Stay Put!

[Music] We are going to stop you walking about and let a rotoon camera do the moving instead. where you are with the controls conveniently at hand and by turning a switch have either the copy holder or the film holder brought to you. It's as good as rubbing Aladdin's lamp. Instant, dependable service with a capital S. [Music] and dials to tell you exactly what's happening inside so that the whole process of arranging the right setting is accurate, troublefree, and speedy and all without any more effort than operating an electric light switch. But first, you've got to know how much reduction or enlargement is needed and then which knobs will give the desired result. Block sizes can be stipulated in three ways. The customer can ask for quarter size or 25% scale or reduced to 4 in. With old-fashioned cameras, there was a lot of fiddling about to get exactly the right size with the settings that gave sharp focus because getting the one right was apt to upset the other. But more recent designs have provided accurate working scales for lens and copy holder positions. In the case of a rotodon camera, the scales are calibrated in percentages and in whichever other form blocks may have been ordered, the reductions or enlargements must first be converted. Reduce to a certain dimension is the most difficult to tackle, but save your pencil and paper. No. Put your slide rule to bed. I don't know how to use one either. Try this rotor scale. The figures along the top are the percentages. Let's have an easy example first. Here's one 4-in block from 8 in copy half size or 50% reduction. How do you prove it? Swing the transparent arm round to bring the red line onto the 100% mark. Now move the horizontal line or scale up till the 8 in mark copy size coincides with the red line. Keep the linear scale still and swing the arm to bring the red line to 4 in the block size. And up at the top you see the reduction is 50% which you know is right. Red line on two answer 25% for a 2in block. Try a 7in copy marked for a 5-in block. Linear scale with 7 in to the line. Line to block size 5 in and answer 71.5%. When the instructions come in the form of fractions, they're generally pretty simple ones. And mental arithmetic is usually good enough if you've also got in mind the decimal equivalents of the third and eighs. 38.375 37.5% and so on. Two- fifths, 4/10, 40 hundreds, 40%. Enlargement up to double size 200% needs the alternative scale selected by a twist of the knob at the side, but otherwise it works out in exactly the same way. Here's a 5-in subject for a 9-in block. Line to 100. It's in the middle of the scale now. Five on the linear scale to the line over to 9 in and up at the top 180%. So every piece of copy is marked with its appropriate percentage and it will save camera time if they are arranged in the correct sequence of percentages either up or down. Now let's look at this revolutionary camera and revolutionary is the right word. You want to load the first copy, right? Summon the genie to bring you the copy holder. Rub the lamp or rather press down the copy holder switch. Instant obedience. That's what we meant by service. The color end of the camera, having been brought so agreeably to your hand, unlock and open its hinged lid. You find a tinted transparent sheet marked in a succession of concentric standardsized rectangles, which will guide you in positioning your copy. Lay the first piece face down between the sheet and its supporting glass. Other subjects need the same degree of reduction can be grouped together in the copy holder which is next closed and locked again. With an ordinary process camera, you would now have to shift the 180 lb of your body or whatever your weight is a matter of yards to the film end of the camera. But an upward flick of the copy holder switch on the rotodon control panel saves you the time, trouble, and fatigue. In place of the copy holder, the film holder awaits your attention. Beyond the film holder are some circular scales. The outer one rotates as a function of the distance from lens to film, stating the percentage of reduction or enlargement for which the lens is correctly placed. What is it we want? 37.5% and it's now ending at 60. We've got to pull the lens towards the film. And here's the button to do it. Camera reduce. Back goes the dial. 45 40. Oh, we've slightly overshot. A hand control is available for that very reason. And so we can quickly get the exact reading required. The lens to copy distance must be similarly adjusted to 37.5%. And the knob for that is marked extension increase. The inner disc has two sets of figures, one for enlargement, one for reduction with 100% as its extreme position. Why? Well, that entails a bit of the theory of optics. And at the moment, we're concerned with getting our 37.5%. Finish it off with the hand control. One more detail. In normal lighting, we know the size of the film to be used. It will be retained flat on its holder by vacuum applied through a series of holes. Unless these are regulated like this to the film size, there will be either serious air leakage or an insufficient area acted on by atmospheric pressure to secure the film. Set the exposed switch for full illumination and the lens aperture control on the right of the film holder to your V ratio. Now, safe light conditions. Vacuum turned on and filmed from box to holder central. Close the hooker to keep the hands free for quick manipulation. A few moments later, a foot switch is provided for the exposure. Press it down and release. Yes, we left you enough movement to do that. Now switch off. Undo the catch and open the holder. Turn off the vacuum. Remove the film and slip it into a light tight drawer or box for development later with others. Switch on your normal lighting. Close and fasten the film holder before pressing down the copy holder switch to swing the camera around again and present you with its copy holder end. Lift the lid, remove the copy and consign it to the work done basket because this completes our basic routine of producing a line negative. Your next subject is a half tone. So we'll see where this calls for a change of procedure. Start off in the same way, noting that the reduction is 50% and the screen is 120. First load the copy, then centralized just as well. There's a safety device. You can't swing the camera over unless the copy holder is hosed. That's more like it. Bring around your camera extension scale to 50%. You needn't wait to get the lens position. Both dials can turn at the same time, but careful how you stop them. Just a little hand adjustment again. This time we shall want a screen 120. Let's use the conventional type. Lay it in its frame in the film holder end of the camera and secure it in place just below the plane of the film. Adjust the screen distance by turning the knob on the left. You can read the position on the linear scale at the back. Anything you need up to 18 mm. One more setting, the ratio arm position. The corresponding aperture for the particular camera extension will be automatically provided. You can use any combination of apertures you want. The control on the left is for the 9 and 1/2 in lens, but we'll talk about that in a minute. Now, your safe light while the film is positioned. You'll want a flash exposure. Just press the lower control on the right of the ammeter. In normal light, to make it clearer, we show you how a lamp is snapped into position in front of the lens. When the work in hand is completed, put the negative away and bring the copy holder around for the next job. You can use normal lighting again. Now we've got another half tone. A same size job. 133 screen. Out with the old copy, in with the new. Back to the image plane again. This time, for the sake of demonstration, let's use a contact screen. Press the frame of the 120 screen away from you and lift it out. Put it away carefully and bring out the contact screen we want. Now watch carefully what happens when you press the extension decrease switch. 65 70 80. Hold it. You can see that the calibrations around the 100 mark are very fine and not easy to read. So look at this supplementary scale on the right hand side here. The graduations are enlarged and a moving pointer shows quite clearly where you are. Watch this pointer then and carry on till you have your 100 reading exactly. Safe light on. Arrange for vacuum to apply to a larger area than the film as it will have to hold the screen as well. Locate your film and switch on vacuum one. Lay your contact screen imulsion side downwards over the film and make sure that it is firmly held by vacuum. Close the film holder. Set your lens position camera enlarge button to the 100% reading. Now you can expose and remove the film in due course. If there is a series of half tones from the same screen to follow, it will be a help to tape one edge of the screen to the film holder. Then keep vacuum number one in operation while turning the camera to retrieve the copy so that the screen doesn't flop about. For color separation, exactly the same photographic principles apply with the addition of the appropriate color filter for each of the set of separation negatives. The filters are already waiting inside the camera and only need positioning by means of this selector switch which introduces any one of five filters. For instance, red, green, yellow, blue, or gamma. Number one, position is clear. Continuous tone or screen negatives or positives are products readily obtained. So too are color masked negatives or positives. This punch register fitment attached to the film holder forms a very useful accessory. Normally, the camera will work on the 12-in lens to give reductions down to 30% and enlargements up to 265%. But by simply pressing the lens short control, you substitute a 9 1/2 in lens, which will give reductions down to 20% and enlargements up to 375%. For transparent copy, we reverse the direction of the light path. And this enables us to make enlargements up to 500%. And reductions down to 27%. In this reversed working, the film holder is stripped off its hinges. They're made like that for this purpose. And the plate holder is substituted. into this is placed the transparent copy. If it's film, it's mounted on a sheet of glass. So, the emulsion is in what is normally the image plane. Check the job calculations are correct for reversed operation. There's a catch in it. This is the normal working setup with the dial set to 25%. The ratio of the distances of film and copy to the lens are as 25 to 100. But because we have reversed the functions of the apparatus, this is what is really happening when the dials still show 25%. The ratio is also reversed becoming 100 to 25. So remember to work to the reciprocal of the percentage ordered. If you want 400% set to 25%. This is the optical arrangement. But this is the actual working position of the camera. When you've got the figures right and the transparent copy located, turn the camera. Bring in the contact screen. Switch to safe light and secure your fil plate in the copy holder. Bring back the film holder end. and plug in the lead of a cold cathode lighting unit. Place the unit itself over the copy to illuminate it. Talking about the normal use of the short focus lens, which gives reductions down to 20%. The 30 to 20% range is shown separately on the inner disc as regards the lens to copy distance and by the left hand scale which relates to the distance from lens to film. The pilot light warns you when the 9 and 1/2 in lens is in service. We've seen the use of most of the controls on the instrument panel. The other fittings consist of a large fuse on the left for the lighting circuit, a row of fuses along the top, each labeled according to its circuit, a main fuse on the right hand side, and below and to the left of it, an emergency onoff switch controlling the motor that rotates the whole camera. At this juncture, we think we've proved our point about the amount of exercise that is necessary for operating a Rotodon camera, and its space saving is obvious. But paradoxically, it has already spread into more than a dozen countries with repeat orders to confirm that it is a truly worthwhile acquisition. If you want further proof, bring your own copy to Pictorial Machinery's instructional center at Broccley, London, and operate the camera yourself with our guidance. We assure you that the use of the cord is entirely optional. Naturally, you won't be proficient immediately, but just check the speed at which a line negative can be produced. As you can well estimate, half te work is proportionally quick. [Music] sizing. [Music] [Music] There's the film going in. [Music] We can't do much about speeding up the exposure. [Music] film out. [Music] Bringing back the copy holder end. [Music] That's it. from beginning to end. 74 seconds without any strain on the operator. His shackles may as well come off before he gets busy with the processing. With the negatives taken from the box, he has only to turn round, pour out his chemicals, and start developing, which so far as we know could not have been done nearly so early if he had been using any camera other than a rotodon. Yeah. Heat.