Jump to content

Patrick Cooper

Basic Member
  • Posts

    1,106
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by Patrick Cooper

  1. Very interesting test to see how 'good' super 8 would look when transferred to 35mm via D.I. using modern slow speed stocks. Although optimal quality was attempted at every step of the way, I note that the Zeiss Sonnar lens was used at T2.8. Was this due to the tungtsen lighting not being sufficiently bright, hence the use of a frame rate of 8fps? Pity that you were not working at mid aperture but i'm sure that the results still look impressive regardless.
  2. In February of this year, I was shooting on 16mm negative film for the very first time and I have just received the film back from the lab today. Though when i opened the film can, I was surprised to see that the film was tightly wound around a core. I was expecting the film to be returned on it's daylight loading spool as with reversal films. Is this normal for negative film to come back this way? And what is the core used for? For one thing, it seems inconvenient to view the film - I wanted to take a look at several frames to check the exposure and registration but I'm worried that if i remove the film from the can, it may unwind everywhere as there is nothing to 'hold it in place.'
  3. "I've frequently found Google and yahoo to be pretty much classified ads." Agreed. That's pretty much all that's there regarding Keystone cameras. No one's started a site dedicated to Keystone movie cameras as yet. "I doubt that they have single frame and am not sure if they take cable release." I do recall one ebay seller claiming that his Keystone camera had single frame capability... "Parallax correction is not the same as a different field of view." And who said that it was? Parallax correction is a means of compensating for the difference in 'viewpoint' between the taking lens and a non reflex viewfinder when photographing at short distances or when using a long focal length lens. However, the field of view of the lens must be taken into account when designing whatever type of parallax correction the camera will be using so that the photographer has a rough estimation of what will appear on the film when composing the 'shot.' In the case of a non reflex camera with interchangeable lenses, there may be a series of different markings in the viewfinder to indicate the angle of view, as well as the amount of adjustment in composition required, for the different lenses, or in the case of some cameras, multiple 'viewfinder lenses' with markings of their own for each lens. Though with the Keystone, I was assuming there would be no standard 'frame markings', or parallax compensation markings, for very wide lenses. By the way, roughly how large is a 16mm Keystone camera?
  4. I guess this is similar to the other thread but I wanted to post several questions which were specifically about the Keystone cameras. I have tried searching Google and oddly, there is very little information regarding Keystone 16mm cameras and the various models that were produced. So I hope that some of the Keystone users can answer my questions. I am assuming that all or most models run at 24fps? I though i recall reading about a Keystone model that ran at some really odd speed - possibly a high frame rate. Which models take single perf film? And do these same models have single frame capability? I assume there is a cable release socket for single frame exposures? And if so, would any standard cable release fit? Additionally, when doing single frame shooting with a Keystone camera, is there any chance of fogging as with a K3 in single frame mode? I have heard that with a K3, it's necessary to cover the lens between exposures to reduce the chance of light leaks. Can you avoid this altogether with a Keystone with regards to singe frame shooting? Which models have interchangeable lenses? I know the ones that do use C mount. I am assuming that there is some sort of parallax compensator for the lenses that came supplied with the camera? However, what if you were to buy additional C mount primes for the camera (which were not usually supplied with the camera) such as a 10mm or 12mm wide angle - would there be any parallax correction for these lenses or would I have to make my own framing device for composing? I have heard from some people that these cameras give very steady footage and at least one person that the footage he saw with his own Keystone was comparable to a Bolex. On the other hand, i have heard of a number of Keystone cameras in poor shape that do not produce very steady footage. Would there be many people around today that service these cameras? Additionally, is it possible to service them yourself?
  5. Although I have never used a Beaulieu R16, it sounds like quite a versatile camera. Like any camera, I have heard that it has a number of advantages and disadvantages. Like mentioned above, I have heard good things about the bright viewfinder. It does have an internal light meter which many ?inexpensive? 16mm cameras lack. Though I have heard that this light meter is not that reliable in auto exposure mode (R16 owners can comment on that if they wish.) The broad range of running speeds sounds quite impressive and the top speed if 64fps for nice fluid slow motion. However, I have heard from some individuals that there is a bit of a delay before the tachometer kicks in and it gets up to speed?(I don?t know how long this delay is.) It uses C mount lenses so there is a wide variety of affordable optics for it. Of course on the other hand, a C mount can be problematic if you use long telephoto lenses without a proper lens support. I have also heard from R16 users that great care must be used to seat the gate properly when loading film otherwise all the footage will be jumpy. Additionally, I have heard from experts that the Beaulieu R16 cannot successfully be converted to Super 16 because the size of the mirror shutter is not large enough to reflect light evenly over the whole frame. While most 16mm cameras in general are quite tough and robust machines, I have heard a number of comments that Beaulieu R16s are a little bit more delicate (though some disagree.) I am sure that R16 owners can elaborate on any of these points that I have mentioned and include some points that I have missed. Another interesting thing about the Beaulieu R16 that I have noticed is that prices for this camera on the used market are all over the place. While most cameras have a particular ?value range? for which you can expect to certain amount of money, I have seen super cheap R16 prices as well as super expensive and anywhere inbetween.
  6. Looks like you're getting the hang of things! However, just a few little refinements needed. "Over expose the film by half a stop to a fullstop to reduce grain and simpley lessen the exposure once in post production, I can do that no problem." Only overexpose negative film, try to avoid doing this with reversal film! In general, I notice that people tend to overexpose negative film by about half a stop or two thirds of a stop. Overexposing a whole stop might be okay, depending on the exposure latitude of the particular film stock. Though I have heard that too much overexposure can introduce 'noise' in the telecine transfer, particularly if there are bright areas in the footage. By the way, it's the job of the telecine colourist to adjust the brightness level of the footage that has been overexposed - in relation to telecine. "since the filters reduce light coming into the lense you need to compinsate for this by allowing more light to pass through the lense." Not if it?s the correct amount of light entering the lens in the first place! It depends on if you are using an external hand held meter or the camera?s internal meter. If you were using an external light meter as discussed, yes some compensation would have to be made to counter for the light reducing effect of the filter. You would set the asa speed on the meter slower in accordance with the ?filter factor? so that the correct amount of light enters the lens to expose the film. If however, you were using a camera with a reliable internal light meter, the meter is reading through the lens so it would be ?seeing? through the filter and the exposure will be fine. So no compensation would be required in this case. ?Let talk about a Spot Meter vs an Incident Meter. what type of benefits and differences are we looking at between these 2 types of meters?? A spot meter is a type of reflective light meter that reads a small portion of the overall scene so you can be very selective about which part of the scene you want to meter. Thus if there is a lot of exceptionally dark and light areas in the scene, you can avoid your readings being influenced by those light and dark areas by pointing the spot meter at an area that you perceive to be a mid tone, excluding all the ?distracting? areas. However, occasionally, we can be fooled a little by mid tones ? for example, what might look like a mid tone may not be reflecting exactly 18 % of the light falling on it. So your exposure could on occasions be a fraction off ? not much of a problem if you are using negative film but a little bit more critical if you are shooting reversal film with it?s narrow exposure latitude. As incident readers read only the amount of light falling on the subject, theoretically they should not be ?fooled? by the colour of the subject. So there is no issues of misinterpreting mid tones here. Although I have never used an incident meter myself, I do know that you stand where your subject is (making sure that the meter is in the same light as your subject) and point the meter back at the camera. However, suppose you were filming a landscape in late afternoon sunlight ? close to sunset with long shadows. Imagine you were composing the viewfinder frame with a majestic looking mountain peak illuminated by the beautiful light. But all of the area around you is covered in shadow so an incident meter seems out of the question. And walking 2kms and scaling up the mountain to take a reading with the incident meter and then returning to the camera in the brief period before sundown does not sound very practical! So in this situation, a spot meter would allow you to ignore all the shadow areas and only select the sunlit mountain peak while standing by the camera?s side. So regarding a spot meter and an incident meter, I don?t think one would be necessarily better than the other. They both have their advantages and disadvantages.
  7. "This thread is two years old ... " Woah! Good that was pointed out. I didn't see the dates!
  8. "I was kind of leaning towards 16mm because it seems it requires more of an understanding of the medium as opposed to just pointing and shooting." Although 16mm is a great medium to work with, it should be noted that super 8 is not necessarily about 'just pointing and shooting.' True, there were some 'point and shoot' super 8 models produced, but there are also other super 8 cameras which are extremely versatile and some of these have more features than some 16mm cameras. The top of the range super 8 cameras will all have manual focus and manual exposure control in addition to automatic exposure control, and usually single frame capability and multiple running speeds. On many such models you will also find built-in interval timers for programmed time lapse, macro function, optical effects like fades and dissolves. Some models will have very high running speeds like 54fps or higher for nice, fluid slow motion and there are a few models that can do time exposures like a still camera. My Canon 1014E even has a socket for connecting a flash unit in conjunction with single frame shooting! It is much cheaper shooting on super 8 than 16mm so one possible route to take is start with super 8 and learn from your mistakes with that format (which basically means less expensive mistakes!) and then move up to 16mm.
  9. Theoretically, I think this would work but I remember on another forum, someone recommended against the use of a digital camera as a light meter for a film camera - there's probably some technical reason behind this.
  10. One of the first things that you should know about the K3 regarding exposure is that when this camera is running at a speed of 24 frames per second, each individual frame will be exposed for a duration of 1/60th of a second. I would not use the internal meter inside the K3 - I tested it alongside the internal meter of my Canon 35mm still camera (which is usually quite reliable) and the results varied quite a bit. Often the K3's meter reading would be half a stop under or over my Canon's meter reading when pointed at the same subjects. And by the way, the rest of my K3 is functioning fine - Ive never had a jam or scratched film or anything like that. Either use a 35mm still slr camera or a hand held light meter for taking light readings for your K3. Just make sure that whatever light meter you use, that it is accurate and reliable - otherwise you're going to have a lot of under or overexposed footage. I use my Canon T70 SLR camera to take light readings for the K3 and the results are fine - I just set the shutter speed of the T70 camera to 60th of a second when doing so. Obviously, I also set the asa speed on the Canon T70 to match whatever film speed is loaded inside the K3 and the T70 indicates the appropriate f stop that I should use on the K3. For example, if you were shooting Ektachrome 100D reversal film with the K3, you would select an asa setting of 100 on the light meter, in addition to a shutter speed of 1/60th if you were shooting at the normal frame rate of 24fps. However, if you were shooting negative film, it is usually recommended to over expose slightly which leads to finer grained footage. Underexposing negative on the other hand will lead to an increase in grain. For this reason, many people rate negative film a little slower than normal for optimal results. For example, if you were shooting 250D negative film, you might want to set an asa speed of 200 on the light meter instead of 250. You would still set the shutter speed on the light meter to 1/60th (if you were shooting at 24fps.) Though with reversal film (which has a narrow exposure latitude) your exposures have to be spot on - in which case you must set exactly the same asa speed of the film on the light meter - if the reversal film has an asa speed of 100, then you set 100asa on the light meter as with the Ektachrome 100D example. The only exception to this is some of the black & white reversal films which are not equally sensitive to daylight and tungsten illumination. Another thing to consider is the filter factor. Many times when you will be exposing cine film outdoors in natural sunlight, it will likely be tungsten film and you will have an orange coloured filter screwed on to your lens which will make the colours appear more natural. Without this filter, colours would look a bit too cool or blueish when exposing tungsten film under sunlight illumination. This filter reduces light by a certain amount - usually half a stop or two thirds of a stop or similar. So with the filter in place, the film 'acts' like a slower speed film because it is receiving less light. When taking a light reading, you need to compensate for this difference in exposure caused by the filter - if you are using an external light meter ie hand held meter or still camera's meter. For example, when I was shooting Ektachrome 7240 tunsten reversal film (which is now discontinued) a few years ago in the snow fields, I was using such a filter on the lens to record natural looking colours. Ektachrome 7240 has a speed of 125 asa but with the filter in place, it 'acts' like an 80asa film. So I set '80asa' on my Canon T70 camera and I also set the shutter speed to 1/60th of course and with these two settings, the T70's light meter was able to give me the correct f stop which I then set on the aperture ring of the K3's lens. If however, I was using this film under tungsten illumination I would remove the filter as there would be no need for it because the film is designed to record natural colours under certain types of artificial lighting unfiltered. With the filter out of the way, the film receives all the incoming light so you can use the full asa speed of the film. In other words, you would set '125 asa' on the light meter with this film in this situation - along with a shutter speed of 1/60th if you were shooting at the normal frame rate of 24fps. If you were shooting negative tungsten film outdoors under sunlight, you would set an even slower / lower asa speed on the light meter than normal. This is because the film is negative and so benefits from slight overexposure. For example, if you were shooting Kodak Vision 200T negative tungsten film under sunlight illumination, you would be using an 85 filter on the lens for relatively normal looking colours and this will bring the effective asa speed of the film down to 125asa. So in other words, the 200T film would 'act' like a 125asa film with the filter in place. Though on the light meter, you may want to set an asa speed of 100 so that the film receives a little bit of overexposure. Likewise, when using Kodak Vision 100T tungsten negative film under sunlight illumination, the 85 filter on your lens would reduce the effective asa speed of this film to 64. Though instead of setting 64 asa on your light meter, you may want to set 50asa for a slight overexposure. If you used the same Kodak Vision 100T film under tungsten illumination without the filter, the full effective speed of the film (100asa) would normally be restored but again you may wish to give it a little overexposure so on the light meter, you may want to set the asa speed to 80 instead of 100. When taking a light reading, avoid pointing your light meter at anything dark or light coloured. Dark coloured objects will usually cause overexposure. Light coloured objects will usually cause underexposure. Look for a medium toned object to take your light readings from - and remember not to cast your shadow over whatever you are taking a reading from as this will ruin your exposure! You can buy a photographic grey card from some camera shops. This a card that is coloured just the right shade of grey and reflects 18% of the light falling on it. Taking readings from the grey card will usually lead to more consistent exposures than looking out for mid tones objects in your surroundings. Though you must follow the instructions supplied with the card about the angle that you set the card to in relation to the light source. If you see shiny reflections on the card, angle it to remove those reflections. Finally, there is a certain order of doing things when setting exposure and focus on your camera. The first thing you must do is zoom in fully on your subject - all the way to the maximum focal length setting on your zoom which is 69mm on the Meteor lens. Also make sure that the aperture is set to it's widest. With the zoom set to it's maximum focal length and the aperture wide open, depth of field will be at it's minimum and the viewfinder will be at it's brightest so your focusing will be the most precise and accurate. Just remember not to move the camera forward or back while focussing otherwise all your effort will be for naught. Once focusing is completed, zoom out wider to your desired composition and then close down the aperture ring to the appropriate f stop setting. Then you can start shooting!
  11. Sorry to ask a silly question but what does wqew stand for? I'm assuming that's an acronym.
  12. "Is there anything you recommend to those who want to practice it but don't have the big bucks to get all the fancy lights and equipment?" Umm....maybe super 8? I look forward to seeing 'The Astronaut Farmer' too. I'm still waiting to see where and when it will be screening in Australia.
  13. Those prices sound quite reasonable. Though because of the exchange rate, I would be paying a little more because I am in Australia. Still, I heard someone here say that lens collimation is very expensive. Guess I'll check different places and compare prices.
  14. Ive owned a Takumar 200mm lens for my Krasnogorsk 3 for a few years but havent put this lens to much use until last year when I was filming birds in my backyard. However, when I brought the lens over to Kangaroo Island this year, I discovered something quite surprising when I was filming dolphins - this lens will not focus on infinity when mounted on the K3. The same goes for long distance settings on the lens like 200 feet etc - nothing will be in focus. The lens is fine for focussing on subjects at shorter distances however. I thought I recall reading on this forum that the flange focal depth of the K3 was the same as an M42 mount 35mm still camera. If that is so, then I would have thought that M42 lenses designed for still photography would focus fine on a K3 at all distances. Though I do notice that the rear element of the standard Meteor zoom lens supplied with the K3 protrudes deeper into the camera body than still camera lenses do. I'm assuming that all of you lens experts out would know exactly what is causing this problem. I hope that I will not have to get this lens collimated - I don't think I would have the $$ for that. I also have a Tamron 400m lens with M42 mount which seems to focus fine on the K3 at long distances but I havent tested it at infinity yet.
  15. Thankyou Olex. This is an interesting test. I note that the fps dial still comes to a stop after the '48' mark - but does also rotate all the other way around past the line below the '8' mark - does this still sound normal?
  16. I am about to leave for Kangaroo Island tomorrow morning and I am bringing with me several still cameras (35mm and medium format) and the Krasnogorsk 3. Ive just ordered some Fuji Eterna 250D and this will be the first time that i will be exposing negative movie film. However, I was playing around with the speed dial on the K3 just then - with no film loaded - and something really bizarre happened. Usually, the dial stops at the line below the 8fps marking. This time, however, the dial rotated well past that line into the region where it says 'fps' without any inclination to stop. The dial has never, ever done this before. I rotated the dial back into the 'normal region.' Now forgive me if I'm being extremely paranoid but would there be any possibility that the dot markings for the individual frame rates would no longer be accurate - or am I worrying over nothing? There's no way I can test this for sure as I am leaving for the island tomorrow morning. I ran the camera at 24fps and it sounds roughly like the same sound it makes when I usually run it at 24ps - but hard to really know for sure 100%. Have other K3 users rotated the dial to extreme positions ? both well past the 48 and 8 fps markings but found that afterwards when viewing the results that footage shot at 24fps still looks normal ? not too fast or too slow? I hope I?m worrying over nothing.
  17. Does anyone know offhand the particular soapies that were supposedly shot with the VX1000?
  18. I think the Chinons may be the most groovy looking S8 cameras.
  19. If you are looking for good quality transfers of super 8 film at low cost, I would recommend you getting in touch with a telecine business that owns a Workprinter or Sniper. Such equipment probably provides the best ratio between quality and price. You could however get the footage transferred with a Rank or Spirit machine which would provide extremely high quality (in the hands of an experienced operator) but would cost an enormous amount of money $$$. Roger Evans is the inventer of the Workprinter and Sniper transfer units and they are capable of transferring film frame by frame which gives quite impressive quality and rates are usually quite reasonable. The way these units work is similar in principle to an optical printer. Roger owns the business Moviestuff and he offers transfers of super 8 and regular 8 film to various video formats. He operates in Texas but if that is too far away from where you live, he could probably recommend other businesses closer to you that use Workprinters or Snipers.
  20. Living in Australia, I admit that I have never seen any of NFL Films' work but I think that this is a truly great idea - shooting sporting games on film for a high quality 'look.' Of course utilising film for sporting events was once so common in the 70s, 60s and earlier, until video dominated in the 1980s. Shooting sport on film in the old days was taken for granted because it was the norm. I see that NFL Films' use of the medium in this day and age is creating a very special product. I wish there was something similar happening in Australia. Whenever I see film footage of sports from the old days, I'm used to seeing the grain and the vintage colours - though with NFL Films, it will be interesting see the use of modern film stocks for this application.
  21. I think this is a very brave effort by Ikonoskop - designing and manufacturing a brand new super 8 camera for the public. I hope they succeed in getting enough orders. DS8 certainly has it's benefits - superior registration compared to a super 8 cartridge and longer running times too - and it also works out cheaper than cartridge based super 8. Although some may crave for a brand new cartridge based super 8 camera to hit the market, this may not be the best option for a new product due to reliability issues - eg the possibility of defective cartridges. Though of course on the other hand, there is the extremely limited number of film stocks available in DS8. Would be great if there were negative stocks in DS8. I don't have the money for this camera but even if I did, I might be hesitant in buying it because it lacks a reflex viewfinder. I know that Ikonoskop chose not to include a reflex viewfinder to significantly reduce costs - to make it 'semi-affordable' but still - it's quite a bit of money to fork out for a movie camera that lacks through the lens viewing. If ever I decided to spend the dollars on a brand new movie camera, one of the main features that I would normally expect would be a reflex viewfinder. That's where the older, less expensive DS8 cameras have the advantage over this new model - through the lens viewing. Though of course since the new camera has a C mount, I guess you could always pick up one of those Pan Cinor lenses with the built in reflex viewfinder.
  22. According to some sources, Ive heard that the Sony VX1000 was used to shoot some soapies for television. I find this hard to believe. I assume soapies would usually be shot on Betacam. Must be an extremely low budget soapie to utilise MinDv as a recording format.
  23. Tim Carroll, I viewed your short film containing the interior footage shot with the Bolex EBM. I enjoyed the film! The lenses on the Bolex gave some nice images, especially in the close ups. Though did you use Switars or some other C mount lenses?
  24. "Yeah, but what about those Bolex lenses?" Out of curiosity, what lenses were you using on the Bolex? Ive seen some very nice, sharp footage exposed with a Switar macro lens. While Ive heard that Angeneiux lenses, while being good, are not great. Then again, I admit that when viewing docos and tv specials, Ive never known which footage was exposed with Angeneiux lenses so I can't make a proper judgement of this company's lenses.
  25. The worst movie I saw at the cinema was 'Intersection' with Richard Gere and Sharon Stone. That movie was dull, dull, dull. Even though I went to a day session to see the film, I was fighting so hard to keep awake and not drop off to sleep. Though I do admit, there was one great element in that film and that was the car crash - that particular scene was very well filmed and edited - even so I wouldn't watch the film again for that. Ive seen a number of bad films on video such as 'The Stuff' which was a rip off of 'The Blob' and 'Ator the Fighting Eagle' which was a rip off of 'Conan the Barbarian.' There was also 'The Newlydeads' which was clearly shot on video. By the way, 'Conan the Barbarian' is a great film!
×
×
  • Create New...