Patrick Cooper

For years, I shot on Kodachrome 40 reversal film in super 8 and for the most part, the exposures turned out fine. I usually used the internal meter of my Canon 1014E and looked out for mid tones to take a light reading from. Kodachrome 40 is a very contrasty film stock so in high contrast scenes with both deep shadow and bright sunlight, I generally exposed for the brighter parts of the scene and let the shadows go black. I learned that the hard way with that particular film stock. I would be very careful of what grey card you select. Make sure you do some tests with it beforehand. When I first got a grey card, my exposures turned out spot on (when I shooting on 35mm slide film.) Some time later, I got hold of another grey card from a different brand and used it for a few film shoots. This included slide film that turned out severely underexposed (very dark images.) And despite trying to overexpose 16mm negative film by half a stop, the 16mm still turned out underexposed - thanks to that damn grey card. This is the only time I have ever shot 16mm negative film and it happened to be Fuji Eterna 250D (which has long been discontinued.) That grey card did me no favours at all. A very bad purchase. I threw it out after that. By the way, I have shot 16mm reversal film a few times (both colour and B&W) and they turned out well in terms of exposure. For those films, I looked out for mid tones in the scene to take a light reading from (using a 35mm SLR.) This was a Canon T70 that had a partial metering mode (almost like a spot meter but not quite as small an area to take a reading.)

Four rings? Gosh, this is certainly next level! Yea I'm sure that's going to introduce some more confusion to consumers! Ive just had a go at setting the audio levels manually on my Panasonic G7 with the Purple Panda lav microphone plugged in. Ive watched some tutorial videos and two of them recommended setting the levels to around -12db (which I did.) Playing back the test recordings on my camera, my voice sounded reasonably clear but the volume was pretty quiet (despite the camera volume being all the way up.) Perhaps that's a limitation of the playback capabilities of the camera. Unfortunately, the camera battery went flat shortly after. I'm currently charging that battery and when it's ready, I'll transfer the files to my pc and check out how quiet / loud they sound through the computer speakers. Oh by the way, at first, I thought I was setting the levels manually but in actual fact, they were being left on auto. And the sound quality was garbage. It sounded awful. After that, I realised that I had to select 'SET' and that locks the settings in place. The audio quality improved dramatically after that.

On my next attempt, I applied more pressure when inserting the TRS adapter into my Panasonic G7's 3.5mm port. I made sure it went as far in as it could go with an extra (light) push. Though it still felt slightly loose. And the mic still wasn't active. I tried a few times but no luck. I then located the packaging of my You Mic lav microphone which I bought about a year ago. I tried the You Mic with a phone and a tablet back then but had no success. The mic itself has mysteriously disappeared but the TRS adapter that it came with was still in the packaging. I connected the You Mic TRS adapter to the Purple Panda mic and that provided a more snug fit in my G7. And it also worked. Finally, the camera detected the lav mic and I was able to use it as the primary microphone (in my testing.) I guess the TRS adapter from the You Mic is a better quality one compared to the Panda adapter.

The lighting does look very naturalistic. I think you did a very good job there. Very convincing.

Balibo - featuring the real life story of journalists who were killed by armed Indonesian forces as they were taking over East Timor.

Thank you for your suggestions. I do have a theory as to why my devices are not detecting the lav microphone. I’m actually wondering if I’m pushing it in far enough. I admit I don’t have much experience with the 3.5mm audio port so I don’t know how much pressure to use. I don’t want to push the TRS adapter in too deep or too hard with my Panasonic G7 and cause damage. I’m not sure if I’m meant to give it an extra push or not when I insert it. It is slightly loose though when it’s in. When I remove the plug, it slides out really easily without any resistance.

Not a movie as such but the music video for The Human League's "Don't You Want Me" song features a fair bit of filmmaking (as well as editing.)

The audio section of the Panasonic G7 manual is quite brief. And the manual doesn't even have a picture of the camera with names of the different parts or inputs. Though I did discover the mic input and it accepts the (two ring) TRS adapter plug just fine. Though just like the tablet, the camera is ignoring the external mic and using the internal mic instead (this is pretty clear from my tests.) There is a shotgun microphone available for the G7 and you have to select the Special Mic option in the camera's menu. Though this Special Mic option is not selectable with the lav mic plugged in (I suspected that would be the case.) I did set the Mic Level Limiter to 'off' (within the menu) and the Mic Level Disp. is 'on.' And the Mic Level Adjustment is available. There aren't many other audio options in the menu other than Wind Noise Canceller. You can see the levels peak and go into the red on the camera's LCD screen when the camera and lav mic are both close to my face and I'm talking. With the camera further away at arm's length and the lav mic is close to my face, the levels are nowhere near peaking and far from red (when I'm talking.) The levels will also peak when I talk close to the camera and position the external mic far away at arm's length.

Unfortunately, I don't have headphones for this tablet. Though yea - there could be a chance that this port on the tablet is designed for headphones rather than a mic. I would prefer to use my Panasonic G7 with the mic because this camera allows manual levels adjustment for audio.

I tried the adapter that also has three rings but it won't plug into the port of the Samsung tablet. It doesn't seem to be physically compatible. I also tried some more recording tests with the original 3 ring plug but it still sounds like the internal mic in the tablet is still being used.

Very nice. Another little gem of French cinema. I bet those dogs get up to some amusing antics. Looking at my super 8 kangaroo footage again, I'm reminded a bit of Eadweard Muybridge's work on animals. It's amazing what he could achieve in the 1800s. And I assume he was photographing on glass plates at the time. It's great that many of his animal studies are available as flip books. The running cat is one of my favourites (as well as the classic galloping horse.) I think I'll likely call my flip book "Kangaroos In Motion." With regards to my hand made version, Ive just thought of an alternative to the local post office for printing options. There is an Australian franchise called Officeworks and they offer a variety of paper types for printing ranging from 80 - 300 GSM. This would certainly be a nice alternative to gluing together sheets of paper for added thickness. I'm not sure if Officeworks use inkjet printers so I'm uncertain whether if a spray would be necessary to protect the paper. I'll have to find out.

Thank you for providing these detailed diagrams. According to the specs, the mic's own plug is a TRRS. And I do see the three rings. I admit though that I find it very difficult to tell the Apple version apart from the Nokia version. They both have three rings so they look identical to me. My mic also came with another adapter that also has three rings (which looks the same as the main plug.) Perhaps I could try this three ring adapter with the Samsung tablet and see if that makes a difference.

My plug has three rings and it's still won't work. And yes, mine looks pretty much like the second picture. That's interesting to know about the two ring adapter being used for connecting mono mics to a stereo recorder. From the reading I did online, I got the impression that it was for a camera. Though it feels like it won't fit in the socket of my M4/3 camera. It would be handy to plug a mic into my camera and be able to use the manual levels adjustment for audio. Would you happen to know what kind of plug would be compatible with a camera's 3.5mm port? I gather that it's not a two ring plug (despite what online sources indicate.)

I confess that my own printer outputs very average picture quality. The images tend to very flat with subdued colours. The printer at the local post office produces much better quality pictures (especially with regards to colour and contrast.) I would definitely be making use of their printer and so would be forced to use their (regular) paper. Though as I mentioned, I will experiment with gluing two sheets of printer paper together and see if that will give me decent thickness for good flipping. Oh gosh, that's good advice about the spray. I could certainly visualise the right hand edge of each picture wearing away fast.

I just did have another recording test with the Purple Panda lav mic and my Samsung tablet. Once again, I moved the mic closer and further away as I talked. The tablet was the same distance to my face and it sounded pretty much the same. Though I also performed a test where I kept the lav mic close to my mouth but moved the tablet further away - and back again - and further away. My voice definitely sounded more distant when the tablet was moved away and the lav mic held close. This is pretty conclusive that the tablet is making use of the internal microphone instead of the lav mic.

This is the second time that Ive bought a lavalier mic. And just like the first one, this one won't work either. I tried the first lav mic with an iPhone and a Samsung tablet and it wouldn't work with either device. This second one is a Purple Panda mic. As I'm now using a later iPhone, it won't connect directly. I need an adapter which I don't have. So I was only able to plug it into my tablet. I made a few test recordings with an audio recording app which shows the audio peaking etc with a graphic display. During my testing with me talking, I moved the mic close to my face and further away (and also behind my back.) The graphic display looked pretty much the same regardless. When I played the recordings back, the loudness of my voice sounded generally the same no matter how far or how close the mic was to my mouth. This mic also comes with a TRS (two ring) adapter which supposedly plugs into a camera. According to online sources, my Panasonic G7 has a 3.5mm input socket (which is also the remote socket.) I tried to plug the Purple Panda mic in there via the adapter but it looks like it's not physically compatible. It feels like the plug on the adapter is too large to fit in. Any idea why this mic is not working with the Samsung tablet? I admit I'm not an audio expert so there might be something obvious that I'm missing out on. Batteries shouldn't be an issue because this mic doesn't have any. This is crazy bad luck that Ive purchased two lav mics and neither of them will work. Ive never used lav mics before so I have no experience with them.

Ah The Powers Of Ten! A really nice little documentary there. Great visuals which really illustrate the main concept really well. I admit that I am not familiar with the other ones. There doesn't seem to be a lot of visual examples of their work online (that I can see.) For the hand made version, I was thinking of gluing inkjet printer paper on to some white card of mine. Although this card is a little on the thin side, I'm kind of getting the impression now that it might actually be too thick for good flipping. I wonder if two sheets of printer paper glued together would give me the right kind of thickness that I need. I will definitely test that first (with cut out sections that will be the same size as my planned flip book.) I'm now considering approximately 4.5cm x 7cm.

That sounds like a great service back in the day - the processing and then binding of the flip book as a complete package. Flip books must have been quite popular back then with sufficient demand for such a service. Although my eventual plan is to use a printing company to produce a flip book with the super 8 kangaroo footage, I am considering making a home made version before that and maybe try selling it at markets (to test the waters.) Just to see if this kind of thing sells at all. I would prefer to make one with digital files extracted from the transferred footage (for convenience.) I could get a photographic lab to print out some 8 x 12 inch prints on lustre paper with each print containing a whole bunch of frames. Though the gluing on to card and the cutting of the individual frames would be a huge amount of work - just for one copy of a flip book. I am considering using around 80 frames for mine. And I don't even know at this point how well the pages would flip (with lustre photographic paper glued to card.) Lustre paper is very thin and so is the card material that I usually use to make greeting cards with. When sandwiched together, they might possibly have the right kind of thickness for good flipping (hopefully.)

Fortunately, the transfer was PAL SD so the resolution is quite decent at 720 x 576. The printing company says that the smallest size they can cut is 3.5cm so the height of the book will be close to that measurement and the width will be considerably longer. The pages of a flip book do have to be fairly wide to compensate for the binding (which actually hides quite a bit of the page.) So there will be a long section of white to the left of each super 8 frame.

I'm sure that many people here are familiar with flip books. I'm referring to those little pocket sized books which feature a sequence of images and you flip through the pages quickly to recreate the appearance of motion. Quite often, they feature animation but can also display frames from regular camera footage as well. A number of years ago, I shot some 54fps footage of kangaroos in motion on Ektachrome 64T with my Canon 1014E. One particular panning shot turned out really nice and I'm considering converting that sequence of frames into a flip book. I do regret only getting an SD transfer of this footage at the time (it was a cheaper option compared to a HD transfer.) However, I think standard definition resolution is likely adequate for the printing of the small sized pictures. And flip books are indeed very small. They're tiny. There is a local printing company in my city that do posters, books etc and I'm considering using their services to print the flip book. I'm going to try and sell copies of the book through different avenues - souvenir shops, post offices, markets and possibly online too. After doing some research, it's become pretty clear that I need to acquire an ISBN if I'm going to sell the book through retailers.

This looks awesome. Beautiful cinematography and editing. There are some killer shots in there. Very atmospheric. I can really see the Ron Fricke influence here.

The light meter above the lens on the camera in the video has a greater resemblance to my camera and the one I linked to in the Canon Museum. The light meter on the Zoom 8-2 model in the picture in the Museum looks quite different to my eyes. Then again, that part of the camera is in shadow in that picture so it is hard to make it out. Though I guess mine must be the first model in that series because I don't see a "2" or any other number in the model name on my camera.

Thanks again for the link to the manual. It's very difficult for me to read the exposure durations for the individual running speeds in the online manual because I can't currently use my reading glasses. Ive returned from surgery on my nose (removing a cancer) and there is so much blood and stuff on my nose and severe swelling nearby (under my right eye.) I can read the text on this forum okay (with a little difficulty) but those exposure durations in the manual are a little too small for me. Mark, thanks. My maths isn't the greatest.

For 64fps, the exposure duration would clearly be higher than 1/100th but not that much higher. I did have an old copy of one of the American Cinematography Manuals with a section on frame rates and adjusting your exposure but I haven't see that book around for a long time.

They list the exposure times of a few of the frame rates at the Canon Museum site but not all of them. "1/35 sec. (16 fps), 1/52 sec. (24 fps), 1/25 sec. (Single frame)"