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Panaflex 16 Elaine


Dave Campbell

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I've been watching some of the old British mysteries on PBS from the 80's, Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Morse. The camera listed in the credits is the Panaflex 16. I've read all of the threads about this camera, but could not find the answer to this question. Were those mysteries shot in r16 or s16? I read a thread that said the Elaines were at some point converted to s16. Does anyone know the history? :P

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I operated that camera on Silk Stalkings (USA Network) back in the 90's and it was R16. A lot of producers like(d) that camera because (with that Mag design) it (kinda) looks like it's 35mm...

 

It's a boat anchor. We used one on Land of the Lost and threading that camera is harder than threading a needle. It's a scaled down version of a 35mm so you need scaled down fingers. :blink:

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It's a boat anchor. We used one on Land of the Lost and threading that camera is harder than threading a needle. It's a scaled down version of a 35mm so you need scaled down fingers. :blink:

 

I've found that to be a problem with a lot of 16mm gear, in general. Those damned metal 100-foot 16mm metal reels are a real bear to thread too.

 

I'd say 35mm is the happy medium for a film size. When you go up to 70mm, they you run into problems with film bowing and keeping it flat.

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Sat Jan 23rd is King Baby opening up for Eric Sardinas.. that should be wild. Slash played there a couple nights ago and mentions it on facebook. I'll e you a track from King Baby. If any one else from Cinematography.com is in LA just let me know. You can thank Tim Tyler as without this forum few of us would know each other :)

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I started my telecine colourist career in 92 at Complete video in London. At the time S16mm was just starting to get popular for music promos and any project where letterboxing was desirable. We did one series for the BBC which was shot S16mm, but framed and letterboxed half way between 1.33 and 1.66.

 

As far as the Inspector Morse series I would imagine the early series from the 80s and 90s would have been standard 16mm. They are on tv here all the time and would have been remastered if they had been shot S16 and the framing worked.

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  • 1 month later...

I used the Panaflex-16 (Elaine) on Tales from the Darkside, The Wonder Years and Dark Justice. I think it is a great camera and never had any problems threading it or any other problems.

 

David E. Elkins, SOC

Camera Operator

Author - The Camera Assistant's Manual

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I've been watching some of the old British mysteries on PBS from the 80's, Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Morse. The camera listed in the credits is the Panaflex 16. I've read all of the threads about this camera, but could not find the answer to this question. Were those mysteries shot in r16 or s16? I read a thread that said the Elaines were at some point converted to s16. Does anyone know the history? :P

 

AFAIK Inspector Morse was the first use of the Elaine for UK TV.

 

These productions were late 80's and early 90's.

 

I've no idea how much of this stuff was actually shot on S16. There was a lot of talk about shooting S16 at various points in the UK TV history but the film was generally edited on stadard def video in 4:3. despite all the talk of future prooofing. The stuff that is available now is generally off those old video tapes. It's rare that they re-transfer anything off the original film. In some cases it may even be that the negs were junked. Hopefully not but the UK doesn't have a great history with that kind of thing. I would guess these were standard 16 tho.

 

I assume you are reffering to the Jeremy Brett version of holmes. Probably the best holmes ever and the last quality production I remember coming out of the decaying ITV network. You are very lucky if you are getting to watch that at the moment. It was a Granada production wheres Morse was produced by Zenith for central.

 

I don't think the Elaine was that common but obviously it got an outing on some high quality ITV productions.

 

Sorry I don't know much more than that.

 

love

 

Freya

Edited by Freya Black
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The Super-16 aspect ratio of 1.66:1 doesn't match 4:3 TV. So there was no point using it before widescreen TV.

 

The EU 16:9 action plan dates to around 92/93 and there was a big push for 16:9 at that time in exchange for EU subsidies. However this would still be very late in the lifetimes of these series.

 

Widescreen TV does date back to the late 80's however when the TV standards DMAC and D2MAC were created to allow 16:9 transmissions. However the DMAC based bsb system was not a huge success due to competition from sky with it's PAL based system.

 

I suspect it was more into the mid 90's before the push for 16:9 became popular. So I'm guessing it's almost certain that these shows were shot on standard 16. However having said that I was quite shocked to note that some of the later Inspector Morse DVD's are 16:9 but strangely still with mono sound!

 

I think the Inspector morse series probably switched overto S16 late in it's life however.

 

love

 

Freya

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