Zapruder, 16 frames per second or 18.3 frames per second?
Raymond
The Camera Owners Manuel, page 13, shows a shutter speed of 1/35
second for the normal run time of 16 fps
The Commission claimed 486 FRAMES DIVIDED BY 26.5 seconds of run time
it took to view = 18.339622 FRAMES PER SECOND.
FROM SA SHANEYFELT TESTIMONY;
MR. SPECTER: HOW WAS THE SPEED OF THE CAMERA ASCERTAINED?
WE OBTAINED FROM MR. ZAPRUDER, MR. NIX, MRS. MUNCHMORE THEIR CAMERAS
FOR EXAMINATION, AND IN THE FBI LABORATORY EXPOSED FILM IN ALL THREE
CAMERAS AIMING AND FOCUSING THE CAMERA ON A CLOCK WITH A LARGE SWEEP
SECOND HAND
In 1963, camera speed and projector speeds were not compatible. Even
if Z's camera was filming at 16 fps. and it was shown on a projector
that filmed at a different speed, we have a problem. In those days it
was common to have to adjust the speed of the projector so that the
film was easier to watch. The FBI was showing the film on a projector
and timing the entire 486 frames and clocking the time it took to view
the film. They then divided the time into 486 and came up with 18.3 On
another projector, the result could have been different. However,
since they told the public that the 18.3 was correct,and they used
that figure to determine the time between shots --- from then on that
figure became gospel. Even if they showed the film on another
projector they adjusted the showing speed to the 18.3 speed even if it
changed the viewing to be slower or faster. Later on, camera speeds
and projector speeds were made to be the same. But not in 1963 with Zs
film
THE CLAIM:
"The commercially advertised rate was 16 fps, but the actual camera
rate was 18 fps. This has been confirmed by EVERYONE'S camera tests."
If the camera was shooting at 16 frames per second instead of 18.3,
you must add 15% to the entire time which would change the time of
everything including the time between shots, the speed of the
limousine, etc,. etc., making it more natural and reasonable
In December, of 1963, Lyndal L. Shaneyfelt, of the FBI, tested the
Zapruder, Nix and Munchmore cameras. "In the laboratory, film was
exposed in all three cameras, which were aimed and focused on a clock
with a sweep- second hand. We then ran the camera ? (projector)
at the speed (?) and conditions (?) as described by the people
who used the cameras.
"We ran through several tests of the film and then AFTER THE FILM WAS
DEVELOPED, it was studied under magnification and frames were counted
for a period of 2 to 3 seconds or for the full running time and
AVERAGES WERE TAKEN.
"AVERAGES" the man said.
".. The Zapruder camera was found to run at an AVERAGE SPEED of 18.3
frames per second." Vol. 5, p, 159.
The Camera Owners Manuel, page 13, shows a shutter speed of 1/35
second for the normal run time of 16 fps.
This is hardly the way that Zapruder filmed the motorcade "as
described" earlier. Far too many EXACT conclusions were determined
based on this far from EXACT method of testing "Z's" camera.
The "Z" camera was used ONCE AGAIN, in May of 1964, in the Dallas
reenactment, but it was not exclusively for the purpose of determining
an official record of frames per second filmed by the camera. In fact,
the 18.3 result was used for another reason. Based on the
calculations, the locations, speeds and movements of the motorcade
were arranged and placed.
There are other reports of tests done on the "Z" camera, by Bell&
Howell, but they are more here say than fact. It is reported that the
camera maker did their own engineering test for speed. President ,
P.G. Peterson, reportedly stated, "Our results would APPEAR to
corroborate the FBI testimony before the Warren Commission that the
AVERAGE speed the film passed through the camera was
at 18.3 frames per second and should be within less than 0.1 of
the figures reported by the FBI."
Hal Miller, former Quality Control Engineer of B&H told Ronald Zavada
that he believed the results of the testing were "PROBABLY
COMMUNICATED" to the government in a non-recollected (?) manner.
It is amazing that, whenever Z's camera is mentioned, the fps figure
is always exactly 18.3. Yet, to arrive at this figure , wide
variations in testing methods were used and it was always determined
to be AVERAGE. The figures arrived at in the shooting sequence were
not AVERAGE. The speed of the limousine was not determined to be
average. The word itself is misleading. If I have 10 pieces of chain ,
and 5 are 12 foot long and 5 are 3 feet long, I have 10 pieces of
chain that are 7.5 feet (AVERAGE) long. I know what I have, but a
stranger would have a different notion about the length of my chains.
The humans that designed the original camera created a motor within
the camera that was mathematically engineered to move film through the
lens at a specific speed for a reason. If it did otherwise, it was
because of an anticipated cause, such as wind down of the spring, or
possibly because of age and wear. This was allegedly not the case with
Zapruder. In all likelihood, his camera was operating as it was
designed to do. It is the testing method that is at fault. He said he
had a full wind when he began the shooting of the motorcade.
Many private camera owners have devised their own tests and have
found
that , while using the same camera and using the same testing method,
they have arrived at a different result every time, and it is
usually
a result from using a timing system after the film has been
processed.
And, they are not testing Zapruder's camera.
Ron Zavada, the final (PAID) authority on the camera speed, came up
with 15 different speed results while testing 5 different cameras.
This should send up a red flag about his "loop testing" method. He
had
advertised looking for USED B&H cameras and found 5 to use in his
tests. So, he wasn't testing Zapruder's camera, either. In fact, he
had never seen Z's camera.
(one of the cameras was defective.)
Reading from Ron Zavada:
Ron describes numerous anomalies within the original Zapruder film.
One of them is an overexposure condition known as "first-frame
overexposure."
It appears that Zapruder's camera was "prone" to the problem. This
happened at least twice in the filming of his family and again in the
first exposure of the motorcade. Did this alter the fps speed?
It has never been determined if the first frame condition was always
true with Zapruder's camera of if it was unique to the original
Dallas
film roll. Is this common?
It is this figure (18.3 fps) that has caused much of the consternation
among sincere researchers that still suffer through hours of watching
and counting 486 frames of the simple and successful political coup
d'etat. And, 16 or 18.3 frames per second will not change the text of
history books of the future. It would, however, put to rest some of
the nonsense about an imaginary army of shooters , allegedly
responsible for an event that did change the course of history.
At 16 frames per second, much of this dilemma becomes manageable.
Accept it. It was and is reality.
The timing of the shots was determined from watching the Zapruder film
and timed from the showing of the film on a "rickety" old projector
whose speed had to be adjusted to view properly.
The camera "Z" was using was a Bell & Howell that framed at 16 frames
per second. When the FBI and the Secret Service viewed the film, it
was established that 18.3 pictures or frames were taken per second
based on the complete time used to show the film, and therefore, the
timing of certain events could be calculated by allowing 1/18.3
seconds for the action depicted from one frame to the next..
Tests of the alleged assassin's rifle disclosed that at least 2.3
seconds were required between shots.
Remember that the first shot was already in the breech and ready to
fire.
Projectors at that time were not compatible with the speed of the B&H
which framed at 16 fps.
When 16 fps are used in the shooting of the short film, you must add
15% to the entire time of the same events making it more than enough
time to fire three rounds at leisure.
However, I will debate anyone that only two shots were fired at the
motorcade from the TSBD despite the fact that three reports of fire
were reported and three fired casings were found on the sixth floor
under the window where the shots came from.
Even the WC concluded that it was possible that only two shots were
fired at the motorcade from the TSBD despite the fact that three shell
casings were found on the floor of the building's sixth floor.
SEE Page 110-111 of the WC Report to the President
That's a separate story however..
http://www.history-matters.com/archive/jfk/wc/wr/html/WCReport_0067b.htm
Our topic has nothing to do with the width of the film (mm). We are
concerned with how many pictures (frames) per second can be
photographed as the moving film passes through the lens of the
camera.
The HSCA did no such conversion from 8mm to 16mm. The Z film started
out as 16mm film and after processing, became 8mm.
The film used was -Kodachrome II daylight, ASA 25 8mm . The film is
taken up on the bottom spool of the camera and run for 25 ft.,then
the
spool is placed on the top and the procedure is repeated. After the
second spool is filmed, it is developed and cut down the middle and
spliced, making it a 50 ft. film ready to be viewed. Additionally,
leaders are added to the ends of the roll.
Technically, Zapruder was incorrect when he said , " I shot one side
of the film and turned it over and then shot the other side." The
subject matter was filmed side by side (25 ft each) and the film
( still 16mm ) was split and spliced, making it 50 ft. of 8mm film.
I suggest that you (anyone) buy the video tape, Image Of An
Assassination. This entire process is much better explained than I am
able to do.
Adding to what I have said thus far, I am so convinced that only two
shots were fired from the TSBD that I don't ever consider CE 399 in
my
analysis of the shooting. For me the magic bullet is for folks to
examine while on tour through the National Archives.
"The Magic Bullet is like the Immaculate Conception. You either
believe it or you don't."
----Wm. F. Alexander, Ass't District Attorney, Dallas County
(1963).
The final conclusion of the Washington Wizards was that three shots
were fired; one shot missed completely; one shot hit Kennedy and
Connally, and the final shot hit JFK in the head. Using elementary
reasoning: If the bullet that hit JFK and JC became the near pristine
bullet found at Parkland, and one bullet missed the limo completely,
how could anyone possibly conclude that the fragments in the car came
from any other shot than the shot to the President's head?
WR claimed :"... two bullet fragments were found in the front of
the President's car....The bullet fragments weighed 44.6 and 21.0
grains respectively. The heavier fragment was a portion of a bullet's
nose area as shown by its rounded contour and the character markings
it bore. The lighter fragment consisted of a bullet's base
portion....
The two fragments were both mutilated and it was not possible to
determine from the fragments themselves whether they comprised the
base and nose of one bullet or of two separate bullets...."WR ,pp.
557-558.
Again: If one bullet missed the car, one was found complete with nose
and base at Parkland, and the final bullet hit the President's head,
then we must believe that the fragments in the car were from the same
projectile and it was the head shot.
I believe: There was NO missed shot. However, there was a "report"
from the Knoll that everyone
believed was gunfire ( A diversion shot by Gene Brading (Braden).
probably. But, not at the motorcade. A sound of gunfire was necessary
(from the knoll) to distract the crowd and the police, which it did.
This also gave our shooter time to exit the TSBD, Also, there had to
be a sound of gunfire for a planted intact bullet to be found later,
not necessarily at Parkland. And finally, an extra casing had to be
found near the rifle to account for the sound and the Magic bullet
No one planning to shoot the president could rely on the authorities
finding a bullet or fragments that could be traced to the weapon used
to put Jack in the box. Ergo, the magic bullet--- fired through soft
tissue or into a water tank-- allowing the lands and grooves to be
traceable to the sixth floor rifle, that , with its altered serial
number could be traced to the Marxist book filler.
Enter Jack Ruby (in the plaza at the time of the shooting.)
Assignment:
Put that slug in the limo if you can get to it if it stops. Or, plant
it someplace where it will surely be found.
When the limo didn't stop and went on to Parkland, poor Jack decided
to go on to the hospital and try to plant it there. And , wouldn't you
know it, he put it on the wrong stretcher because he saw blood that he
suspected came from the president.
You will find that no sheets, or anything else was removed from the
stretcher that JFK was loaded on in the parking lot and remained on
until he was put into the coffin. What time was the bullet found and
what time was the JFK stretcher moved from Trauma Room One? I think
that the bullet was found before this . And , I believe that it is
agreed that the Connally stretcher could not have produced the
bullet.
All the testimony I have investigated , indicates that the stretcher
the bullet was found on was the stretcher used for the young Ronald
Fisher boy who was brought into Parkland with a badly bleeding chin
wound.
Read the testimony of Fisher's admission to the emergency room..
The first shot from the TSBD hit the two men in the Lincoln and
remained in the car (the fragments described above), and the head shot
fragmented into many pieces and went all over Dealey Plaza (including
the fragment that hit Tague. He said he was not sure which of the
shots was responsible for his wound and he had heard a shot from up on
the hill
Leaving the Parkland bullet out of the math, there were 70.2 grains
of lead recovered;
CE 567 (Q2) Bullet fragment from front seat cusion. 44.6 gr.
CE 569 (Q3) Bullet fragment from beside front seat 21.0 gr.
CE 843 (Q4) Metal fragment from the President's head 1.65 gr.
CE 843 (Q5) Metal from the President's head 0.15
gr.
CE 842 (Q9) Metal from the arm of John Connally 0.5
gr.
CE 840 (Q14) Three fragments from rear floorboard carpet.
0.9 ,
0.7 gr, and 0.7 gr.
CE 841 (Q15) Scraping from inside surface of Windshield No
weight listed.
There is another problem : Dr. Robert Shaw, the surgeon that operated
on JC, told the Wizards that he believed that more than three grains
were left in the wrist alone
.
Audrey Bell, the operating room nurse, stated there were four or five
fragments, "anywhere from three to four MM in length and a couple of
mm wide.These fragments disappeared at the autopsy of JFK."
In addition, what happened to the fragment found in JC's leg wound?
There was a fragment in the Gov's chest that was never recovered. He
died with fragments still in his body that weighed more than the
alleged two or three missing grains from the Ruby planted hospital
bullet. And finally, the Warren folks said, " The Governor's wrist
wound was not caused by a pristine bullet." p.94, WR.
Josiah Thompson ( Six Seconds In Dallas) should have convinced any
skeptics that CE 399 was not a part of the Elm St. shooting. For those
of you who have not read his work, you are missing the boat. Read it.
"Tink" says:" ...Whatever stretcher the bullet was found on, it was
not a stretcher used in the care of either President Kennedy or
Governor Connally. On this one fact hangs a considerable mystery."
I can't believe that!' said Alice. 'Can't you?' the Queen said in a
pitying tone. 'Try again: draw a long breath, and shut your eyes.'
Alice laughed. ' There's no use trying,' she said. 'One can't believe
impossible things.'
'I dare say you haven't had much practice,' said the Queen. 'When I
was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes
I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.'
--- Alice Through the Looking Glass,
Lewis Carroll
Today's public figures can no longer write their own speeches or
books, and there is some evidence that they can't read them either
--Gore Vidal
The one man that is responsible for the theory that the Zapruder
camera was framing at 18.3 fps is Ronald Zavada, Consultant on Still
and Motion Imagery , who provided the ARRB with his opinion that, as a
result of his testing, the 18.3 fps should not be questioned again.
But you must research this man and his testing methods to determine
the value of his " bullshit." And you must be looking for the truth
about the camera, the projector, how the FBI determined the speed of
Z's camera, and how Zavada used "loop tests" to arrive at an average
fps speed ( you must know what a loop test is) to provide the already
agreed 18.3 fps theory about the Dallas shooting.
It's easy. just URL Zavada.
http://www.jfk-info.com/zreport.htm
Let us now examine five weak points in the lone-gunman theory.
1. THE ALLEGED SHOOTING FEAT
No rifleman has ever duplicated the shooting feat attributed to Lee
Harvey Oswald, the alleged single assassin. There are various lone-
gunman shooting scenarios floating around, but they all theorize that
one gunman scored two hits out of three shots in 6 to 9 seconds while
firing at a moving target from 60 feet up using a Mannlicher-Carcano
bolt-action rifle--ON THE FIRST AND ONLY ATTEMPT.
However, if Zapruder's camera was framing at 16 fps, instead of 18.3
fps,15% would be added to the length of total time it took to fire
three shots --- plenty of time, especially considering the fact
that
the first shot required no time since the shooter was already in
position to fire with a shell already chambered
In 1967 CBS News conducted a fairly realistic simulation involving
eleven expert riflemen firing at a moving target sled from a 60-foot
tower using a Carcano rifle (but not the alleged murder weapon
itself). NOT ONE of those expert riflemen scored two hits on his
first
attempt, and seven of them failed to do so on ANY attempt, even
though
they fired under easier conditions than those in which Oswald would
have fired and even though they were allowed to fire nine practice
rounds prior to the test.
The WC's own rifle tests were equally revealing: The Commission hired
three Master-rated riflemen to attempt to duplicate Oswald's alleged
shooting feat. The three Master-rated shooters who participated in
that test fired 18 rounds while using the scope and three rounds
while
using the iron sights. They used the alleged murder weapon, the
Mannlicher-Carcano that was traced to Lee Harvey Oswald. They missed
the head and neck area of the target board silhouettes 18 out of 18
times when they used the scope, and two out of three times when they
used the iron sights. In other words, they missed the head and neck
area of the silhouettes 20 out of 21 times. Several of their misses
were far apart on the boards. Some of their shots missed the
silhouettes entirely. It's revealing that they shot so poorly even
though they were allowed to take as long as they wanted for the first
shot, even though two of them took longer than 6 seconds to fire,
even
though they were only firing from 30 feet up, and even though they
were shooting at stationary--yes, stationary--target boards.
The three riflemen in the test were named Miller, Hendrix, and
Staley.
(Their first names were never given.) In the first series, Miller
took
4.6 seconds to fire three shots, Staley took 6.75 seconds, and
Hendrix
took 8.25 seconds. In the next series, Miller took 5.15 seconds,
Staley took 6.45 seconds, and Hendrix took 7 seconds. It bears
repeating that Oswald ? would have had only one attempt, only one
series. Oswald ? supposedly scored two hits out of three shots, yet
Miller, Hendrix, and Staley missed the head and neck area of the
silhouettes 20 out of 21 times.
Nearly all lone-gunman theorists argue that Oswald? would have had as
much as 9 or even 10
seconds, not just 6 seconds. However, in order to give their single
shooter that much time, these WC supporters must assume he COMPLETELY
MISSED, not only Kennedy, but the entire huge presidential limousine,
with his first and closest shot, that is, that he missed such a
gigantic target from 60 feet up and from less than 140 feet away. Even
the WC balked at the idea that its lone gunman would have missed so
badly with his first and closest shot. Said the commission,
On the other hand, the greatest cause for doubt that the first shot
missed is the improbability that the same marksman who twice hit a
moving target would be so inaccurate on the first and closest of his
shots as to miss completely, not only the target, but the large
automobile. (WARREN COMMISSION REPORT, p. 111)
Of course, the single-assassin shooting scenario must assume that the
supposed lone gunman completely missed the limousine with one of his
alleged three shots. It's hard to imagine how even a mediocre
marksman
like Oswald could have missed such a large target, even from 270-300
feet away, much less from 140 feet away.
2. THE SINGLE-BULLET THEORY
As mentioned, the lone-gunman theory foundationally depends on the
single-bullet theory. In a nutshell, this theory says that the bullet
that struck Kennedy in the back exited his throat and went on to
strike Governor John Connally in the back, tore through Connally's
chest, hit his right wrist, shattering a strong bone in the wrist in
the process, and ended up partially embedded in his left thigh. The
bullet that the commission claimed performed the above scenario is
officially known as Commission Exhibit 399, which is usually
abbreviated as CE 399.
Simply put, no bullet has ever done the same amount of damage
attributed to CE 399 and emerged in the same condition as CE 399. In
the commission's own wound ballistics tests, bullets that were merely
fired into cotton wadding suffered more visible damage than CE 399,
and bullets that were fired into animal chests emerged clearly more
damaged than CE 399. The 1992 All-American Television wound ballistics
test directed by Dr. Cyril Wecht likewise contradicted the single-
bullet theory. In this test a 6.5 mm Carcano bullet was fired into two
gelatin blocks. The second block contained animal bones to simulate
the shattering of a rib bone and the smashing of a wrist bone. The
bullet transited the first gelatin block and penetrated deep into the
second block. It emerged markedly more deformed than CE 399.
Some Material From --- Michael T. Griffith
Life is rather like a tin of sardines - we're all of us looking for
the key.
--- Alan Bennett