Super 8 film on a drone

[Patrick Cooper]

I came across this tonight while I was browsing youtube: So nice to see super 8 aerial footage.

 

I didn't realise that a Mavic could lift that kind of payload.

[Doug Palmer]

Quite extraordinary.... I couldn't have imagined it taking that weight.  So my thoughts automatically went to 16mm.  I know it's been done using large drones, but maybe a very small 16mm camera like the GIC could work on this smallish drone ?   I don't know if the weight would be more than this compact S8 camera.   Interesting how the start button was activated.  I've no knowledge of drones, what kind of money are they I wonder ?

I don't think I'd fly near those wind turbines ?

[Patrick Cooper]

Woops - looks like a Mavic was only shown in the very beginning. The super 8 camera was mounted to an FPV racing quadcopter. They can be built from parts. They're usually several hundred dollars + FPV goggles.

Yea adding a 16mm camera would be awesome. Indeed - small and light would be the way to go. The GIC could be an interesting choice though it does have a high profile. A rectangular shape would be good but preferably longish rather than vertical. I wonder if one of those Kodak 16mm cameras would be light enough. 

I also recall another old 16mm camera that was small, compact and rectangular (length ways) and likely took 50 feet of film. Ive forgotten the name.

And yea I would keep away from those wind turbines too. 

 

 

 

Edited May 11, 2023 by Patrick Cooper

[Joerg Polzfusz]

Bolex 16mm camera on a drone:

 

[Nicholas Kovats]

I was about to post the same link. The Bolex went up over 6 years ago. Shot on a 100ft roll of V3 50D. Beautifully exposed considering they were drone/gimbal nerds. Ethereal how the Bolex rises into the air filming the dreamy 16mm impending storm in the desert.

[Agustin Saavedra Suau]

NICE! It would be amazing to post-process that footage, taking off some dust-scratch particles, making those high lights more darker, leaving more flat mid tones with blacker blacks in portions of the shadows, tweaking the hues of the yellows to make more color separation, maybe a bit of cyan-green on the shadows and yellow-orange in the high lights. Take advantage of all that latitud (and dynamic range) that is lost in rec 709, because it has another gamma ( dynamic film gamma) and another gamut made for projection, so is would be good to semi-manually translate that conversion. 

[dio zafi]

using 16mm and 8mm on commercials a lot!

 

fantastic work and great time!

[Darius Michael]

Very cool. Straight 8 (London) are working on a collaborative nature documentary. They screened a trailer for it at Cannes this year and there were some drone shots on Super 8 that looked out of this world (eg. a shot flying with birds).