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My $100 s16 high speed camera


Kristian Schumacher

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Hi all,

 

Just thought I´d share one of my camera projects with you. I had a really hard time getting info about this camera when I first got it, but got it running and have now done my kitchen-table-hack-job-s16mm-conversion. It looks a bit rough - gaffer tape to seal light leaks and so on, but seems to work perfectly up to 300 fps. Just as the people at Alan Gordon, I found that the camera would chew up the film at higher speeds than that. This is of course because I have removed one pull down claw and half the sprockets.

OK, so with power supply, tools and so on it cost more than 100$ - and quite a few hours - but I enjoyed it and hopefully some camera DIY-guys on this board will as well.

 

Shot a short demo of the camera here:

 

http://vimeo.com/8411288

 

Kristian

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Nice!!!

But it only works with daylight spools, right?

Would be stoked to see footage shot with it!!

Thanks,

 

 

No, it can take up to 400 ft on a core. The takeup I think needs to be on a 400 ft daylight spool. I made a little core adapter myself, and it worked fine to feed off. I haven´t tried take-up to a core, and don´t see the need. I have since got hold of a core adapter that is a bit more sturdy than the one I made myself. I used a 400 ft spool the first (and only) time I used the camera - that was before my s16 conversion. Just had to remember to get that spool back from the lab to use again.

The first footage didn´t come out that nice, but that wasn´t the camera´s fault ;-) That was also before I got the power supply working properly, so it only ran a bit under 200fps. I can still upload some short clips from the r16 footage to give you an idea. The image was at least rock-steady - and in spite of using regular perf film, not .300... I will give you the link when I have uploaded a clip to Vimeo.

I am making an underwater housing for it now - mainly for nature stuff, but I may try some surfing stuff as well. Fun-fun-fun!

 

Glad you enjoyed it,

 

Kristian

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That seems pretty hard to tread Can you do it in the bag or the dark room?

 

 

It is a bit fiddly, yes ;-) I pull out about half a meter of film, tread the mechanism in the light. Then I do the cores/spools in the change bag. A little tricky, but not at all impossible. But the order is a little different to my video demo, as both feed and take-up spools go in last and in the dark.

 

K.

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Kristian,

 

Camera and results look great. The water splash footage is nice.

 

Which sprockets did you have to remove?

 

Did you find it easy to get pin-out/wiring information for this camera?

 

Thanks from,

H.

 

 

Thanks Henri,

 

s16mm uses only perforations on one side, the right if you stand behind the camera. So the top claw and sprockets - as you look into the camera when loading - were removed.

 

Finding info about the camera was difficult until I got hold of the manuals for mine and a few other models. I have uploaded it to my server for anyone interested:

 

http://kameraundervann.no/MillikenManual.pdf

 

Wiring is as it says in the manual, pins 10 and 11. I replaced the plug on mine, using an XLR connector.

 

Thanks,

 

Kristian

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Finding info about the camera was difficult until I got hold of the manuals for mine and a few other models. I have uploaded it to my server for anyone interested:

 

http://kameraundervann.no/MillikenManual.pdf

Thank you so much for scanning and uploading that manual, and thank you too for the video showing how to load it with film - invaluable!

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Thank you so much for scanning and uploading that manual, and thank you too for the video showing how to load it with film - invaluable!

 

No worries, and I am glad you liked it. I have had so much good help from this forum getting my head around film cameras, so it is very nice if I can be of help to some too :-)

 

 

Kristian

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