When the tape drove the Bolex

Filmmaker and Bolex collector Richard Clement recently showed a rare piece of film technology: the SYNCHROFLEX is a tape recorder that not only works with perforated 16mm tapes, but also drives a Bolex H16 via its 8:1 shaft.

Thanks to the connection with a rigid shaft, synchronization was guaranteed. There was also a version for the Filmo 70. I wonder what the entire system weighed on the scales (or shoulders)… However, the 18V battery was probably housed externally.

It was certainly a little impractical that the device made both the frame rate setting and the single frame counter inaccessible. However, the tape drive itself had a small speedometer to display the (hopefully) correct 16 or 24 fps.

Here is a detailed presentation from the magazine “Amateur Cine World” from July 1963:

or download here as PDF.