Matthew Kane Posted November 12, 2012 Share Posted November 12, 2012 I'm shooting a short film with a friend this weekend, and we'll be shooting regular 16 on an Arri SRII (it's the last hurrah before her school sells off all their 16mm gear). There's no time or money to shoot/develop/transfer real lens tests, but I want to be sure that we can pull focus off the lens marks accurately. I'm renting the much lauded Cooke 9-50 zoom from a local rental house, and right now I'm thinking I will go in with our camera body, shoot a few feet off a test chart at various distances, and do a slop develop with some D-76. Then I'll set it out on a light table and check focus with a jeweler's loupe. Now, what I'm wondering is--will this actually tell me that the lens and body are all up to spec, or will I just be fooling myself? I was happy enough with this method for picking negatives when I was shooting 35mm stills, but I've never used it for anything that required a high degree of accuracy. Maybe there are other test methods out there that don't require going through the lab? We'll be going to at least a 1080p transfer, and since we're already cropping out of R16 and shooting on a zoom, I don't want to take any chances, even though the lens and body are both recently serviced and well cared for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Baluk Posted November 13, 2012 Share Posted November 13, 2012 Why not scan the images on your computer, or try to project the negs on a 16mm projector.... focus will be trivial on a loupe. All you'll be able to test is focus thru these though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Dom Jaeger Posted November 13, 2012 Premium Member Share Posted November 13, 2012 The rental house should be able to check your camera's flange focal depth and ground glass focus (and their lens) to make sure everything is within spec. Takes about 15 minutes on a bench collimator. At the rental house I work for I usually do that for free for students renting our lenses who bring in a film school camera body. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Kane Posted November 13, 2012 Author Share Posted November 13, 2012 Dom--that's a great idea. I'll see if they can do that for me. The film scanner will be plan B. I figured I was making things too complicated, thanks for the reality check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JB_Letchinger Posted November 15, 2012 Share Posted November 15, 2012 shooting a scratch test is the usual thing to do before a shoot. use a dummy load and check it for scratches after you roll it throught the camera! - usually 10 or 15 seconds is plenty... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Tim Carroll Posted November 17, 2012 Premium Member Share Posted November 17, 2012 Matthew, I've done something like what you originally described when I used to service 16mm motion picture cameras. After everything was CLA'd and FFD checked, and ground glass checked, I would shoot at 6fps, wide open, a focus chart. About five or six feet of black & white film (the old Kodak Plus X) then process it in a Patterson tank with Rodinal, and scan it with a film scanner or inspect it on a light table with a very powerful loupe. That process works well. Best, -Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alain Lumina Posted November 19, 2012 Share Posted November 19, 2012 Any info on their selling those terrible, obsolete, "old school" film cameras? I'm interested 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Kane Posted April 25, 2013 Author Share Posted April 25, 2013 Sorry to necropost, but if anyone is looking, I wanted to say thanks for the advice. We got into preproduction and the niceties of replying on the forum went out the window. Just went in to grade the film--despite using some older short ends, we were really pleased with how it came out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Premium Member Will Montgomery Posted April 26, 2013 Premium Member Share Posted April 26, 2013 It amazing how even old stock can look with a talented colorist. I only get nervous with old higher speed (500T) film...although for a paying gig I always stay with a known broker or direct from Kodak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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