Nathan Milford

Howdy, There are at least a dozen threads on this issue. Take a look in the Cinematography Education sub-forum or use the search function. You'll find a wealth of opinions one way or the other.

I would assume Kodak's website would have that information: http://www.kodak.com/US/en/motion/products....26.8&lc=en

Ben, The 3P Aaton 35-III body is fine and is in line with your experience with the 4P body. It is, a bit quieter, but otherwise those 'things' you've heard are unfounded. Lucas Loureiro, a forum member here, is the only owner (that I know of) in the states of a 3P 35-III body. Although someone in our LA office might know of someone on that coast. He also has a nice set of Zeiss Standards and reasonable day rates. The Penelope, while pretty far along in development, won't be ready for a while yet, possibly first quarter of next year. - nathan

Once you leave the world of 4-perf regular 35mm you leave the world of strictly established gate dimensions. With S35, 3-perf, S16 exact dimensions differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. For S16 there is a reasonable discrepency for the size of the S16 gate due to the placement of Aaton's TC printer and ARRI's registration pin. They couldn't come together on a spec.

If you have an Aaton A-body and Cameflex, Kinor or ARRI-IIc B-body on the same shoot, you will have an offset between the A-Body and B-Body on the negative. I doubt if 'compatibility' is a major concern if you're going to a DI. It will not matter all that much what the centering is to anyone but the dailies/scanner guy. That is, unless, you're foolish enough to try to do everything optically.

I know people who have shot 2-perf for 1.85 extraction. There is more negative for 1.85 in 2-perf than in 16mm, but its a bit daft, as you're wasting a lot of film and paying more. 2-perf is pretty much a widescreen format. Want to shoot something else? Then use a different format. - nathan

Yeah, it's centered on the negative, not for academy. In a camera that only shoots 2-perf and 3-perf (despite what I claimed otherwise about its capabilities, 4-perf would have made it more expensive of a design than they wanted it to be) there is no need to have anything academy 'centered,' though every other iteration of Techniscope I've encountered has it academy centered. - nathan

http://www.aaton.com/products/film/penelope/ Take a gander at the second PDF for a nice writeup on Aaton's 2perf workflow. One sweet unit! - nathan

Shoot colorful things.

Where did any mention of Technicolor and dye imbibation printing come from? In these contemporary discussions about the format, no one in their right mind is considering an optical path. A DI or video finish is implicit in the discussion of using 2-perf as an acquisitions format. It also uses normal MP stock and processing. It obviates the need for heavy, slow and expensive anamorphic optics and could even be used on an anamorphic show on steadicam. The image quality is comparable to anything shot in Super 2.35, like Lord of the Rings etc.. It will never be as good as 4P-Anamorphic photography. That said, it is an ideal choice for shows that would shoot 3 or 4-perf Super 2.35 as it saves on stock orders, processing and telecine. This is for shows that would be going a DI route anyway. Additionally, this isn't 1999. Digital Intermediates (2K especially) are becoming more and and more standard operating procedure and more and more affordable. I can see epic series for channels like HBO shot in this format and mastered in HDCAM. shows going for a more cinematic feel in terms of quality, like Carnivale and Rome. I am in no way saying this is a format for every use under the sun. It is a tool to be considered and sometimes it will fit your production and sometimes it will not.

Welcome to my world. I get stuck between sellers whose camera I have evaluated and potential buyers who I cannot release information directly to. I am usually obliged, as a factory technician, to be very forthright with my evaluation and that usually means a complete rebuild for older cameras otherwise I cannot put our name behind it. People who want to sell their cameras rarely wish to do this. I get lots of clients who try to get me to say their camera is OK when it isn't with no end to calls and e-mails. sometimes they show mock astonishment (but it's more amusing when it is genuine, as if you never change the oil in your car) and say 'I just shot a feature with it in the desert and it ran fine...' I generally say something along the lines of: 'Well the camera runs at the moment...' which they will probably twist into a 'Serviced at Abel or OK'd by Abel... etc..' Wordplay ensues... It's especially stressful when the sale goes through then I have to tell the new owner what the old owner failed to tell them or possibly downplayed. Then they try to get me or my employer involved in some lame argument Rock... hard place.. etc... You want to get your seller to allow you to talk directly with the facility that has been servicing the camera and to give that facility their explicit permission to talk openly about the thing.

You'd pay more per roll, but you get twice as much runtime out of each roll so in the end your cash outlay for stock will be similar. You need X rolls to cover Y run time in 16mm You need X*2 rolls to cover Y run time in 4P-35mm Since the 2P-35mm frame is half the height of a 4P-35mm frame you are fitting twice as much information on that roll, doubling runtime (or the amount of images stored on that roll). So you need X rolls to cover Y run time in 2P-35mm as opposed to X*2 for 4P-35mm C'est vrei. - nathan

I was having issues earlier today at work (Firefox/OSX) and once or twice at home (Firefox/XPPRO) with the View New Posts function. It would display an error. I'd close Firefox and reopen the site and it'd work fine.

That might be one of the silliest, most unfounded statements ever made on this forum. And there are A LOT of uninformed people on this forum who like to bloviate on matters they aren't qualified to. Congratulations >8) FADE OUT FROM PREVIOUS STATEMENT CUT TO: CU of Indian's face. A single tear drops.

There is no such thing as film VS video. It is tantamount to nail VS screw: both are fasteners and are used in different situations to achieve similar ends. Film and video are methods of imaging and are used in different situations to achieve different ends. Film VS video threads are really 'my aesthetic VS your aesthetic' threads or they are economic, social or even (dare I say it) religious discussions rather than practical discussions on the relative strengths and weaknesses of a particular tool. I believe David put it perfectly:

Posts like that make this such a great place to get information... Relying on numbers is not the best method of finding anything out. People argue about the resolution of film... or the limitations of DV using numbers. Sometimes you need to just ignore them and judge for yourself and see if it looks good to your eye. I have quite a few clients who use video lenses on their Aatons. SD glass and HD glass. It looks great. If you really want to know... test it.

The Aaton Mount's FFD is 40mm, so the use of a small Nikon adaptor to extend it to 46.50mm is common. You can't do this with the PL mount on the camera. The general rule is you can always adapt up but almost never down in terms of FFD. If the mount you're adapting from has a shorter FFD and larger mount diameter than the mount you're adapting too, you're set.

I thought it meant never having to pay for sex...? Well, at least in cash...

Fantastic statement. I'll need to print that out and save it somewhere. >8)

Jim, It is amazing what you've achieved. I'd love to see the RED team develop a film camera >8) Additionally, I noted from one of the various images of the camera floating around that you're using countersunk hex screws to tie the PL (or whatever) mount down to the spider. You'd do well to avoid them. They typically have a shallow recess for the driver and will strip easily. Lens mounts being something that comes on and off cameras a bit (especially cameras that accept different mounts) you will see these screws strip often. Your cameras will be in and out for service and people will probably attempt to mount thier own things to them... Drilling out a screw near a sensor is not fun... I should know >8) I'd use slotted cheese-head screws and drill a recess into the mount. Not as pretty, but more serviceable. They won't strip in the head, but should someone use the wrong sides driver they will get scored up. If you're looking for pretty though, go with normal hexcap screws, just avoid the countersunk ones. Good luck and congratulations. - nathan

Find one with an APEC door and you'll have an easier time converting it to S16. They're rare but the optics for the viewfinder are different with those models and are better candidates for conversion.

An St and an S are the same thing. You might be looking for the differences between an Arri S and an SB. An St (or S) means standard and has three ARRI Standard lens mounts, SB means Steel Bayonet and has two ARRI standard lens mounts and one ARRI Bayonet mount (which is consequently made of steel). There are other models and modifications to the camera as well as Russian copies. Now, with that in mind, and now knowing what info you're after, the camera picture is not an S(t) It is an SB, as you can see one of the three ports in the turret is different (has two cut-outs for the bayonet flanges). The SB is the more desirable model.

It's real. Please post using your full real name (as per forum guidelines)... otherwise people will be asking the same questions about you as you are about the camera >8)

I'd go more often if they could get the people in front of me to stop glancing at their cell phones or texting every minute or two. Some of those cell phone screens are brighter than the projector and are absolutely blinding in a dark theater.

And make a nice collection for your grandkids to open a museum or auction off at Christies to high end collectors. If I weren't reeling from the purchase of my nice new Hasselblad and from the cost of my wedding (in importance to me in that order, but don't tell the wife) I'd buy an LTR54 and pimp it out >8)