Justine Haupt

Has anyone every tried attaching a mini35 (depth-of-field) adapter to a super a cam? They're meant for digital formats, I know, but there's no reason one couldn't be used with super 8 to get a nice shallow DOF. Has anyone tried it or know of any issues with a setup like this?

I think some might argue that even a $4000 camera isn't as good as really good super 8... I would disagree on that (I can usually get a pretty good 16mm look with my dv camera). The problem with drawing relations like video quality vs film format is that dv doesn't even start to look like film until you get into the high-end 3-chip cameras... anything of less quality will fall back into the spectrum of the video look, not the look of lower quality film, because only the very high quality dv seems to be able to synthesize film. It's easy to think of a ccd as just a digital piece of emulsion, but in fact its a lot more complex than that, and getting any kind of film look will probably involve a 3-chip camera. Simply, the look of super 8 film is different from dv on such a fundamental level that I think the only way to get them to look similar would be to start with very high quality dv and doing what you can in post. The lower end DV cams just look like lower end dv -- if a lower end camera existed or is on its way that looks like super 8, everyone would probably have one. The thing about super 8 specifically is that it has so much character, and as a result, it's probably easier to approach the look of 16 or even 35mm with a dv camera than it is to make it look like super 8 (which wasn't your pont, I know, you wanted to know if a cheaper cam might exist that might look like S8mm, not if it was possible to synthesie), but I think what I said conveys the fundamental problem with trying to do that.

Yep, I had it set to single field -- no dice.

I'm having an interesting (not interesting, terribly annoying) problem in Premiere 6.5 I'm hoping someone can help me with. I've been shooting in 24fps (love it!) for the little time I've had the camera, and capture into Premiere at 24... OK, good. My general project settings use timebase 24 and time display 24... OK, good. Now, when I export an AVI (in 24fps) and play back the file, if I pause it I can clearly see interlacing, which is unfortunately quite apparent during normal playback. So, I'm thinking to myself, if I'm capturing in 24, working in 24, and exporting in 24, why am I seeing fields after exporting? After trying all sorts of things, I realized the monitor window in Premiere is actually showing the clips interlaced, too, but I can't figure out why. When I view the source file, everything is fine, but in editing (and output) it has fields! Does anyone know why this is? Is it possible that Premiere 6.5 just isn't good at 24fps? Also, Premiere seems to wash out the image a tad (enough to make it look bad), which seems correctible by adjusting gamma, but I don't see why there's a discrepency to begin with. I apologize for having to post this here, but as we know, there's no post-production forum.

Thanks again to everyone, my XL2 arrived a couple days ago and I couldn't be happier! Unfortunately, my computer started to act up and I can't get firewire to work... it looks like my windows me installation just has too many things wrong with it, so I'll be upgrading to xp (no, I'm unfortunately not a Mac user). But again, GREAT camera! I've been giddy over it.

Thanks everyone for the prompt responses... it looks like I have an answer. I have to admit though, that is what I really wanted to hear. ~Justin

Hello all, this is my first post here! I did a quick scan through old topics, so I don't think this specific quesiton has been asked (or in this specific way). The question is a simple "if it were your choice" scenario.... I'm currently in a situation to be able to buy either 2 used XL1's (or possibly XL1S's), or 1 new XL2. My only other usable camera right now is a super 8, and I've had my eye on the XL series for years now, but it comes down to a question of "does the ability to get two angles in one take outweigh the better performace of the XL2?" I should also say that I plan to shoot almost exclusively in 24 fps (or 30 if I go with the XL1s). So? Any comments? ~Thanks in advance