Shooting close up wide angle super 8, what are the best camera options?

[Martyn Thomas]

Hi

I'm a Director looking to shoot some close quarters Super8 work and I am trying to find the best solution to this.

We will be running a SnorriCam with a Super8 camera so it needs to be a light unit (if possible) but most importantly we need wide angle options to give us maximum flexibility with such a close rig set up.

Any help is much appreciated, even if its just a database with camera lists including the lens info and weight of each option, I have not had any luck finding anything with comparisons yet.

Thanks

Martyn

[Jacob Mitchell]

This is a tough one. I imagine you would first need a super 8 camera that has an interchangeable lens like the Beaulieu or Leicina, which is c-mount, but I don’t know of any super wide Super8 lenses. A 6mm is probably easy to find but wider than that I’m not sure. Also you could maybe get a wide attachment, the 310xl and 514xl have a wide lens attachment element.

[Jacob Mitchell]

I did find some 4mm c-mount lenses out there, but haven’t seen any samples of its use on super 8. You will probably need some trial and error to find out the right combination.

[Simon Wyss]

Macro work is generally done with focal lengths a little longer than normal. With wide-angle lenses you may find yourself in trouble lighting the object, you have so little room to bring in frontal and front-side light. If that is not a problem, fine.

I think you will need an accurate focusing aid such as a microprism array or a split-image screen with the camera. That narrows the choice. There are some smallish Super-8 cameras with built-in macro facility, for example the Bolex 350 macro compact s that attaches well to supports. Closest distance I cannot tell at the moment. The 350 has just aerial view sadly.

[Tyler Purcell]

So as others pointed out C mount lens camera is your best option. 

The problem is that very few primes under 6mm were made and on the S8 format, 6mm is still not that wide. Most of those wide angle lenses are also total junk, special use security camera stuff and nothing really designed for cinema. You may be able to get away with one, but they'll not look too good. The majority of zoom lenses probably won't close focus enough to be used, so you'll have to go with a prime. Even with Macro, it's hard to nail it with a zoom because you'd be dealing with DOF issues. If you don't mind  it being slightly out of focus, maybe? I'm a stickler for focus, so perhaps if you don't mind then a standard Macro lens like the stock lens on a Beaulieu 6008 may work, but at 7mm, it's not very wide either. 

So it's close focus vs wide angle which will be your problem, along with finding a decent quality lens as well. 

[Eric Eader]

Jacob,

Don't forget "plus diopters" in front of whatever lens you use will get you very close focusing on objects closer than the lens alone--- minus diopters.

 

[Eric Eader]

Jacob,

Within limits, you can also zoom with plus diopters.

[Dom Jaeger]

Here's an old thread on wide angle Super 8, lots of options mentioned:

Depending on your shooting stop fixed-focus wide angle lenses will have a depth of field range which can be shifted to cover closer distances by shimming the back-focus.