Patrick Cooper

I assume you would have similar problems when mounting 35mm still lenses from other brands on an Arriflex but don't quote me on that. Do you have access to a K3? You could pick up some cheap Takumar lenses for this Russian camera. Ive got a Takumar 200mm and a Tamron 400mm for my K3. Both lenses cost me very little.

Congrats Clive! Transferring frame by frame in real time sounds very attractive. Out of curiosity, does the built-in video camera have a close-up lens or 35mm format lens to magnify the 16mm frame to fill the ccd? Also, what tape format does the camera use? I'm assuming MiniDv?

I'm assuming this is the Fuji Eterna 250D that you were considering using from the other post? Well I can see that this film stock certainly delivered in terms of vibrant, punchy colours. I especially like the vivid green in the second to last and third to last shots! I do notice a bit of grain in the stills, or is that noise from the transfer? Out of curiosity, did you expose this film normally or did you overexpose slightly? Also, what lens, or lenses, did you use?

I'm very curious about a compact Russian 16mm movie camera called an Alpha 16. There is very little information about this camera on the Internet but from what I can gather, it has a reflex viewfinder, has a few different running speeds including 24fps, and some versions of the camera have an interchangeable C mount. I do know there is a version that has a fixed lens. How reliable is this camera generally - ie is an Alpha 16 in good working order usually free from film jamming and scratching etc? Also, how steady is the footage produced by such a camera? Obviously, it wouldn't have a registration pin but there are many movie cameras lacking a registration pin that have remarkably good registration. Does the Alpha 16 C mount version have single frame? If so, are single frames exposed with a regular cable release? When doing time lapse with a K3, it is recommended not only to cover the viewfinder but also to cover the lens between exposures if the interval time is considerably long. Is it necessary to cover the lens of the Alpha 16 between exposures when doing single frame shooting?

"It says that some 35 mm slr lenses will cover the full 16mm frame. Can you recoomend any wide angle ones that will not distort the image? Any info on this would be so appreciated." All 35mm format lenses will cover the Super 16mm frame. As has already been mentioned with regards to wide angles, the Peleng 8mm is one possible choice for the M42 screw mount version of the K3. Actually, it is one of the very few choices. Unfortunately, most of the wide angle lenses designed for 35mm still photography will not produce much of a wide angle view when mounted on a 16mm camera. For example, although 20mm would be considered quite wide on a 35mm still camera, on 16mm it would not be that much wider than a 25mm 'standard lens'. Yes, Pentax did manufacture an ultra wide angle 17mm Takumar lens with an M42 mount but this is the same focal length as the wide angle setting of the 17-69 Meteor lens that is supplied with the K3 - which is not very wide at all on 16mm film.

My gosh! I am really surprised! As telecine is such a significant part of the industry nowadays, I thought the 1993 edition at least would have a chapter on this topic.

Many people consider polarisers to give a slightly cool look to images. The combined use of a warming filter may be beneficial in reducing this 'cool' look and balancing things out.

I'm assuming that the latest editions of the American Cinematography Manual have detailed sections on telecine. However, do any of the 1980s editions cover telecine - for example the 1986 edition?

Agreed. The Black Stallion was a beautifully photographed film. I liked the close up of the stallion carving held in the boy's hand with the real horse running along the hillside in the distant background, among many other shots. The escape from the burning ship was certainly dramatic. I was fortunate to see that film at the cinema.

Good luck on your endeavour on building an intervalometer for your K3. I admire your resourcefulness and your plan to keep things 'on the cheap.' However, the prototype does look like a bomb! You may have to be careful when using it for time lapse shoots near major buildings....!

I just saw this film two nights ago - very 'poetic' for use of a better word. I see a lot of thought and effort has gone into the compositions - very aesthetically pleasing and classical. Slow motion was certainly a 'tool' that was used dominantly in the battle scenes, and I must say was used to great effect. At times it was almost like watching a choreographed ballet as Leonardis dispatched his foes one by one with rhythmic precision. The almost brown / sepia look to the film was unusual though I can't really say whether I liked this look or didn't like it. However, with some shots of the wheat grass, the combination of the light colours and the grain tended to make the images just a little bit too soft looking for my liking. I had no problems with the acting that others had complained about. I was actually quite impressed by the woman playing Leonardis' wife and queen - and she was beautiful too, and a strong spirited character - one of the gems of this film. What didn?t work for me was the use of heavy metal music when the Persian ships were crashing - most inappropriate! I think people should take note from watching Kull the Conqueror which made the mistake of using heavy metal music to accompany the sword fights. I hate to say this but the digitally created wolf looked more than a little fake, as did the CGI seagull that flew off the top of a spear after one of the battle scenes. At the time, I couldn't help but think that a real wolf could have been used in that early scene. The wolf and the boy could have been shot seperately, then there could have been a tightly framed shot of the wolf lunging through the air (jumping on command) followed by the shadow of the wolf speared on the cave wall as was done in the film. Afterall, a real wolf will always look more menacing than a digital one! Overall, in regards to the cinematography, you have done great work, Larry Fong!

Oh another film that didnt really work was Kull the Conqueror. I admit that this film 'looks' very good. Great looking set designs, locations and special effects and Tia Carrere was hot as usual - but that was all there was to it. Despite all the attractive visuals, the film was very flat. I wouldnt say that it was a bad movie - I would call it average. Plus incorporating heavy metal music in the fight scenes was probably the worst idea in the history of bad ideas. As Kull was a character developed by Robert.E.Howard, the man who came up with Conan, I was expecting to see a film like Conan the Barbarian. In no way did it compare to Conan the Barbarian.

I wasnt aware that the sony vx2000 had interchangeable lenses. At the time of that camera's release, I thought that the Canon XL1 was the only minidv prosumer camera to have interchangeable lenses...of course I could be wrong.

"I'm interested > whats the use of making a comparison of markets ?" Well super 8 is often referred to as a tiny market whose future is uncertain. Indeed, it's existance seems to be hanging by a thread and for decades, people have been predicting whenabouts the format will meet it's demise. Despite all this, what I find quite remarkable is that there are probably more people shooting this supposed 'amateur / home movie' format than people shooting a large guage professional format that was used to create some of the biggest epic movies in cinema's history. Oh well - that's just me thinking out loud.

Ive got a takumar 200mm and a tamron 400mm and they work fine on the K3. The only thing is that the takumar won't focus on infinity so I might have to get that lens adjusted by an expert oneday.

Armaggedon - it had a great beginning - the fragments of meteors falling to the earth and causing damage was very well executed and photographed. However, the film took a nose dive as soon as 'the crew of miners' arrived on the scene to save the planet. From that point onwards it was just a series of bad jokes. There were a number of times in this film when a particular formula was used that got very tiresome very quickly where some major disaster would nearly extinguish the life of the crew and then they are saved from death and one of them would predictably respond with a corny one-liner. Entrapment Intersection (extremely boring) Amistad

How well does she remember colours?

Rest easy David. A friend of my family had a hernia a few years ago though due to the specific treatment he had, he was instructed not to laugh for a certain period of time.

"You might want to try a different cable release. I had a K3 timelapse shoot where I had to go through about a dozen different cable releases before one of them worked." True, it could be the cable release. Then again, this same cable release works perfectly fine when screwed into the shutter release button. When screwed into the socket on the back of the camera, it feels odd how the pin only goes in a very short distance - almost like something is obstructing it. "By the way, what tripod are you using with your K3/telephoto lens setup? I ended up using my little Bogen 3021 legs and 701RC2 head, and at 200mm, the image was very wobbly." I'm using a Slik tripod which is fairly sturdy, not super heavy duty, but fairly sturdy. It's fine for use with my 200mm lens. With the 400mm lens mounted, I can get some reasonably steady footage as long as I don't touch the camera too much.

Al Pacino 'Carlitos Way' (and just about any other film with Al Pacino) Richard Dreyfuss 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' Jack Nicholson 'One Flew Over the Cockoo's Nest' Robert Deniro and Christopher Walken 'The Deer Hunter' Daniel Day Lewis 'Gangs of New York'

Ebay is one such place to get a high end super 8 camera. I notice Nikon 8x Super Zooms seem to go fairly cheap on ebay - they have quite a few features and manual exposure control but not quite as feature packed as some of the high end models. Another place to get super 8 cameras dirt cheap is flea markets. It's not uncommon to find a super 8 camera with manual exposure control, single frame, slow motion etc for under $30 or $20 at a market. Make sure you bring along some AA batteries to test the camera. Be wary of some cameras that use certain types of mercury batteries for the light meter as these batteries have been banned in most countries and the replacement types do not always give accurate light readings. Unfortunately, I think the Nikon 8x Super Zoom may fall into this category - it would be good to hear from people who have had experience at using these replacement type batteries in such cameras.

"I would stick with the Kodak 50ASA 16mm stock for 16mm work with wildlife. I think you'll find the 250D too noisy." I honestly would love to shoot all the footage on Kodak 50D or Fuji 64D for the fine grain and saturated colours but it wouldn't be practical for all the shooting. For example, there would be times when I would be filming close to sunset with slow lenses. A few years ago I was shooting a water bird in late afternoon light with the 400mm lens using Ektachrome 7240 (which is rated at 80asa in daylight with an 85 filter) and I found that I was shooting with the aperture wide open. I admit that I was worried about grain with 250D but I have seen some 16mm Fuji Eterna 250T telecined with a Spirit and it looked quite clean and fine grained. "If you're shooting dolphins I would roll at 48 fps." Yes, this would produce great slow motion footage. I was considering this but also concerned about burning through film. I would like to try some fast frame rates next time. "When using a long lens with the K3 I would carry two canvas bags into the field with me. I would fill the bags with sand or rocks and drape them over the camera to reduce vibration. I works very well." Good advice! "The eyepiece needs to be covered at all times on the k3 when rolling, especially with time lapse." That is correct. "Some vibration that you see in your K3 viewfinder is caused by the imperfections of the K3 mirror, it makes the image look like it's shifting when the top and bottom parts change position." This is generally not the case in my experience with my K3. Usually during filming, the viewfinder image looks reasonably steady. The only time when there is a lot of vibration in the viewfinder is when using the 400mm lens and touching the camera and lens at the same time. Actually, there was a Tri-X film which I shot on birds in my backyard using the 200mm and 400mm lenses. I had forgotten the 'trick' involved in attaching the cable release and was pressing the shutter release button with my finger while counter-balancing the camera with my other hand. All the footage exposed with the 200mm lens looked quite steady but most of the footage exposed with the 400mm lens had quite a bit of bounce. "You can shoot time lapse with the K3 just fine using a timeflow intervolometer." Unfortunately, the single frame capability on my K3 doesn't seem to work. With the cable release attached to the rear socket, the pin only goes in a very short distance before it stops - as if it's hitting something solid.

I'm working on an ongoing project here in Australia that will likely take over two years to complete. The film is a kind of visual essay - a montage of wildlife and natural landscapes shot on 16mm film, and set to music. This project is entirely self funded and the plan is to release a dvd in the future. Armed with a Krasnogorsk 3, Meteor 17-69mm zoom, Pentax Takumar 200mm and Tamron 400mm lenses, I have recently exposed my first 100 feet of Fuji Eterna 250D for the project. I have yet to see the results. The first 50 feet of film was exposed on a school of dolphins which I filmed from several vantage points on rocky terrain. Due to the bright light of early afternoon, I used an ND filter on the Takumar 200mm lens which brought the 'effective' asa speed down to 50asa. Dolphins are very challenging subject matter to film - particularly in regards to focussing. The light conditions made matters difficult too - the light would constantly change from full sun to light cloud to heavy cloud and back again. Often, there was no time to take a light reading as lighting conditions would change every 10 - 25 seconds. Initially, I took light readings for each of the three light conditions and then estimated my exposures from that point on. To add to the challenges, I noted that whenever the dolphins swam past me in one direction or the other, the horizon would no longer be horizontal in my viewfinder as I followed them with the camera. So each time the dolphins swam to the left and to the right of center, I had to readjust the left or right tripod leg so that everything looked reasonably level in the viewfinder frame. Occasionally, the dolphins would stop playing in one area and move to another area. At this point, I would pick up the camera and Slik tripod together and briskly rush over to the new location and recommence filming. On one of these occasions, I had to make my way down a rocky slope and set up on a rock which had only just enough space for myself and my tripod. I will never forget one particular moment on that day - I had just focused on a dolphin swimming along and when I was just about to close down the aperture, the dolphin jumped out of the water and across the viewfinder frame - my gosh, that would have made great footage. Several days later, a flock of galahs had congregated in a tree. I framed two of the birds and the surrounding branches made a nice composition in the viewfinder with the pink and white feathers of the galahs illuminated by late afternoon lighting. I used the 400mm lens. However, with this particular lens, vibration is a huge problem - all it takes is a little light touch to the camera or the lens and the image in the viewfinder goes all shakey. I made sure that I did not touch the camera or the tripod while filming the galahs. I used a cable release and when eyeing the viewfinder, made sure that my face wasn?t physically touching the rubber eye cup. Yet while I was filming the galahs, I could see shakiness in the viewfinder and I couldn't understand why at the time. I realised afterwards that when I put my eye to the viewfinder, my hat touches the top of the camera and this causes vibration. I was wearing a hat as it was quite sunny despite being close to sunset but I just did not realise at the time that the hat was touching the camera while filming. A little later, I had four galahs in my viewfinder though I was struggling to find focus. I removed my hat so that I wouldn?t have problems with vibration again but the sun went behind a thick cloud and never came out again. There was not enough light to film so I had to make do with the earlier vibration-affected footage of the galahs. As I haven?t been able to view the footage as yet, I don?t know how bad the vibration is but I have heard about an anti-shake plug in available for virtual dub. With this software tool, I hope that I can make the footage useable. A little later down the track, I plan to pick up a Bolex H16, preferably with Switar lenses, for some time lapse work.

"The slow motion shot of the shark bursting out of the water for a kill was shot in 35mm." Gee..that is a surprise to hear that. That particular footage looked very 'videoish' to me, even more video-like than the snow leopard sequence. Regardless, it was amazing to see anyway.

"...and that is the stock Meteor zoom that came standard with the camera." My gosh! Ive heard that there have been issues with quality control at the factory that made these cameras and lenses and depending on your luck, you can get a K3 with a good lens or a not so good lens. It's been a while since Ive viewed footage exposed with my Meteor 17-69 lens but I do recall that the images were quite sharp and crisp but I don't think they had the kind of 'snap' that I see in your top still image. Though perhaps the film stock is a factor here too.