EWA Backwinder - Images

[S8 Booster]

Found these images on a Japanese WEB.

I believe it is available.
Anyone here used it?







R

[Alex]

I did a long time ago. The problem was you had to take the film cartridge out of the camer to use it, so that meant you had to be extremely careful not exposing the open part of the cartridge to any light.


I don't recall every getting a flawless result, and I only tried a couple of times.

[livio]

seems intersting...
which website (I hope not only in japanese...) ?

[S8 Booster]

I think these backwinders are expected to use with (the camera) in a black bag only.

You may check out this earch to see what is available:
http://www.google.com/search?q=ewa+s8b& ... 8&oe=UTF-8

Original site:
http://members8.tsukaeru.net/muddy/rewinder_super8.htm

R

[Alex]

Sequence of events as I remember for using the EWA backwinder.

You finish your last shot, the one you want to dissolve from with a fade to black. The scary part is you have to count how long the fade took, then convert that amount of time into film frames. Then you carefully take the film out in a very dark location, perhaps even pitch black. (you might want to remember where your footage counter was because it will probably reset to zero!)

Then, you are supposed to put a piece of tape (provided on an sheet by EWA) that goes around the spindle of the cartridge. I think the idea is to "lock" the spindle so when you rewind the cartridge while in the backwinder the spindle doesn't spin backwards.

What I never quite figured out was what parts are done in pitch black? Am I supposed to flawlessly attach the adhesive in complete darkness? Am I then supposed to be able to read the white lettering telling me how many frames a revolution is, while in pitch dark surroundiings?

I think once the cartridge was in the EWA, you could perhaps move from the pitch black setting back into daylight. Now comes time to actually rewind the cartridge, but that darn adhesive step was the one step I didn't like. Once you rewound your film the appropriate amount of frames, you had to go into complete darkness again so that you could put the film back in the camera.

Now comes the hard part! 8O After reinserting the cartridge back into the Super-8 Cameras, you had to begin your fade in with the hopes that you nailed your overlay exactly correctly! Meaning your fade in shot was filming over the same section of film that the fade out from the previous scene was shot on.

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. You really needed to match f-stops from the two scenes otherwise matching the fade in with the fade out could basically impossible. Imagine going from an f11 in one scene to an F 2.8 in the next!

Now in the context of when the EWA was made, this still was a cool gizmo. Back in the day when a Canon 1014XLS actually sold for between $600-900 dollars, buying a product for 39 bucks (I'm guessing that's what the EWA cost, I don't remember) and TRYING it on your $250.00 dollar Super-8 camera was the kind of thing one would want to master so that they could feel they had features that were only available on cameras costing twice to three times as much.

[rurgis]

hey! i have one of these! never found the need to use it to often though. but i did some test with it... since cross disolves and so are so easily done in the computer, or camera, i only tested it together with a compendium and masking parts of the image.
care has to be taken in order to avoid overlapping, but it worked quite good. the only problem i had with it was revinding the film in the ewa device.
seems like when you rewind the film, the casette has to be shaken a lot to loosen the windings inside. on my first test i ended up putting a little too much force on trying to revind it- ending up tearing the perforationholes. but once i got the technique right i did a quadrupple exposure and it came out fine! its a fun device....

[Alex]

Once the film was ripped, did you dispose of the film, or what?

[super8man]

I used to get a kick out of watching these little plastic contraptions fetch $100 to $200 on ebay bay in 1998. Always amazed me.

That was just before people learned they can do the same thing on the pc for free. Of course, it would take a few more years before pc's became affordable for NL editing...

Advice: ignore these units and use the pc.

Cheers,
m

[christoph]

Advice: ignore these units and use the pc.

unless you want to poject your film i might add ;)

++ christoph ++

[Mikey]

I have a more durable one that was made by Craven...it encloses the cartridge entirely, and is made out of heavy metal. works good, I haven't used it for awhile.

[Pepe]

i have one like this

(these people at mondofoto have lots of pics of super8 gear)

which i don'y use (thanks to nizo!). i got it in a "bagfull" of super8 accessories. if anyone (not located in a far land where mailing would be too expensive) has any use for it send me a pm and i'll mail it.

p.pe

[Mikey]

Penncrest is a JC Penny's brand name, so that may be where your backwinder originated. Thanks for sharing !

[tim]

What is the longest fade/superimposition that anyone has managed with an S8 cartridge? It the backwind capacity greater at the beginning or end of a cartridge?

[S8 Booster]

What is the longest fade/superimposition that anyone has managed with an S8 cartridge? It the backwind capacity greater at the beginning or end of a cartridge?

Pretty sure it is at the beginning [300 frames with a backwinder] vs the end [approx 100 frames - camera only]

As far as I understand it by cart examination also.

R

[S8 Booster]

Sorry - I misread your post.
The above seem to be the max limit for backwinding by either method

On my Canon 1014 XL-S the cam´s film counter has a "safe" zone indicator ranging from approx 5 to 40 feet where "safe" lap dissolves can be made.

With a 300 frame backwinder I guess it narrows the safe area even more. Most likly something like between 10-35 ft?

R