Nicholas Kovats

Wow. The subtle and varying shades of black on the dress are most impressive! And how the shadow has sharpened. Those are classic Kodachrome skin tones. Would you agree that film transport (velocity) is another factor in the overall film resolution? My girlfriend reaction was interesting. She was not so impressed as I was. I suspect motion picture still frames do not meet most people's expectations of a "high quality" still photo. But I am beginning to understand the "uniqueness" of both mediums. Excellent work!

What a lovely mysterious and evocative frame. I am intrigued. I am also impressed that this jpg represents a "percentage" of the larger Super 8 frame. Good work, Carl.

I appreciate your detailed response Carl. I am in the process of constructing a 64 bit Windows 7 partition in my quad core i7 iMac such that I can upgrade to the new 64 bit Sony Vegas editor...which has been my workhorse. I would like to also implement the new 64 bit Adobe CS5 suite on the MAC OSX side to start experimenting with 64 bit color space. Apparently the new real time media processor in both the editor (Premiere) and color processing (After Effects) is superlative. I must say though that I am not enamored of color correcting this pinkish K40 cast. As I previously stated I will eventually re-shoot this footage with fresh stock. I also wish to start experiments with converting my Vision2/3 "fine-grained" negatives into black and white. There has been no new b/w film stock development in over 30 years. Why not take advantage of these new stocks as did my two 35mm reference points? Martin Ruhe's cinematography in "Control" and Roger Deacons drop dead gorgeous film noir cinematography in "The Man Who Wasn't There". How's your 3.5 K binary development coming along? Did the Leicina arrive safely? Stay tuned for the K40 footage...

Well the 5x test K40 cartridges finally arrived back from Dwaynes' yesterday. I will transfer this eventually but I could not resist a quick peek in my Hamel (?) 1001 S8 viewer. First the negative. Though apparently cold stored for 30+ years the reversal footage displays a pinkish cast. I was hoping for classic K40 dense blacks as these bicycle mounted Leicina Special w/ 10mm Cinegon time exposures were made at night. Is there a software "negative" filter available that can remove or minimize this? I am planning to reshoot all this in warmer weather with fresh stock. Maybe E100D? How is 100D's density regarding night time blacks? And now the positive! The Leicina time exposure technique w/ approx. 3 secs exposure per frame is quite spectacular. The light points represented by the car headlights, street lamps...dance, vibrate...and a phenomenon I call highly energized "jaggies"...due to the vibrations transmitted by the road surface/bicycle. It's as if the famous hand painted films of Norman McLaren at the NFB were morphed into some frantic electrified source of crazy energy! There is a fascinating roughness to the technique that is pure analog in nature. How the hell could I even replicate this with a HDSLR? It is a bit overwhelming visually when "manually" played back at approx. 24fps. My intentions are to slowdown the playback to about to 3-5fps in my NLE. Well, the proof is in the pudding and I will post some examples over next few months. Cheers!

Gareth, This is a great idea and good luck with this. By "bond" I assume you are referring to a equipment deposit? I have been thinking along similar lines with my multitude of equipment. It seems a shame to be under utilized. However, I would cringe if any of it was used and abused considering the time, money and painstaking effort to acquire these mythical camera obscura. :) But I suspect most of your all metal Canons will be up to the task on hand.

I believe the simplicity is an illusion, Pav. The Mekel utilizes a 1970's era digital servo feedback loop system to synchronize both claws, registration, tension arm, etc. Plus the precision machining is not trivial. In general the tolerances for syncronizing film transport, shutter, claw, etc is considerable even at the scale of Super 8 camera machining.

I am looking forward to my copy. Hurry up Canada Post!

Andy. Can you please post details of your video tap setup? Camera? Machined adapter? etc? Vincent. The Leicina is a serious box like scientific research camera. Robust, durable and built like a precision tank albeit with the worst designed handle ever. Not for human operators anyway. But the thing mounts almost anywhere. I had it recently mounted on my bike for Kodachrome time exposure shots. I love the clarity of the minimalist cross hair viewfinder. Tack sharp and as bright as the optic attached to it. The 10mm Cinegon combo will produce what appears to be 16mm film footage levels of resolution. . The slightly concave (ceramic?) film channel provides horizontal and vertical stability during film transport. The STI battery/intervalometer really shows of the electro-mechanical shutter allowing 0.5 sec to 3 min plus exposure times. Your stuck with default Euro 25 fps. But this loud beast was not built for sync sound. The Beaulieu is a much more comfortable handheld instrument. Sync sound S8 eh? In fact the belt driven Nizo 6080 is the way to go for quiet sync sound work. Check this 6080 sync example, i.e. This filmmaker simply pulled the non sync audio into "sync" by slipping the audio track in a NLE. Brilliant and simple.

Thank you Carl. It was lovely and quiet. And yours? Thanks for the calculations. By the way where did you get the S8 frame height? i.e h=5.3467? SMPTE? Such 4 decimal precision. :) By the way did you happen to come across my new project on the "other" forum? I revived an 8 year old thread and I call it native 8mm spherical Cinemascope. :)

Thanks for your posting of your rare anamorphic beast. However this anamorphic produces a 1.5x compression not the 2x factor Carl has calculated above. What is attractive about your setup is that I suspect ISCO internally matched up their anamorphic front end with the 10mm Schneider prime lens elements fairly well. Unlike the adhoc setups we are discussing. Do you have any test footage you can share with this group?

What a superb documentation of your Kodachrome film making efforts, Ignacio! And you edited this by hand? I am impressed with your dedication to your craft. Your wonderful Kodachrome record would be an excellent candidate for Super 8 digital signal processing as per recent posts on this forum. It would be interesting to extract the K40 fundamental particles (which are less than 1 micron in size) to fully exploit the color, luminance and resolution of K40. I am inspired to test my own ZC1000 + 10mm Cinegon + 2x Kowa combo. More and more, the 10mm Cinegon seems to be an excellent high resolving workhorse for this tiny format that could. I cannot wait to see my recent albeit experimental K40 results utilizing the 10mm Cinegon + Dwyanes.

Chris, I believe you are referring to the rare Beaulieu Super 8mm anamorphic c-mount lens with a 10mm prime taking lens which I believe was a Schneider optic possibly Cinegon. The anamorphic front taking lens was an Isco product.

Are there any remaining copies left?

Carl, Can you provide greater specifics re: your 2x anamorphic attachment? The majority tend be 16mm projector optics. My Kowa/Bell Howell 2x has roughly a 58mm rear thread. Here is my sketch of a proposed adapter to mate generic front thread prime lens with 2x front anamorphic adapters, i.e. http://picasaweb.google.com/nkovats/AnamorphicAdapterProject#5189281243088741858 Which was translated into a CAD/CAM prototype by a Prof. Richard Kinch, i.e. http://www.truetex.com/kovats2.pdf Here is a simple test utilizing a Beaulieu 4008 + C-Mount 8-64mm Angenieux + step up ring + 2x Kowa/Bell Howell anamorphic. The actual 2x anamorphic uncompressed factor in conjunction with the 1.33 S8 aspect ratio resulted in a "Super" widescreen aspect ratio roughly equivalent to 2.66. I forget the focal length cutoff point as reported by my shooter. Note the anamorphic skew, i.e. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrvQCV2kfn4 I have the 10mm Cinegon. I suspect that it may work and I might be tempted to completed this project + setup but I have once again been seriously distracted by my proposed native spherical 8mm 1:2.4 Cinemascope project. :) Not a heavy anamorphic adapter in sight, no skew, no alignment, nada. However I might change mind again considering how much I admire classic anamorphic originated bokeh.

Edward, Snide, derogatory and impractical references to $3,900 US Zeiss lens not withstanding your 10mm Cinegon is an amazing piece of highly correct optics. I have experienced remarks to the effect that my footage looks like "miniature 16mm". Vision 200T looks amazing. Plus-X (if you can locate stock) is tack sharp and positively glows. Here is some practical advice regarding adapting an old 35mm eye cup to accommodate the larger diameter chamois from the "other" forum, i.e. "The R10 has a simple slotted* cylindrical eyepiece that extends from the body of the camera about half an inch or more. This is an ideal design to work with. A fine technician at a local camera & lighting rental house gave me a ripped 35mm camera rubber eyecup. The chamois fits on that. Cut a plastic (width of slot*) disk to fit the rubber cup over. Cut a round hole in the center of the disk, not the diameter of the eyepiece, but of the slot*. Cut from edge of disk to center hole on one side. Now the disk can be twisted to fit in the slot*. Mine was still a bit loose, so I slipped a big fatty slot-car slick tire over the eyepiece first, to push the disk solid against the facing wall of the slot*. Rubber washers would do the job of the big fatty." Whilst some users are deliriously happy resting their superior foreheads on the badly designed Leicina Battery case...I am not. I am presently engaged in cold weather cinematography as opposed to hyperbole...whereby my Leicina is mounted on my bicycle via a Manfrotto Super Grip /Ballhead setup...and the logical placement of my external ST1 battery pack/controller is in my polartec inner layer pocket absorbing body heat and keeping relatively warm. I am utilizing Lithium batteries. The LS shutter is well engineered and capable of automated time exposures. I am presently utilizing 3 sec exposure per frame with a 0.5 sec frame interval. Times are approximate. Another key design quirk reproduced across the entire Leicina line of R8/S8 cameras is the perpendicular plastic stick also known as a "handle". Resting ones superior forehead on the extended battery casing does not alleviate the displeasure of holding this handle at 90 degrees perpendicular for extended periods of time due to the all metal design and weight of this otherwise excellent camera. In contrast to my other cameras, e.g. Fujica ZC1000, Bauer 715Xl and Beaulieu 6008 Pro, etc...their designs compensate correctly for the camera weight offset and the human wrist by designing their respective handles/grips at a more natural 45 degrees. They are much more enjoyable and comfortable to handhold. I guess Leitz skimped on "improving" the handle or there was an abundance of incredibly well muscled German and Dutch wrist testers. :) "Ya. I can hold eet fore a veeery long time. Pleeeze ignore da purple bruising..ya" Enjoy your recent excellent purchase and keep on shooting Super 8 film!

Edward, Congrats on the purchase of a fine machine. Why don't you treat yourself to a new, cheap and hygienic chamois eye piece? I can't measure my Leicina Special eyepiece at the moment but one of the listed diameters should work, i.e. http://www.filmtools.com/eychamsmal.html And yes, the rear battery/forehead "rest" design failed camera engineering design 101. :) It's worth the money to find the associated ST1 controller to power the LS remotely and thereby removing this intrusive battery casing.

Ruman, If you already have an iPhone, iPod Touch or even better an iPad (10.1 in screen) you can purchase a cheap slate app from the Apple store... ...traditional b/w chalk slate http://iphoneapplicationlist.com/2009/10/31/grats-film-slateclapboard/ ...or a more modern big RED LED time code slate, i.e http://nikicaligiuri.wordpress.com/2010/06/08/ipad-and-iphone-film-slate-app/ The technique requires a few feet at the head of the shot, whether you are shooting handheld or are tripod based and/or short audio sync sequences, i.e. 1. Zoom into slate + focus. 2. Pull back to preselected frame + focus. Digital editors will allow you to "slip" your recorded audio back and forth until you achieve audio + visual sync. If you wish to escalate farther when recording more complicated or extended dialouge you may wish to consider the following pieces for a cheap but I must emphasize theoretical LTC timecode setup. 1. Use the "wild" Nizo (non-crystal sync)as a master time reference via the Nizo PC digital contact switch. I believe it outputs 1000 HZ per frame. 2. A cheap handheld sound recorder that slaves to LTC timecode. 3. An example of cheap LTC time code generator ($3.99 US) for the iPhone/iPad, e.g. http://jumpstartltc.com/jumpStart/home.html and it's associated video tutorial, i.e http://jumpstartltc.com/jumpStart/video.html So in effect the audio recorder continuously self corrects it's speed "chasing" master sync reference supplied by the NIzo. Some techies may object to this method as it technically introduces slight audio variances. But this concern may be mote in this day and age of digital PLL (Phase Locked loop) motors incorporated in digital audio recorders. Or whatever the current digital phase loopback/feedback implementation. Additional escalation may include crystallizing your Nizo for more accurate motor speeds(less drift) and reduced variance in pulse output. As per my note above it is not necessary to "crystallize" modern digital audio recorders. But again I must state that is theoretical and is presented for consideration and expected refinement by the global DIY S8 community. :)

Pav, This is one my favorite sync sound S8 films! Well done. The characters + dialogue were believable and the hand held camera was not erratic. It felt like an early 1990's Dutch dogma/cinema verite trilogy I had seen previously. Simple idea executed well.

Great first effort, David! Keep it up. Have you considered shooting S8 color negative? i.e. Vision 3 200T. Not as contrasty but way more latitude. I have even exposed it at 400 ASA at f/11. Beautiful stock. Colors are more muted. But human skin tone is gorgeous. And the new Vision 3 has even a finer grain structure than the previous Vision 2 version.

Edward, That 10mm Cinegon is one hell of a highly corrected lens. Tack sharp. I have had two in my life. In fact I was utilizing my 10mm Cinegon + Leicina Special last evening mounted on my bicycle. I am currently embroiled in a project utilizing the ST1 controller whereby each frame is exposed for 3 seconds with a frame interval approximately 0.5 s per frame. f/ Some users of this lens have stated that this specific Super 8 format lens is one of the best ever manufactured. Specifically Leitz "corrected" the original Schneider design. Plus-X looks like 16mm footage. Even at f/2.8 my V200T pushed to 4000 ASA is gorgeous. So from my perspective any other lens w/ the exception of some of the focal lens re: the Schneider 6-66mm Leica M Bayonet zoom...are a step down. The Dygon Leica lens you queried is actually for the Standard 8 format in a non-standard screw thread meant for Leica's earlier Standard 8 camera from the early 60s. Cheers! Nicholas

Carl, Please post these on the Super 8 Digital Signal thread on the other forum. These are great as a point of comparison and illustrate your previous scan type references perfectly!

Your Aussie mates bike adventure sounds very interesting? Did he utilize S8 or 16mm? Can you please respond to my PM on the other forum? Cheers!

Carl, I did end up riding my bike in the cold this evening for a total of 41 km. I shot approximately 34-40 ft of K40 with two variances, i.e. 2 or 3 secs per frame. My base reference for K40 time exposures is my film "Silly Billy" shot in 1994, i.e. exterior (nighttime)/interior (dim tungsten lighting) approx. 3 seconds per frame. Unfortunately the Manfrotto Super Grip is not ideal. The 3/8, 1/4 inch tripod bushing spigot keeps vibrating loose. I had to re-tighten it constantly. Shortcomings observed and improved mount forthcoming. The Leicina Special performed like a tank. Consistent exposures for over 2 hours in cold weather riding. It helped to have the batteries/controller underneath my jacket. Stay tuned. I am attempting to arrange local Super 8 12bit uncompressed, non-color corrected, no-pull down 2K scan as a donation to your project. Are you receiving my private messages from Filmshooting.com?

Thanks, Carl. I found the following which I will be utilizing as a reference, i.e. THE ULTIMATE EXPOSURE COMPUTER http://www.fredparker.com/ultexp1.htm Basically, i.e. ISO 50 reference (with perhaps a 1/3 stop compensation for the K40), i.e. EV = 4, i.e. Candle lit close-ups. Christmas lights, floodlit buildings, fountains, and monuments. Subjects under bright street lamps. Chart recommendation re: exposure factors, i.e. 1. f/5.6 aperture w/ 4 second exposure per frame. 2. f/4.0 aperture w/ 2 second exposure per frame. So my initial guesstimate reference point of 3 seconds per frame at my preferred shooting aperture was not too far off. However I will still vary my exposure times across multiple takes to effectively "bracket" my experimental exposures.

Michael, I somewhat agree. This thread has degenerated into extreme negativity which has poisoned the original posters' intention, i.e. generate some respectful and thoughtful discussion on the technical merits of a new Super 8 camera system. But unfortunately for the discussion it has regrettably triggered deep anxieties(?) amongst a few unfortunate souls. How "dare" we dream, postulate, theorize or actually implement new uses for the little format that would not die? Passionate defenses are to be expected but the rigidity of some minds is quite telling. In the spirit of collaboration and knowledge transfer the ardent craftsmen continue their work behind the scenes ...and are actively shooting amazing Super 8 motion picture film. Cheers!