STEENBECK ST1600 16mm FILM EDITING TABLE

[Robert Hart]

THE ORIGINAL POST IS AMENDED DUE TO SUBSEQUENT SUCCESSFUL CONTACT WITH REPAIRER/PARTS VENDOR. The original post is left for sake of info and interest to folk looking for similar assistance.


I am looking for the capacitance value of a rather burned part on the "A 911" PCB, a rectifier board. The necessary printed details on the capacitor are no longer readable.

The machine is no longer supported by the manufacturer, Steenbeck as it is over 40 yerars old. My email enquiry to cutfilm.com, which seems to be the US vintage Steenbeck specialist has thus far remained unanswered. ( NOW RRESOLVED )

It is an easy repair so long as I can view the part on another functioning machine to read the print.

The machine actually still runs but obviously should not pushed along lest something else is taken down by the failed part. It also needs two new cogged belts on the sound and optical prism drives. I think I can source those from Gates or RS Components.

 

[Robert Hart]

A postscript to the above request. My email to cutfilm.com had an image attachment and it was diverted into the recepient's junkmail bin, hence the no-reply. Cutfilm.com can supply all the necessary parts including revised PCBs using modern electronic components and replacement timing belts. So all will end well.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I would call the guy at (617) 908-6258 and see what he says. Often, an actual conversation works a lot better than an email.

This does not answer your question, but: speaking as a guy who has actually cut 16mm negative before, my advice is not to cut on film but instead cut digitally. You get only pain and suffering actually cutting film, and it doesn't improve the movie at all. I would point to M. Night Shyamalan's Lady in the Water as an example of one of the last Hollywood films actually cut on film, and it did not turn out well. I don't think it makes sense in 2016. I don't have a problem if you're just scanning through lots of 16mm and trying to catalogue them or organize them, and that works fine.

 

[Robert Hart]

Mark.


In regards your suggestion, I did manage to get hold of the cutfilm.com guy by phone, which is how things have become encouraging. I won't be cutting film on the Steenbeck. That is just too painful to contemplate in these days of computer-based editing.

I have chanced upon about five years of news film in cans to sort through. It was looking likely to get thrown out. Another filmie who got his first job and worked on a documentary series as a 17yr old in the early 80s will be looking through some old footage from that project which was finished in an early offline process.

 

[Marc Wielage]

I have chanced upon about five years of news film in cans to sort through. It was looking likely to get thrown out. Another filmie who got his first job and worked on a documentary series as a 17yr old in the early 80s will be looking through some old footage from that project which was finished in an early offline process.

In that case, I totally understand and you're doing the right thing. Using a Steenbeck or a KEM or a Movieola to go through archival film like that makes absolute sense. I feel your pain -- that's a thankless job, particularly when it's tons of material.

I once worked on a huge Goldie Hawn documentary project in the 1980s, and for whatever reason the producers bailed on it and it wasn't completed. Much to my surprise, it came back about five years later -- when I was at a different post company -- and we basically started the post all over again. This time, the show was finished, and it was all 16mm negative to video. Held up very well.

 

[Robert Hart]

Well the time is getting close for the arrival of the parts from cutfilm in the US. Then hopefully I can start looking through the archive. The material is comprised of five partial years, not entire annual archives. In reading the running sheets in some of the cans, I find there is a little bit of Vietnam footage.

Our "coup" or dismissal of our left-learning prime minister Gough Whitlam in 1975, falls outside of the archive. It is mostly local Perth capital city and Western Australian state news but relevent to the times nevertheless.

Sadly, there is likely to be a big audiovisual gap in the 80's - 90's due to the reliance upon videotape, the changes of standards and the demise of the playback machines.

About one third of the collection is visible in this rather gloomy picture-phone image. I have been dragged kicking and screaming into the second decade away from my Nokia 5110. The 2G network is being shut down. The new picture phone takes pictures but I have yet to master how to make the thing call somebody.

 

[Robert Hart]

It lives. The parts are in and the machine is again working. The following linked clip was a crude attempt at recording motion imaging from the film via the Steenbeck shutter prism. Because the SI2K camera is a CMOS sensor projecting motion images directly onto the sensor cannot work due to rolling shutter artifacts. Individual non-moving frames image in the SI2K just fine.