ARRI Publishes Legacy Analog Camera Archive – ARRIFLEX 35, 16SR and 416 Manuals, Brochures and Specs Online

Camera News

by Nino LeitnerToday

Subscribe to News - Cameras

ARRI has opened a Legacy Analog Cameras section on its website, with history, technical data and archive downloads for its film cameras from the ARRIFLEX 35 of 1937 to the ARRIFLEX 416 Plus HS of 2008. The 13 camera pages cover models such as the ARRIFLEX 35 series, the 16SR family, the 435, the 535, the 765 and the ARRICAM ST and LT, and they link to almost 80 scanned manuals, quick guides, brochures and spare-part lists as free PDFs. Let’s take a look at what the archive holds.

We have written about the return of film quite a bit this year. Kodak reported a fourth straight quarter of growth driven by film, Christopher Nolan shot The Odyssey entirely on IMAX film, and several of this year’s Camerimage Golden Frog contenders include 16mm or Super 8 material. ARRI itself released ARRI Film Lab 1.5 in October, which emulates film formats from 8mm to 65mm in a digital workflow. The new section goes the other way and documents the cameras that shot on film in the first place. It comes a few days after ARRI owner Thomas Riedel received a European Film Industry Preservation Award at Camerimage, although ARRI has not published a press release about the pages.

What the archive covers

The Legacy Analog Cameras section sits in the Learn area of arri.com. According to ARRI, it shares “information held in the ARRI archive” about all of its film cameras, “from 1937 up to the last analog camera in 2008”. The landing page splits the cameras into two groups. Gray-painted models of the modern era have their own pages: the ARRIFLEX 416 series, ARRIFLEX 235, ARRICAM ST and LT, ARRIFLEX 435 series, ARRIFLEX 16SR 3 series, ARRIFLEX 535 and 535 B, and ARRIFLEX 765. The black-painted cameras sit under “Older ARRIFLEX Cameras”: the ARRIFLEX 35 series, the 35BL series, the 16SR series, the 16BL, the 16M and the 16ST.

Most pages follow the same pattern: a short history, notable productions and set photos, a list of main features, a technical data table, and a download list with dates. The downloads are the practical part. They include full instruction manuals (236 pages for the ARRIFLEX 416, 178 pages for the 235, 373 pages for the ARRICAM System Users’ Guide), quick guides, IVS video assist manuals, configuration overviews, ground glass and format guides, and period sales brochures. The PDFs open directly, with no registration.

ARRIFLEX 35: where it started

The ARRIFLEX 35 series page is the most detailed of the older cameras. ARRI describes the original ARRIFLEX 35, designed by chief engineer Erich Kaestner and released in 1937, as the world’s first 35mm movie camera with a reflex mirror shutter, so that operators could frame and focus through the taking lens. The page traces the series through the 35 II (1946), 35 IIA, 35 IIB, 35 IIC (1964), 35 III (1979) and 35 IIIC (1982). According to ARRI, the 35 II models alone account for 17,000 sales, and the 35 IIIC was developed after Jost Vacano asked for a pivoting viewfinder for low-angle shots on “Das Boot”.

The 13 downloads for the series start with an early promotional flyer for the “Hand Camera” and a 1946 British Intelligence field report on the ARRIFLEX 35. They also include instruction manuals for the 35 IIA, 35 IIC, 35 III and 35 IIIC, a registration pin update for the 35 III, and a complete spare parts list for the 35 IIIC with exploded view diagrams. For owners who maintain these cameras, the spare parts list and the motor handgrip technical info, with its circuit diagram, are the most useful documents.

The 16SR family and the Super 16 years

The 16SR series page covers the original 16SR from 1975, the high-speed model from 1979, the 16SR II from 1981 and the economy 16SR IIE. ARRI explains the coaxial quick-change magazine, the symmetrical body with a viewfinder that pivots on three axes, and the many 16SR II cameras that were converted to Super 16, a format with a 40% larger negative area. The page also shows Werner Herzog with a 16SR II and the modified 16SR II cameras that NASA used on Space Shuttle missions.

The 16SR 3 page continues the line from 1992 with the SR 3, SR 3 HS (up to 150 fps) and the SR 3 Advanced of 1999, which added a 70% brighter viewfinder, ARRIGLOW, an updated video assist and a new 800 ft magazine. ARRI lists a weight of approximately 7kg (15.4lbs) with a loaded 400 ft magazine and onboard battery. Downloads include the 113-page SR 3 instruction manual and the SR 3 IVS manual.

ARRIFLEX 416: the last ARRI film camera

The ARRIFLEX 416 page covers the 416 (2006), the 416 Plus with integrated accessory electronics, and the 416 Plus HS of 2008, which ARRI calls “the last film camera ever made by ARRI”. The 416 shoots Super 16 only, with a 12.35 x 7.5mm (0.486 x 0.295in) gate, a 54mm PL mount and a single pull-down claw with a single registration pin. The standard models run from 1 to 75 fps, and the Plus HS goes to 150 fps. ARRI gives a sound level below 20 dB(A) at 24 fps for the standard cameras and below 29 dB(A) for the HS, and a weight of 5.5kg (12.1lbs) with viewfinder, eyepiece, IVS, magazine and film.

ARRI also notes that pre-owned ARRIFLEX 416 cameras have sold for prices that “far exceed the original cost when new”, and it names Ed Lachman’s own 416 on “Carol” (2015). The six downloads include the 236-page instruction manual, a quick guide, a configuration overview and “Introduction to Super 16”, a 2006 supplement with comments from eight cinematographers on the format.

35mm production cameras and the 765

The 35mm pages cover the production cameras of the 1990s and 2000s. The ARRIFLEX 235 page describes the compact MOS camera of 2003 that ARRI calls its final 35mm film camera, used for action scenes in “Casino Royale” and “The Bourne Ultimatum”. The ARRIFLEX 435 page has the most downloads of all, with ten documents, among them the FEM-2 and Timing Shift Box manuals. The 535 and 535 B page covers ARRI’s sync-sound studio cameras of the 1990s.

The ARRICAM ST and LT page explains how the system came from ARRI’s purchase of Moviecam in 1997 and its launch in 2000, and it lists a body weight with finder of 8.15kg (17.95lbs) for the ST and 5.25kg (11.56lbs) for the LT. ARRI states that ARRICAM “is still in widespread use today”. The ARRIFLEX 765 page covers the 5-perf 65mm camera from 1989, with a 62mm Maxi PL mount, 2 to 100 fps and a weight of 32kg (70lbs) with a loaded 500 ft magazine and no lens.

What the pages do not cover

The section is a reference archive, not a service portal. The pages do not say whether ARRI Service still repairs these cameras or supplies spare parts, and they give no list of service partners for film cameras. The downloads are scans of the original documents, so their information reflects the time they were printed. Some older pages, such as the 16BL and 16M, have only two downloads each, and the ARRIFLEX 765 page has two. For anyone who owns, rents or restores one of these cameras, the manuals and the ground glass and format guide are the most useful parts today. Film students and cinematographers who are new to film will also find the history pages a compact introduction to how these cameras were used.

Availability

The Legacy Analog Cameras section is online now at arri.com, and all downloads are free. ARRI also links to its interactive “History of ARRI” timeline from the landing page. If you want to see what shooting on film costs today, our earlier article on film vs digital and the cost of shooting on Kodak Vision3 is a good place to continue.

Do you still shoot on an ARRIFLEX 416, 16SR or ARRICAM, or do you plan to? Which manual from the archive will you download first? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!