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Super 16mm on a 16mm camera


Ryan Clancy

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Hi there,

I've been shooting on super and standard 16mm for a few years now and just ran into a problem that I've never considered. At the moment, my access to cameras has been limited to an Arri SR1. Prior to this change in cameras, I was shooting a project on an Arri SR3 in super 16mm and now have several 400ft rolls of Vision3 500t super 16mm film. I'm wondering what would happen if I ran the super 16mm through the SR1. Would I just get a 4:3 image? I can't find anything about this topic online. Thanks much.  

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There is no such a thing as Super 16 film. There used to be single and double perforated. Most modern cameras (after WW2) take single perforated film and for years Kodak has been selling single perf mostly. If you have double perf film you can use it with most cameras, but if that camera has a S16 frame the image is going to be on that second line of perforations. The SR1 was designed to take single perf, so assuming that that specific SR1 has never been converted yes, you would get a 4:3 image. When using double perf on a R16 camera the extra space on the film remains unused.

A SR1 can be converted to S16, so as you can see if you have single perforated film it will capture the aspect ratio that you camera has. Regular 16 if the camera is untouched, Super 16 if the camera was converted.

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On 4/19/2019 at 12:19 PM, Todd Pinder said:

Film is one perf or two perf, not Super or Regular. So if you're using a camera that has not been modified to Super 16 or came that way from the manufacture, you will get a 4:3 image.

 

On 4/19/2019 at 12:21 PM, Ruben Arce said:

There is no such a thing as Super 16 film. There used to be single and double perforated. Most modern cameras (after WW2) take single perforated film and for years Kodak has been selling single perf mostly. If you have double perf film you can use it with most cameras, but if that camera has a S16 frame the image is going to be on that second line of perforations. The SR1 was designed to take single perf, so assuming that that specific SR1 has never been converted yes, you would get a 4:3 image. When using double perf on a R16 camera the extra space on the film remains unused.

A SR1 can be converted to S16, so as you can see if you have single perforated film it will capture the aspect ratio that you camera has. Regular 16 if the camera is untouched, Super 16 if the camera was converted.

Thank you very much, Ruben and Todd. Very helpful responses. This answered my question and solved a lot of confusion I've been having. You guys are great!

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Standard 16mm frame is super....love it....have an Aaton XTR XC and Im not converting it to super 16mm.....ironically social media is great with this format....think about it.....on phones and tablets etc looks great

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There's only one 2R stock left in the current catalogue and that's 500T short pitch, .2994, 7219, and only in 400' lengths, so you'd have to wind it down onto spools to use it. They no longer list a .3000 long-pitch stock, which must have been one of the last uses, for medium- and high-speed cameras. It's been the only one listed for a few years so I suspect they're running down the stock.

https://www.kodak.com/motion/Products/Product_Information/index.htm

All the 2R specs are still listed, though, so presumably they would do a special order. That would be about 480,000ft. of 16mm.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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