cnc bolex - siemens


A diy CNC optical printer / film scanner.

Bolex H-16 REX-5 camera with a DIY stepper motor attachment, heavily modified Siemens 2000 projector with stepper motor and a lamp dimmer and a Nikon EL-Nikkor 75mm lens between them.

The camera and lens are mounted onto linear bearings attached to stepper motors enabling focus and magnification adjustments.

All of the elements (projector frame, camera frame, light intensity, lens and camera position, digital camera shutter) are operated by the electronics (Arduino Mega) and can be programmed in. This allows the machine to do pre-programmed optical effects such as fast/slow motion, fade ins, fade outs, dissolves, zoom-ins, zoom-outs, multiple exposures, frame-by-frame rearrangement of footage... And all of the combinations.

Instead of the Bolex, a digital camera can be mounted and triggered by the electronics, turning this machine into a frame-by-frame film scanner.





The development of the project was founded by the Croatian Ministry of Culture and Media.