves a viewfinder optic in place, to change the field of view of the viewfinder to match the lens.
The whole solution is beautifully engineered, and has a very solid feel, with nicely formed turned controls.
The viewfinder itself is nice and large, with a dioptic adjustment for spectacle wearers, and a parallax control to effective move the field of view in the viewfinder to compensate for the viewfinder/lens offset at close quarters.
The viewfinder has a built-in active light-meter, which automatically adjusts for ASA and FPS.
The camera is clockwork, and has a very smooth crank action for winding it up.
The stored power in the spring is shown in a 'power meter' on the side, with four progress bars that change colour from white to red as the power is used.
In this way, you have a visual indication of remaining power whilst shooting, as well as a 'total footage used' meter to keep track of film shot.
The camera takes 100' spools of 16mm film, which should be loaded in subdued lighting - and unlike standard 8mm, the film only passes through the camera once.
The film compartment cover also has a depth of field calculator on the side, for 'in the field' calculations at various apertures.
Over all fit and finish are excellent, with high quality components and a good hefty weight.
The carry handle is a really heavy leather, colour matched to the camera detail
And the crank is heavily chromed, and beautifully engineered.
I'm looking forward to trying some 16mm film, and comparing this to the 8mm film I've already shot. 16mm is currently $50 for 100', plus processing and telecine - so it's rather expensive as a hobby!
Probably the last 16mm camera I'll be buying - I've run out of room on the camera shelf!!
Last edited:
