Patrick Cooper

Now and then, Ive been tempted to get one of those high speed 16mm cameras that are sold for next to nothing (insanely cheaply) on eBay. Although Ive shot some 16mm before in the past (with a K3) I admit I don't know a great deal about the operation of high speed cameras. Obviously, they are very specialised devices. Are there any particular models that are recommended? I notice the Wollensak cameras seem to be fairly common on eBay. If I manage to obtain a Wollensak or another high speed camera, is there a decent chance that I could find an instruction manual somewhere? Knowing the film loading procedure and basic operation would of course be mandatory, as well as any idiosyncrasies that the cameras may have. I'm guessing that a lot of these kind of cameras don't have reflex (through the lens) viewing? I'm okay with that because a lot of the stuff I would be shooting would be studio set ups. Though I would like to be able to frame and focus accurately. I'm also assuming that many of these cameras would be regular 16mm rather than super 16? I was once talking to a cinematographer who mentioned that high speed cameras require regular servicing. This is no surprise considering the stress that's imposed on them (high frame rates.)

You'll have to forgive me as I'm not great with numbers (and maths has never been my strong point.) I assumed that 25fps would be just as ideal as 24fps because both frame rates are very close to each other. And considering that for decades, movies have been shot at 24fps, I haven't heard of any serious complaints when these films are released in the NTSC format for the American home video market. So just to clarify, converting 24ps fps to 29.97 fps won't have the same issues as 25?

Thankyou for the info. I didn't realise that 25fps is not used much outside of broadcast. Is that the same for Australia and Hong Kong? However, I guess it's easier to convert 25fps to 30fps than the other way around. Some folks who shoot stock say that frame rates aren't much of an issue because clients can convert it to their needs. Though I'm not sure if there are some clients who are very fussy about a particular frame rate for their project.

Once at a flea market, I came across a super 8 camera with manually adjustable ASA settings which was quite a surprise. Certainly not a common feature. I can't recall the brand name but it wasn't a Beaulieu or a Leicina Special. Overall, it was a really simple camera. Nothing fancy other than the ability to adjust the ASA settings manually.

You could also consider the older Canon 1014 Autozoom Electronic which can do dissolves. They generally go for cheaper prices on eBay compared to the 1014 XL-S. Also an advantage of the AE is it's top running speed of 54fps. The XL-S can only go as high as 36fps.

Ive been using a Panasonic G6 for the last few years. For full HD video recording, Ive always used 25p in AVCHD (or so I thought.) In the menu option within the AVCHD setting, it says: "1920 x 1080 50i, image sensor output 25p, 24mbps." Here we have a bit of a contradiction – it indicates both interlaced and progressive with this particular menu option. Obviously, it can't be both. Ive had the assumption that this meant that the camera is recording interlaced video but converting it to progressive for the output. Though Ive no idea whether I'm right or wrong about this. Tonight, I imported one of these supposed 25p AVCHD videos into Shotcut NLE software. To my surprise, when I checked the properties of the clip within Shotcut, it indicated that the video was interlaced. That had me puzzled. All this time, I thought I was producing progressive video with this camera when I used that setting. As a test, to see if Shotcut was reading info accurately, I imported some Panasonic G2 footage which records 1280 x 720p video. And sure enough, the properties tab indicates that the video from the G2 is progressive. There is also another 25p option in the Panasonic G6 in the MP4 setting. This particular option reads as follows: "1920 x 1080 25p, image sensor output 25p, 20mbps." No mention of interlaced video there. Which would be the better option to use? I want the best quality with progressive video. I'll be submitting quite a few clips to stock footage agencies and some of these companies don't accept interlaced video. Even if the AVCHD option is interlaced, I could always convert it to progressive within Shotcut. Ive previously output such clips as progressive with Sony Movie Studio and didn't see any issues with motion artifacts. I also note that the AVCHD option has a higher bitrate compared to the MP4 25p option which is a bonus. Actually, I have accumulated a fair number of AVCHD clips already that I want to submit to these stock agencies.

I believe there are a fair few super 8 projectors where the gate can be completely removed for cleaning. Just wondering if the pressure plate can usually be removed as well? Wonder if I can sandwich them together outside the projector as part of a DIY transfer unit. Ive given up on the idea of converting a projector for telecine as I lack the patience. By the way, my projectors use a different design for cleaning - the lens swings out to the side to provide access to the gate.

Did another export on got 116 mbps. Hopefully, that should be okay for a 4096 x 2304 video at 25fps.

I've just exported a time lapse video with Shotcut that was shot with a Panasonic G6. Pixel dimensions are 4096 x 2304. The frame rate is 25fps. I'm fairly new to 4k video and I plan on submitting this clip to some stock agencies. For the bitrate, I selected 100mbps. After exporting, I checked the technical details and the bitrate of the finished file is 75mbps. Just wondering if that's too low for 4k video? If that is considered too low, what would be considered an acceptable range (in terms of bitrate) for 4k video shot around 24 / 25 / 30fps? Bear in mind that I want a balance between good quality 4k video and manageable file size for uploading. Although quality would be good, I don't want to end up with a gigantic file size that's going to take 2 - 3 days to upload (I do have slow upload speeds for my internet by the way.) I did some googling and noted that the Panasonic GH5 can shoot 4k video at 100mbps. So I guess that might be a good target to aim for. With Shotcut, I notice no matter what bitrate I enter, I usually end up with a lower figure. So if I want 100mbps, I might have to input something like 130mbps perhaps.

Thanks for the replies. I'll look into Lightworks. I remember people discussing it a few years ago in editing forums. By the way, I did manage to get Shotcut working properly tonight on a laptop.

For a long time, Ive been on a quest to find some NLE software that's suitable for producing footage that I can submit to stock agencies. And it looks like my quest still isn't over. Mind you, I'm on a really tight budget so I'd prefer free downloadable software. Ive actually got two quite decent NLE programs that Ive paid money for (Sony Movie Studio and Adobe Premier Elements) and although they are quite versatile, neither of them are entirely suitable for stock footage. These are the requirements that I want - Progressive video Offers MOV as a file type option Can select codecs such as h264 (bare minimum) and possibly other less compression heavy codecs like photojpeg (though not essential) Allows the bitrate to be altered Supports full HD and 4k video Has basic colour grading options (contrast and colour saturation will suffice) Simple trimming Ive tried to install Davinci Resolve after recommendations to use that software but my system can't handle it. I found out that it requires 8GB of RAM to run though I only have 4GBs of RAM on my pc. So far, Shotcut meets just about all those requirements listed above but it's not all that reliable or stable. It freezes a lot and many times ends in failed exports. Does anyone have any recommendations for software that has all those requirements?

Yep, a lot of variability in quality in super 8 clips on youtube. As for the second clip you posted, another hint that it's 16mm is the wide angle distortion evident in a number of shots. That's something you rarely see in super 8 (especially to that degree.) Typically, with super 8 zoom lenses, the shortest focal length is usually 6 or 7mm which won't give you much coverage. And if there's any distortion, it's going to be very mild.

I finally got around to doing the shoot and got the results back. Running the camera at 54fps did not do this sequence any justice at all. I let the helicopter swing into a large rocky structure (natural geological formation) and it doesn't even look like slow motion. After the initial swing, the helicopter bounced off the rock a few times (with less speed) but even so, it looks like regular 24fps footage to me. Obviously, 54fps was not going to be as effective as the higher frame rate used in Cliff Hanger though regardless, I found my results surprising. It does not look like slow motion at all - even when the momentum has washed off.

Recently, I bought a step down ring to attach a 52mm ND filter on to a 135mm lens with a 58mm filter thread. It worked fine in the city for shooting video of traffic passing over a bridge. I haven't used it in a while and want to use it again. Problem is I just cannot screw this step down ring on to the lens anymore! I don't know what's going on. Logically, I'm using the larger diameter end of the ring but it just slides around. It will not engage with the screw thread on the lens. And I am rotating clockwise of course. I can screw the ND filter on to the other end of the ring no problem. This is really weird. Any idea what's going on?

The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick's 1998 version) used wide angle lenses (or perhaps just one WA lens) extensively throughout the film.

I was once enquiring about a Bolex H16 with 10mm lens in an underwater housing with dome port in a shop. I was doing a fair amount of scuba diving during that period so there was certainly the potential to get some good underwater footage of the local marine life. I asked the shop owner that I guess you'd probably prefocus the lens before placing the camera in the housing. The shop owner replied, saying that's no need to do that because it's a wide angle lens. Gosh sorry, my mistake. I was under the misguided assumption that if most of your subjects (fish etc) were say 3 - 4 feet away from you, you'd prefocus the lens to about 3 or 3.5 feet or thereabouts (before venturing underwater.) Or alternatively hyperfocal focusing. But no need to do that at all due to the near infinite depth of field provided by this lens which will magically solve all potential focus issues regardless of settings or circumstances. By using this guy's logic, the lens could probably be set to any random focus distance and it wouldn't matter. So let me see....if you were shooting at f3.5 and your subject was 3 feet away and the lens was focused close to infinity, everything would be fine huh? No problem!

Problem has been fixed. Turned out I was using the wrong h264 codec. Just now, I used libx264 and it worked fine.

I'm trying to use Opencut as a video converter. Ive got some videos rendered as MP4s from Sony Movie Studio that I want converted to MOV with the h264 codec. So tonight, I dropped one of these MP4s into Opencut's timeline and followed all the recommended export settings from a youtube tutorial video. I noticed for the choice of codec, there were two h264 options - h264_nvenc and nvenc_h264. I didn't know which one was the best choice so I randomly selected the first one. I set the quality to 100, the bitrate to 20M etc. Despite selecting 'dual pass', the rendering time was extremely brief - just a few seconds. The finished video is completely blank. It runs for 35 seconds but there's no picture. And the file size seems unusually small at 17KB. It's a 1920 x 1080 video by the way. Any ideas on what went wrong? Edit: It was recommended in the tutorial video to halve the frame rate for the GOP number but as my video's frame rate was 25fps, it's not really possible to halve that using whole numbers. So I selected 12. Don't suppose that would cause any issues?

"For wide angle tracking shots, you need a fast autofocus lens with image stabilization. 12 , 14 mm maybe"

"Nobody uses manual exposure anymore. It takes too long."

Yea I heard Resolve and Shotcut are two good options. I'll try them.

Options for changing / preserving the frame rate and aspect ratio would be good too. I find some video converters too simplistic and others too complex. I would also like free software as well. I hope that's not a big ask. A google search didn't turn up much at all - mainly showed the ones that are too simplistic (which won't allow you to make many adjustments.) I did come across an online converter that looked promising but their terms and conditions implied that they had rights to use the files you upload without any limitations of time or space. I didn't like the sound of that.

Sorry for the late reply. Basically what I want to do is convert 1080p mp4 files to 1080p mov files with the h264 codec and be able to adjust bitrate as well. Ive had a look at Any Video Converter but can't see mov among the list of containers / formats it supports.

I can't speak for the GH5 but I did use a Panasonic G6 in a dimly lit wedding reception venue last year with 1600 iso and the footage looked pretty clean. I was using fast lenses too - mostly old primes - Canon FD 24mm f2.8, Canon FD 50mm f1.8 and one modern lens (a Samyang 12mm f2.)

Beautiful looking frames. I really like the lighting in all of the shots. And very interesting reading about how you lit the car shot. At first, I was wondering if you used a smoke machine there but yea it does look like dust.