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It is rather simple to make an accurate viewfinder reticle for most any camera with an accessible ground glass. Here I'm giving specific instructions for a Reflex Bolex, but the same priciples apply for other cameras. WARNING: Be careful! I take no responsibility if you damage your camera when you follow these instructions!

NOTE: You MUST make the reticle film clip BEFORE you disassemble your finder masks, as described below. Why? If you remove the masks, you have nothing to use for framing the field guide you are going to shoot...

How do you make the reticle? Well, that is a simple, but also an exact and somewhat time-consuming job...

First, download one of the Field Guides I provide below. They are available as scalable PICT files (for all Macintoshes, or PCs with PICT-capable software), and also in GIF, a format that you usually can print out directly from your browser. You may have to experiment with your printer settings to get the whole image on one sheet of paper. NOTE: a GIF image is not resolution-independent in the same way as a "PICT" file. Therefore it appears somewhat coarse, since the resolution is only 72 dpi, but this will suffice well for the intended use.

You may have to use "Stuffit Expander" or similar software to get to the PICT file if your browser doesn't do the "MacBinary" conversion automatically...

This reticle is for a standard 16mm camera, but also has extra space (two "columns" on the right) needed to use it in a Super-16 camera used for both Super and standard 16mm shooting. If you use it in a standard 16mm camera, the two extra columns will be cropped off when you make the reticle.

DOWNLOAD 16mm field guide ("16pict" 13 K)

Same in GIF format, printable from browser.

This one is intended for a camera used only for Super-16 mm. If Super-16 is blown up to 35mm, the lines on this field guide will correspond exactly to the lines on the 35 guide below.

DOWNLOAD Super-16mm field guide ("s16pict" 12 K)

Same in GIF format, printable from browser.

And finally, this one is for a 35mm camera. (I've put this one into an Arriflex, and also a 35mm animation camera - easy, since most animation cameras have registration pins in the finder, so you just slip on a 35mm clip of this field guide!)

This guide has markings for 1:1,35, 1:1,66 and 1:1,85 aspect ratios and TV scanning area, as well as the "full aperture" used in process cameras. I've made it in strict accordance to the SMPTE Standard.

DOWNLOAD 35mm field guide ("35pict" 16K)

Same in GIF format, printable from browser.