What causes flicker in film

Ryan Fleet · March 30, 2018

Im not talking about light flicker - Im talking about film not having what looks like a constant exposure. Ive seen this on transfers from the same model cameras. One looks steady and the other flickers I dont get it.

Is this caused by the camera not being in good shape or is it a transferring issue?

Edgar Nyari · March 30, 2018

I once had a bad roll that flickered due to uneven x-ray damage. I've also seen footage flickering caused by a faulty camera that couldn't maintain a steady speed.

Tyler Purcell · March 31, 2018

There are lots of variables in your question. Camera, stock, processing, telecine, playback system, I mean it could be a lot of things. Film stock is pretty consistent and any professional lab will be too. So at that point, it's really down to the camera.

I'd love to see the samples you discussed, it would be easy to determine the problem.

Ryan Fleet · April 1, 2018

Here is a sample of what Im talking about

This shot with the super 16 K-3 on Kodak vision 3 50D that has a flicker

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LtQ5g2Udk1g

Here is another super 16 K-3 short on Kodak vision 3 250D that looks really clean

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qk--YGrMJIQ

David Cunningham · April 1, 2018

To me that looks like ever so slight variations in the film speed in the camera likely caused by tension in the film path somewhere. You can see that the flicker also appears to correlate with some slight frame registration jitter.

Those cameras are very cheap and simple cameras with very little registration precision. Something like a Bolex with a trailing arm, a well tuned ACL or a pin registered Arri is not going to have those issues. But they are also $1K,$2K or more cameras. Not $100 cameras.

David Cunningham · April 1, 2018

To answer the question... camera is probably in need of a tuneup or was loaded wrong.

David Cunningham · April 1, 2018

Another thing about those K-3s. They were infamous for film path issues, especially faulty loop formers. Most rebuilds usual take the loop formers out all together and make the loader manually make the loops... which takes some paying attention to what youre doing.