ARRI Arriflex 35BL (1972–1990)

The camera that finally let a 35mm operator walk and talk at the same time - no blimp, no apologies.

Overview

Before 1972, a filmmaker who wanted sync sound on 35mm had two bad options: a small camera that roared like a lawnmower, or a quiet camera so enormous it took two people just to lift it onto the tripod. The Arriflex 35BL was ARRI's answer. The "BL" stands for "blimped lightweight," and both halves of that name count. It was self-blimped, meaning the soundproofing lived inside the camera body, and it was light enough - reportedly around 25 pounds - that a single operator could shoulder it and move. ARRI launched it in 1972, the company's first silent 35mm production camera, and more than one historian of the craft has called it one of the most important 35mm cameras ever invented.

The 35BL didn't ask directors to compromise. Development began back in 1966 because there was no handholdable, silent, reflex 35mm camera in existence at the time. The 35BL filled that hole. It was introduced in September 1972, just in time for the Olympics in ARRI's home town of Munich, where it was used extensively to document the games. It became one of ARRI's longest-running product lines, staying in the catalogue for seventeen years and shipping in several variants - the 35BL-1, 35BL-2, 35BL 3, and eventually the 35BL4S of 1989 - before the Arriflex 535 replaced it in 1990.

For collectors, the 35BL sits in an odd spot. It's a historically significant camera with a filmography most directors would kill for, but it's also a working tool that lived hard lives on sets, and the fact sheets for these machines are thinner than you'd expect for a camera this famous. What the documentation does make clear is that the 35BL was designed to be used, not admired. RedSharkNews put it plainly: like all Arris, the 35BL was built to last.

Key Features

The Self-Blimped Body

The defining trait is in the name. It was the first self-blimped 35mm motion picture camera quiet enough for sync-sound shooting without an external housing - no separate blimp box, no sound blanket, no hit to mobility. Until the 35BL arrived, the industry's working assumption was that movie cameras were either small and noisy or huge and quiet. ARRI proved that wrong, and the camera's reputation as the first handheld 35mm film camera ARRI ever produced rests on exactly this point. It was the first silent 35mm camera, full stop.

ARRI Steel Bayonet Lens Mount

The 35BL shipped with the ARRI Steel Bayonet lens mount. With that mount, virtually all ARRIFLEX-mounted lenses could be used on the camera, provided they were designed to cover the 35mm format. In 1972 that meant a rental house or a DP could draw on an existing lens inventory rather than starting over. The manual does carry one warning: lenses of extremely short focal length that had been specially adapted for the ARRIFLEX 35 II C could touch and damage the mirror shutter, so those needed care.

Fixed Butterfly Reflex Shutter

The camera used a fixed butterfly reflex shutter, which gave the cinematographer an exact representation of the recorded frame through the viewfinder. On mirrored-shutter cameras framing was an approximation. Here what you saw was what you got, and that made the 35BL practical for handheld work.

Lens Support Brackets for Heavy Glass

Heavy zoom and telephoto lenses could be used on the 35BL, but only when supported on the available lens support brackets. The manual is blunt about why: if a heavy lens isn't properly supported, it will sag and compress the camera's sound insulation material, which can raise the camera's noise level considerably. The support bracket attaches by removing the camera hand grip and mounting an extension in its place that carries both the bracket receptacle and the hand grip mount. The hand grip then refits to the bracket. Very heavy zooms - the manual names the Angénieux 20-120 and the Cooke 20-100 - call for a special heavy-duty support arm that fits the standard support rod.

Crystal-Controlled Speeds and Pilotone

Out of the box, the 35BL runs crystal-controlled at 24 or 25 frames per second, with the desired combination of speed and Pilotone frequency selected on the mode selector switch. The available combinations are 25/50, 24/50, and 24/60. The camera is equipped with the standard Pilotone system for conventional cable setups, with output via a 5-pin flange-mounted receptacle wired the same way as all Pilotone connectors on other ARRIFLEX cameras. The Pilotone voltage conforms to the standard 1 Veff/60 ohm, and the frequency is derived from the motor feedback circuit as a direct indication of camera speed. For wireless double-system sync sound, the camera's crystal-controlled drive system works with any appropriately equipped sync sound recorder. The manual also describes the standard start mark system, which delivers 12 volt DC through pin 3 of the Pilotone receptacle to operate a start mark oscillator in the recorder while a full-frame start mark lamp fogs the film during run-up.

High-Speed Operation to 100 fps

The 35BL can record at speeds up to 100 frames per second, but that takes a different power arrangement. High-speed operation uses a 36 volt operating current, drawn either from three 12 volt batteries or one special 36 volt battery, and the high-speed attachment fits in place of the bridge plug in the flange-mounted receptacle. The manual is emphatic that whenever the high-speed cable is connected to this plug, all other power connections via the standard battery cable must be disconnected to prevent damage to the circuit or the power source. At normal framing rates the camera runs on 12 volts, with the battery voltage never dropping below 10.5 volts or exceeding 16 volts. A recommended battery capacity of 5 Ah is specified, and the manual warns against using batteries with a dead cell or ones that no longer reach full capacity. A sure sign of insufficient voltage is a camera that either won't reach speed or sounds the "out of sync" warning buzzer while running. For stationary indoor work up to 30 fps, a 12 volt/10 amp converter supply can stand in for batteries, with start-up currents up to 15 amps. Up to 100 fps indoors, a 36 volt/10 amp supply is required. The ARRI mains unit NG4 is recommended, though the maximum supply voltage of 16 volts should never be exceeded.

Variable Speed, Sync, and Emergency Accessories

A variable speed control (Type VS 35 BL) extends the camera's range below its fixed crystal speeds, offering variable speeds from approximately 5 fps to 30 fps along with a remote camera on/off switch. For multi-camera work, two 35BLs can be run in synchronization using a special cable type KSY, which also allows remote start and stop of the slaved camera from the primary. An external synchronizer (Type EXS) lets the camera be driven from external sources - pre-recorded Pilotones, Pilotone signals from other cameras, or any external signal meeting the camera's current and frequency requirements, including synchronization with a television signal through a suitable circuit. If the electronic motor control circuit ever fails, an emergency cable (Type KCN) connects in place of the bridge plug and feeds 12 volts direct to the motor, bypassing the control circuits. A potentiometer on the cable allows speed adjustment by tachometer, though the camera then runs as a "wild" motor and sync sound takes are not possible.

Magazines and the Lubrication Schedule

Film magazines for the 35BL show up in both 1000-foot and 400-foot capacities in the used market. The manual's maintenance notes are unusually specific for a camera of this vintage. The pull-down and registration cams use a reservoir lubrication system with oil wicks inside both cam shafts, loaded through small holes in the center of each shaft. Only high-grade low-temperature oil (PDB38) should be used, and the cam shaft reservoirs should be checked at intervals of approximately 60,000 feet at normal speed - or every 6,000 to 8,000 feet when the camera has been run at high speeds. Over-oiling is a real hazard: excess oil gets thrown off the cams by centrifugal force and can splatter into the film compartment. The two phenolic transport and two registration cam followers get a thin film of oil applied with a small soft brush, with all excess removed. For high-speed operation from 60 fps to 100 fps, magazines need high-speed guide rollers fitted. The arms are marked "top" and "bottom" and fasten with knurled thumb screws. On cleaning, never use metal tools on the film channel or the magazine sprockets - soft cotton swabs or lens cleaning cloth only, with a mild 50/50 water-and-alcohol solution if emulsion deposits need removing from the aperture plate.

Historical Context

The 35BL started with a gap in the market. When ARRI began development in 1966, there was no handholdable, silent, reflex 35mm camera - every option forced a trade-off between mobility and quiet. ARRI's answer arrived in September 1972, and the Munich Olympics gave the new camera a high-profile proving ground in ARRI's own home town, where it was used extensively to document the games.

Iterations followed, project-managed by Otto Blaschek, who had joined ARRI in 1947 under Kaestner. The big breakthrough came with the 35BL 3 in 1980, which arrived with an acoustically isolated PL-mount. That meant lens blimps were no longer necessary, one less piece of external hardware for operators. By then the 35BL had already earned its place alongside the Panaflex Lightweight, released in 1975, in reshaping what a sync-sound 35mm camera could be. The line ran from 1972 until 1990, when the Arriflex 535 replaced it. The final version was the 35BL4S of 1989.

The filmography attached to the 35BL reads like a syllabus for 1970s and '80s cinema. Sources list The Terminator, Autumn Sonata, Fanny and Alexander, Mean Streets, Bound for Glory, The Mission, Apocalypse Now, Barry Lyndon, Raging Bull, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, The Shining, and Taxi Driver among the films shot on the camera. Stanley Kubrick in particular is repeatedly associated with the 35BL — it's described as his camera of choice for The Shining, and one source specifically ties the 35BL-2 to that production.

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