Super 8 on a drone

[Patrick02]

Here in Australia, someone has mounted a super 8 camera to a drone. Looks like an FPV racing drone (doing some freestyle in acro mode.) Some great scenery there and what a great use of technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzIcR_U0NiU

[jpolzfuss]

Thanks!

This was done before, e.g.:
https://youtu.be/oH6EC7VSPDE?feature=shared
Or:
https://youtu.be/MLqBmYWPlLk?feature=shared

BTW: You can also put a 16mm Bolex on a drone:
https://youtu.be/lsRexSiCx20?feature=shared

[Patrick02]

The footage in the first link is awesome. Great stability. Ive seen the 16mm Bolex drone clip before.

In the past, I have thought of doing the same thing myself but never got around to it. Years ago, my father used to work outdoors in a scenic bit of countryside with a view of the sea and a cliff. I had often thought about attaching a super 8 camera to something like a balloon or a parachute etc and letting it descend over the cliff while the camera runs.

Obviously, for drone mounting, you would need a super 8 camera that's very small and light weight. At first, the Minolta XL-400 seems like an ideal candidate. Small, light weight, manual exposure control and a sharp lens. Though I would prefer a camera that runs at 24fps for this type of filming. And also a very wide field of view. I guess you could always screw one of those wide angle or fisheye adapters (designed for video) on to the lens.

[jpolzfuss]

Well, you don’t have to use wide angle attachments designed for video as there are also ones designed for S8-cameras:
Canon C-8 Wide Attachment 43, Schneider UWL I-III (for all cameras with Schneider Macro lenses, e.g. most Nizos), wide angle lens for the Chinon Pocket-8, Eumig PM Aspheric Wide Angle Attachment for the Eumig Nautica, … .

But you are correct that most lightweight S8-cameras cannot do 24fps. There are Eumig Nauticas that have been converted to 24fps and only weight 600g, but they are bulky. The Nizo 116 and the Sankyo EM-40 XL weight 800g, the Elmo Super 104 is also close to 1kg, the Bauer cameras with 24fps also weight at least 900g, …

[inlieubeaulieu]

I think the ideal camera, if you could find one, would be an Elmo Album 3600. same 4.6mm super-wide angle lens as the Elmo F20S-XL, but half the weight. I bet it's relatively simple to even remove the silly zoom-element that swings away from the super-wide lens (the zoom element is very easy to remove from the f20S-XL, I removed it from my own camera), this would further reduce the weight, too