Filming with the Bolex H - Text 2
The camera is equipped with a turret with three lenses. At any moment, users can thus choose to shoot with a short, medium or long focal length. With professional cameras, the lens-changing operation is equally cumbersome: one must remove the lens from the camera; stow it carefully in a bag; select the other lens and remove the protective parts without dropping or soiling it; and then install it in the device. Thanks to the turret, the operation can be carried out without any risk by a very quick and simple motion. In certain films, such as Denys Arcand’s On est au coton (1976), one even sees the lens being changed in the middle of a shot. Alongside this set-up, a tri-focal viewfinder is adapted to the camera; by manipulating small levers one can shift from a medium focal length (25 mm) to a long focal length (75 mm) by lowering a narrower window, or shift to a short focal length (15 mm) by raising a different lens.
