chris cortez

The sharpest S8 I've seen is the Bauer 715 XL-S with the huge Angenieux zoom. I think that's the best fixed glass in the world of S8.

I have plans to shoot 16:9 with my Beaulieu R-16 by simply cropping the 4:3 image. To help me, I would like to get the 16:9 frame lines marked on the ground ground glass. A Beaulieu camera technician was nice enough to ship an R-16 ground glass unit to me so I can get it marked up before he services my camera.

Hi Yemi. :)

Bjorn Andersson has my R16 now, or will have when it arrives in Sweden. Maybe he can do my 16:9 viewfinder marking while he is cleaning/fixing my viewfinder and servicing the camera?

I'm also curious about modifying or marking a standard Bolex sidefinder for the S16 frame, either for cropping or for a potential DIY Super 16 mod.

I'm thinking this may be a problem with light leaking - I will find out very soon after my test run.  I wonder if there is a way to extend the shutter blade.

Any update so far? Very interested to see your test results... Thanks for keeping us informed as you experiment, very helpful!

Well, I made some progress this weekend.  I bought a set of small files from home depot and was able to file down the gate to super-16 size easily. the new size goes almost to the edge.  I used a dremel with some metal grinding tips to bore out the metal in front of the gate (Behind the lens).  Theres a few layers of metal from the front of the turret to the front of gate, so that took about 3 hours for the whole job.  I tried to enlarge the circle to that of stretched circle to the right, enough so that the entire super-16 is exposed.  Its certainly doesn't look pretty (I think I may have grinded off a little too much metal on the top right, [had the dremel on high speed and it was hard to control] but it shouldn't matter).  Today, I'll go find some flat black paint to cover up the exposed shiny metal in front of the gate.  Also, as I did all of these mods I used scotch tape to cover all of the inside parts in and around the gate to keep out the grinded metal; also blow compress air now and then as you go. I have some lenses to try out for the test run - will keep you posted.

 

- Derek

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Are you planning to repolish the gate surface so the newly filed areas won't scratch the film?

Any way you could take some digital photos of the process as you go along? Would be nice to see the details of the insides w/o taking mine apart! (I know, it's cheeky of me to let you take all the risk, but there ya go...) ;)

Good luck,

Chris

Yes, I just took a close look last night and was going to mention that.  Also, other than filing the gate wider, does something need to be done to hole in front of the gate.  Shouldn't that be widened as well or is that what you're talking about.  Forgive my cluelessness.

 

- Derek

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I'm also interested in whatever anyone finds out about spare parts and in the results of all of your experiments. I have a 70-HR and a full set of switar c-mount AR glass and a mostly-full set of the angenieux c-mounts. And a c-mount to nikon adapter. So surely I can find *something* to cover S16. ;-)

I've seen Bolex 3-turret conversions where the lens recentering was done by un-centering the hole that screws the turret plate to the camera, moving the whole thing over a touch, then just using one lens at a time (I.e. lose the ability to spin the turret to access multiple lenses). Is that possible on a Filmo? I think I read that there are mechanical parts attached to the back of the turret...

I also have the motor and mag for this thing. I think it would make a super Super16 frankenstein beast.

q: if you're looking for cheap and easy, what is your cheap and easy camera solution for crystal sync sound shooting?

if you've got something a) sync'd enough and B) quiet enough, you've got a pretty good camera. (or a really long lens.) why assume there's a cheap, easy audio solution that will produce equivalent results?

it's true to say you can record sound to these consumer digital formats in that there is resulting audio that one can playback and hear and conceivably even sync with a video track in an NLE. but the results usually aren't great and can't be much manipulated without falling apart.

i need a minidisc or something when i need to be the shooter and the sound recordist at the same time, or all my gear needs to fit on my body. but if i give a crap at all about the audio, i'm going to record it analog, b/c the digital gear that would suffice is way, way out of my price range.

my $.02, ymmv, etc.

c.

Transformer? Isn't a transformer used to convert AC power to DC? If the camera is running off batteries, there shouldn't be any transformer in the circuit. Please explain if I am wrong, thanks!

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yeah, same with any recorder -- you run a nagra off batteries (lots, large) if you don't want to hear the electricity...

I don't see any problem except the set dressing -- cream walls, empty bookshelf, dead-looking bare tree...

I like the close-up best.

I guess all I'd say is that you can't film what isn't there.

- Chris