KOHYAMA´S TIME EXPOSURES MACHINE, FOR THE FUJICA ZC1000

Readers of this blog know that the Fujica ZC1000 is, in my opinion, the best motion picture camera of any ciné format ever built, because it has a whole series of technical attributes that are not fouud together in any other model:
1) reverse filming at 1, 12, 18 and 24 f.p.s. without variation in frame line;
2) guillotine mirror shutter;
3) variable shutter lockable at any position between 0 ad 160 degrees;
4) C mount, with adapters for the main brands of lenses;
5) original lenses (10 X zoom, with macro in any focal, and 5.5 mm wide angle lens, both with EBC (Electronic Beam Coated) coating offering a fully circular iris;
7) ability to capture synchronous sound; 
8) ability to connect an external motor for shooting; and
9) digital frame counter.
In addition, the ZC1000 is a robust camera: in case of failure the repairs are easy.

Who was going to tell me, when I bought my ZC1000 being a studient of eighteen in 1978 (there was not even democracy in Spain then), I would be still using it more than 40 years later?
Today, I will write about the "Kohyama´s Time Exposures Machine" for the Fujica ZC1000, designed and build by the intrepid Tak Kohyama, from Retro Enterprises in Tokyo. 
This is an electromechanical device for automatic long exposures, that allows each frame to maintain an open shutter with an electronically fixed speed.
In the past, long exposure shots with the ZC1000 were made with a manual filming crank, in the same way as the cinema pioneers. The problems is that, filming with the crank, it is very difficult to secure an exposure exactly uniform for each frame, which gives rise to images with small variations of exposure, where some frames appear slightly whereas others are slightly light. But, using Kohyama´s Time Exposures Machine, each frame is precisely exposed, exactly as the other frames in the shot.

THE MACHINE.
This electromechanical device are really two  pieces. One of them plugs into the camera in the syncro coupler shoe. The other piece with which it is joined by a cable, is the controller. 
The controller has: 
1) a  main switch; 
2) a control to regulate the speed of exposure for the shutter;
3) a red LED; and
4) a switch for the "beep" sound.
The controller LED flashes on whenever the shutter of the camera is fully open. Also it sounds the beep, But in several places, like the interior of a church, the beep can be annoying, so can be disconnected with the switch, althoug the LED warns us whenever the shutter is open, once per frame.
With the speed control the shutter open speed regulated, adjustable between 1.5 seconds and 40 seconds, or B position.
LA NOCHE DE SAN JUAN - Pleasant Dreams. SUPER-8 KODAK from IB CINEMA Motion Picture Films on Vimeo.
THE EXCLUSIVE ADVANTAGE OF THE DIGITAL FRAME COUNTER.
Other cameras, like some Braun Nizo or Bauer models, among others, incorporate also a special system of timing for slow shutter speeds.  But Kohyama´s Time Exposures Machine,  described in this post, when used with the Fujica ZC1000 (it can be used too with the Fujica Z800), has an additional adventage, over the Nizo and other models, beside the beep and the luminous signal of the LED: as the ZC1000 has a digital frame counter, it is possible to determine precisely the duration of the filming with long exposures.
Kohyama´s Time Exposures Machine do possible for the filmmaker to obtain with the Fujica ZC1000 expressive artistic pictures never before possible. 
So, Kohyama´s Time Exposures Machine has to be a must-have piece of kit for every ZC1000 owner!
Note: a very similar unit was built in Spain by CBD.