[Ben Holmes]

Patrick C Wrote:Ref first frame flash (lack of) issue that you have raised. I contacted a photographic expert in California who specialises in 8mm and has dozens of films in his collection. Naturally he is familiar with the winding mechanism of the Bell & Howell 414PD as used by Zapruder. He advises that he has examples of film in which the first frame is not over exposed, however as I agreed Holmes one would expect it to occur typically and the photo expert I contacted advised that yes you would normally find that the first frame would be overexposed, but not always. What the explanation for this is - I do not know at this stage, but I am satisfied with that on what is after all a non subject. So you ain't the big photo expert you thought you were Holmes and your armchair physics seems to have failed you.

How ironic... As Roland Zavada has stated: "First frame density difference is seen at ALL tails to head transitions." As Zavada is the expert when it comes to the extant Z-film - it seems strange that Patrick is contradicting Zavada's assertion.

And doing so on the basis of his asserted conversation with an unnamed expert...

Malcolm Townsley, an inventor of the camera mechanisms, wrote: "First Frame Overexposure comes about because it takes a very brief, but real, time to get the mechanism up to speed. This means that the shutter takes more time to make the first turn, and over-exposes the first frame on each scene, and produces a bleached out image. ... The over-exposure of the first frame of a new scene is caused by the fact that it takes a little time on the part of the spring motor in the camera to bring the mechanism up to speed. ... I remember that this was one of the things which did take place in 8mm cameras, and which we worked very hard to overcome."

Herb Farmer, Professor at the USC School of Cinema, states: "I have never heard the term 'First Frame Over-Exposure' although that is what it is. I have always heard and used the term 'stop frame,' or 'flashed frame' used to indicate the overexposed frame apparent between separate 'takes' of regular operation of the camera with film. ... This is a familiar situation with any spring motor driven camera. When you push the 'go' button, it takes at least one frame for the mechanism to get up to operating speed, and the first frame is over exposed."

In another letter, Herb Farmer states: "With the same camera under the same light conditions,, I would say that if one stop-start has an overexposed frame, then all stop-starts should have the same overexposed (fogged) frame at the start."

Now, I quote REAL experts, and you merely mention some mysterious unnamed expert that you cannot even quote. Why can't you quote him, Patrick? Why can't you name him or cite him? You really expect everyone to simply believe you?

And since inertia is the cause, you must believe in miracles Patrick... since you clearly believe that the film comes up to speed INSTANTLY (or at least faster than .025 of a second), somehow avoiding the principles of inertia.

Of course, this is a common tactic that Patrick employs... he quite frequently refers to people he spoke to... most of the time unnamed, and ALL OF THE TIME UNCORROBORATED.

Fortunately, in this particular case, I spoke with that same photographic expert here in California... he agreed that first frame flash is invariably seen, and thought that Patrick must have misinterpreted what he said. He was being quite generous in presuming that Patrick misunderstood. He also mentioned his personal opinion that the Zapruder film was altered, and strangely enough, he based that opinion on the very same topic - that there wasn't any over-exposure on Z-133.