THE 16MM CAMERA BOOK

Douglas Underdahl · December 10, 2011

Hey all -

I see by this forum that 16mm/super16mm/Ultra16mm is not dead yet . . (Bring out your dead! I'm not dead yet!!)

That's cool. I admit, I'm here to talk about THE 16MM CAMERA BOOK - I have some copies left, and I'm happy to sell them to anyone that wants them. Also, I'm happy to answer any questions you have about the format(s), or cinematography in general.

I wrote the book when I worked at NYU and I would get a lot of the same questions over and over again, like how do I balance tungsten and daylight, which batteries are best, I heard that the CP16R is noisy, is that true, etc etc and it would just take me too long to answer each student every time. So, I handed them the book, said, read this, and if you still have questions, I'm happy to answer. When they came back with more questions, I put them in later editions.

I see by movies like HURT LOCKER and BLACK SWAN that there are real reasons to shoot 16mm, and the format can obviously be super successful.

So, if you want a copy of the book, send $29 via Pay Pal to longvalley@embarqmail.com. Okay, shameless plug now over.

Tim Carroll · December 11, 2011

When I first got into filmmaking over a decade ago, one of my first purchases was Douglas' book, on the recommendation of Mitch Gross, IIRC. Think I got it from Visual Products at the time. It's a great reference and really does answer alot of newbie questions.

Best,

-Tim

Lionel Pina · December 14, 2011

"When I first got into filmmaking over a decade ago, one of my first purchases was Douglas' book, on the recommendation of Mitch Gross, IIRC. Think I got it from Visual Products at the time. It's a great reference and really does answer alot of newbie questions.

Best,

-Tim

Read more: http://www.cinematography.com/index.php?showtopic=54285#ixzz1gWwpRBHO"

-I definitely agree.

Edited December 14, 2011 by Lionel Pina

andres victorero · December 21, 2011

A fantastic book for any 16mm beginner.

Bradley Stearn · December 14, 2014

Hi Douglas. I was wondering if you still have any copies of your book available? How much if so including postage to the UK?

Douglas Underdahl · December 30, 2014

Yes, I still have copies of the book. $29 plus $18 for postage to UK.

Good LORD you can get unreal deals on excellent 16mm cameras now! I see Arri 16SR2 cams going for under three grand, with a bunch of nice accessories. Can we afford to put film through them?

Don't hate me, I have an Epic and it's great. Can I crop the sensor to 2k, use a 16mm zoom, add sharpness, some contrast and saturation in post, plus a bit of grain and maybe some hot splice sparkles, and make it look like 16mm? The answer is yes, but does it REALLY look like 16/s16? That would take a side by side test to tell.

Carl Looper · January 23, 2015

Don't hate me, I have an Epic and it's great. Can I crop the sensor to 2k, use a 16mm zoom, add sharpness, some contrast and saturation in post, plus a bit of grain and maybe some hot splice sparkles, and make it look like 16mm? The answer is yes, but does it REALLY look like 16/s16? That would take a side by side test to tell.

Its easy for anything to look like anything else since the phrase "looks like" allows for any approximation. There's a large rock on Mars which, under a certain light and soft lens, looks like a face. And Bugs Bunny looks like a rabbit. But if one were to ask, instead, if anything can ever look identical to something else, the answer would have to be no. Film has certain qualities which, even on digital's home turf (digital delivery) make it impossible for any digital camera to synthesise.

The grain of transferred film is not just a function of differences in the density of the light sensitive material, at each location in the emulsion, but differences in the location and size of that material, which, when entangled with the pattern of light sensitising such, produces a variation in the transferred film which is NOT random but statistically correlated with the light at all scales, all the way down into the very heart of space. No matter how high in definition you make a digital camera, you can't get the same statistics happening. No matter how small the pixels, there are always smaller ones possible.

But that's not to pour any scorn on digital. Digital can do things that film can't. It just can't do some of the things that film can.

C

Joseph Jay · March 30, 2015

I just want to add that I bought this book and its worth it's weight in gold. There's only so much you can find online about 16mm filmmaking when the digital cameras are taking up space in just about every forum online. I found the part about lenses and back focus especially helpful.

John R Woods · April 19, 2015

Now I have to find my copy! Excellent resource, Douglas!

FilthyMACcreate · May 16, 2015

Hey Mr. Underdahl, veeery interested in one of yer books ta git my 16mm knowledge up and runnin! Got any left? thank you grately fer writin tha book in tha first place, yeeeuh!

-brandisi