Canon 1014 registration problem

[Bo Price]

I'm doing some primitive stop-motion animation for the credits for a short film I made. Basically just shooting a piece of paper and drawing the credits up one frame at a time.

 

I was using the Canon 1014 xls. I've used this camera a lot, and I've never had problems with it -- and I even did stop motion tests, and it worked great.

 

Only this time the footage came back ruined. It was very blurry, only coming into focus every once in awhile. It looks like the film wasn't registering properly, or wasn't at the right distance to the lens, etc.

 

Now...I was using one of those metal pressure plates -- and I was wondering if anybody has used these and had this problem? Is it possible they can move the film slightly closer or further than the optimum exposure distance and cause this?

 

I focused every credit carefully, using the split-viewer zoomed in, and then zooming out wider (which I always do). Occasionally though I took a few shots zoomed in all the way, and these looked OK.

 

So...is it also possible that the lens isn't keeping focus when zooming out? I.e. -- the focus for one focal length isn't holding correctly for another?

 

I don't think this is the case -- since the focus changes during the shots, and I'm using a remote release cable to click each frame -- and I'm not touching the camera at all between frames.

 

Anyway, any help appreciated -- I have to decide to shoot again with this camera, rent another Canon, or use a Canon Scoopic and shoot on 16.

 

Thanks,

 

Bo

[Alessandro Machi]

I haven't tracked what cameras the metal pressure plate is supposed to help with registration, which ones the result is negligible, and which ones you shouldn't use it at all in. However, it's times like these don't you wish you had removed the plate for just a couple of shots, then put the plate back in just to see if which way is better?

 

Plate in, plate out, plate in, all shots locked off on a tripod, perhaps at a wider f-stop. That is how you can tell what affect the metal plate is having.

[Mike Rizos]

I would suspect the plate, because you say your zoomed-in shots were ok. When the lens is at the wide end, depth of focus is very shallow requiring accurate film positioning(lens to film tolerance). As you zoom the lens in, depth of focus increases, and lens to film tolerance is less critical.

I recomend the testing procedure Alessandro describes.

[Alessandro Machi]

I forgot to add to make sure the viewfinder is focused to your eye.