35mm to super-8 adaptor?

[timdrage]

Just thinking about the 35mm lens adaptor for DV that was mentioned
in this thread... surely exactly the same principle could be applied to 8mm cameras, allowing for proper cinematic depth of field! Or am I missing something obvious which makes this possible for DV but not S8?

(edited to actually link to the thread I reffered to! :roll: )

[Lunar07]

Just thinking about the 35mm lens adaptor for DV that was mentioned in another thread... surely exactly the same principle could be applied to 8mm cameras, allowing for proper cinematic depth of field! Or am I missing something obvious which makes this possible for DV but not S8?

Tim - It is better when you are refering to another thread, to include a link to that thread or to summarize what was actually concluded in that thread. For example, I for one, have no clue whatsoever what you are talking about :roll: Although I'd like to have a clue :-D

[timdrage]

Oops, sorry, yeah, a link would help!!

It was via the 'best looking video trailer' thread:
viewtopic.php?t=8357&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15
where this site was mentioned:
http://www.enormousapparatus.com/35adapter.htm
- insane contraption made from numerous adaptors and filter rings connected together!

Via that page is a link to a dv forum where there's lots of discussion of similar projects.

The basic premise seems to be that you use the large lens to basically project an image onto a ground glass (often spinning!) which is then focused on as a macro shot. Sounds crazy, but seems to work, and I think it would work for s8 too, though probably a lot more hard work
... plus the image would be upside down; with DV you can of course flip it in post, and trick the viewfinder into reversing the image, but on film it would be problematic if you want to project etc rather than just telecine.

[steve hyde]

The discussion on alternative imaging methods involves a bit more... url archeology:

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay ... forumid=70

[steve hyde]

I just looked at that "Life against Memory" short again. I like the look, and as I said before, don't care much for this genre of what might be called --contemporary act 3 shock therapy story telling-- that is popular in American film schools right now. But to comment on the "look", I would say they also used a polarizing filter to capture the sky, which almost works. For me the sky is the visual weakness in that piece. I think 16mm and a polarizing filter could yeild a devastating sky under those conditions.

For video I think the 35mm lens adapter yeilds a nice look... I personally have no idea if one could be made for super8. I'm not a camera tech....Perhaps one of the camera techs that frequent this board could advise.......??

Steve

[steve hyde]

......and for those that want to see the film I just made reference to: "Life Against Memory" is at the bottom of the following web page:

http://www.enormousapparatus.com/


Steve

[timdrage]

After seeing some people's DIY efforts on that board I think I will give building one a go for video some time soon, and maybe if that works test it with a super-8 camera too. It seems pretty simple in principle, it's basically a camera obscura, you use camcorder macro lens to reshoot a projected image from the 35mm lens.

The main drawbacks are apparently the loss of light, and the need to spin or vibrate the ground glass to disguise it's grain... or find some kind of suitably microscopically fine-grained surface to use instead tho I don't think anyone has done yet.

[Justin Lovell]

there is a company that makes the adapter.

It was used in the film 28 days later. I shot some tests with it combined with an xl-1 and the quality was astounding. Really shallow DOF, but the xl1 still has a strange look to it... the way it deals with colors...

jusetan