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Super 16 Kodak Vision3 500T 7219 - New Short Test Shoot


Adam Guzik

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Hello again, folks!  Been a while!

I finally got the chance to shoot some film again!  About 2 weeks ago, I was able to take out my (relatively recently) purchased super 16 modified Krasnogorsk-3 with the standard Zenit Meteor 17-69 f/1.9 lens out on a train ride to Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania, where their annual Fall Foliage Festival was taking place. 

I shot a single 100ft daylight reel of Kodak's Vision3 500T 7219 stock, but this time, I shot without any filters and metered for ISO 200, overexposing quite a bit to see how that would turn out.

Being my first time shooting on this camera, and the fact that my eyesight has worsened a little since shooting on the Aaton XTR Prod, a fair amount of the shots were out of focus, but!  I'm thrilled at the colors I was able to get from this footage!  Processing and transfer done again by Colorlab in Rockville, Maryland, who scanned it at 4K (4096 x 2408) on their LaserGraphics ScanStation.  Film is just so nice to color grade; all of these shots were only 4 serial nodes in DaVinci Resolve.

Piano music was also done by me.  

Graded Version:
 

 

Ungraded Version, for any of you who want to tinker about with the footage and make your own grades:
 

 

Would love to hear what you all think, barring the terrible focusing job I did, lol!

Have a good one, folks!

Best,

Adam

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I think both look quite lovely. The graded version looks nice and warm in a very autumny way whilst the ungraded one looks nice as well surprisingly enough with its cool blue tone from the tungsten balance (though obviously it lacks contrast since it's ungraded). The latter is also nice as a sort of demo as to what Vision 3 500t looks like if one shot it in the day without filters and whatnot.

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I can't believe you measured for 200 and got the image to look this good. I'm wondering what would the footage look like if it was actually metered for 500. 

The focusing I didn't really notice because it's mostly groups of people and not a specific subject. It also looks like it was overcast, so you bringing 500T seemed like the right choice. 

Those converted Krasnogorsk-3 really seem like hit or miss so while they seem significantly cheaper then built super 16 cameras, I'm always worried I'll end up with nothing usable. Same with most of the 16mm converted cameras. Are you only able to load a 100ft with that camera? Or could you put a 400' on it as well? Did you have to wind up the motor every 30 seconds or so too? 

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21 hours ago, Lucas Henkel said:

I think both look quite lovely. The graded version looks nice and warm in a very autumny way whilst the ungraded one looks nice as well surprisingly enough with its cool blue tone from the tungsten balance (though obviously it lacks contrast since it's ungraded). The latter is also nice as a sort of demo as to what Vision 3 500t looks like if one shot it in the day without filters and whatnot.

Thank you so much!  I definitely think I could've gone warmer on some of the shots, but the fall colors were so vibrant, even on such an overcast, rainy day, that it would very quickly become too warm.  Glad you liked the ungraded version, too!  

 

8 minutes ago, Jesse Hanna said:

I can't believe you measured for 200 and got the image to look this good. I'm wondering what would the footage look like if it was actually metered for 500. 

The focusing I didn't really notice because it's mostly groups of people and not a specific subject. It also looks like it was overcast, so you bringing 500T seemed like the right choice. 

Those converted Krasnogorsk-3 really seem like hit or miss so while they seem significantly cheaper then built super 16 cameras, I'm always worried I'll end up with nothing usable. Same with most of the 16mm converted cameras. Are you only able to load a 100ft with that camera? Or could you put a 400' on it as well? Did you have to wind up the motor every 30 seconds or so too? 

Yeah, after this test shoot, this camera isn't perfect - the lens vignettes a little at the widest angle, but, it's honestly not as bad as I feared.  The Krasnogorsk only takes 100ft daylight spools, though; it's not like the Bolex, which has a removable top so you can use 400ft magazines.  And yeah, the winds only last about 28 seconds each, so, this was about 2 minutes 50 seconds of footage altogether.  

I specifically shot this unfiltered because I really wanted to see how this stock would handle overexposure and then "pulling" it digitally, just because the great thing about film is that even though it blows out when its overexposed, it can't actually clip highlights the way digital does, so I knew that digitally "pulling" would be a viable option.  I definitely brought the 500T stock along because I knew this would be a very run-and-gun shoot, and I didn't know what all conditions I would be in, so I needed the most versatility in exposure latitude, and the 500T provided that.  I'd originally wanted to meter at ISO 100, because originally it was supposed to be sunny on the day of the train ride, but alas, it was raining pretty good, and I had to meter at ISO 200 just so that I wasn't opened all the way up, which is where the Zenit lens's sharpness is supposed to fall apart.  

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So I was doing a little minor experimenting with your ungraded footage and I gotta say, it looks quite nice as well without tweaking the white balance from Tungsten to Daylight. It gives the footage a nice and cool look that fits the rainy day aesthetic.

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I really liked this. I saw one of your other videos recently, 'Super 16 Feelin’ - Thanksgiving 2017' and that was quite nice, too.

One thing that is not surprising is how film can be pulled back from overexposure. It's a good thing, too, because film doesn't like shadows as much. ? But the graininess seems to have not improved, even though shadow detail certainly was. I expect film to be less grainy when overexposed - not just based on theory, but on observation. Perhaps this is no bad thing - rating it at 500 would therefore give you the full speed but with the same graininess.

Heck, I've seen Super 16 pushed a stop and there's almost no difference there, either. So you could argue that 500T is a pretty good 1000T stock as well.

BTW your music is also very nice.

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  • 3 weeks later...
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500T is a beautiful stock.....I am mesmerised by it......your graded footage has beautiful colour, love it....thats the thing with film....I visualise it in the following way.....its like reproducing photographs via offset lithography on a more porous paper stock and the way the ink bleeds just that little bit almost gives it that depth of colour and reality that digital still to me looks like a layer of ink....film is like layer upon layer upon layer and there's nothing like it.....(Im a graphic designer/photographer (stills) by profession heh heh hence the analogy)....500T in particular has that blue in it that somehow holds the image up, holds everything on its shoulders and is just there, intense and beautiful.....then the reds....then the greens......I love this stock.....on my vimeo you can see my 16mm Gibraltar Crystal stuff shot on 500T if you are interested.....the inside the factory sections

sorry if this seems like I'm trying to show my stuff all the time its NOT my intention.....

Edited by Stephen Perera
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