which is the Best S16 camera?

[madhanpatel]

Hi, Please guide me I want to buy a Super 16 Movie camera and after shooting in S16 i want to transfer it to Cinemascope for distribution purpose.
1. Which model S16 is good?
2. Is it I want to buy Anamorphic lense to shoot for Cinemascope?

Musical regards
MPATEL

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Anamorphic lenses normally have a 2X squeeze; the 35mm anamorphic aperture is approx. 1.20 : 1 -- since the image will have a 2X squeeze, when unsqueezed by being doubled in width horizontally by the anamorphic projector lens, it becomes a nearly 2.40 : 1 image (often called "2.35".)

Trouble with putting an anamorphic lens on a 16mm camera is that a 2X squeeze is too much. On a 1.33 : 1 regular 16mm camera, the unsqueezed image is 2.66 : 1. So on the wider gate of a Super-16 camera, which is 1.68 : 1, a 2X anamorphic lens will create a 3.36 : 1 image.

In other words, if you intend to blow this up to 35mm anamorphic for CinemaScope projection, you will end up having to crop the sides of the anamorphic Super-16 image from 3.36 to 2.40. This isn't much better than just shooting Super-16 with normal spherical lenses and framing it for cropping vertically to 2.40. Either way, you're wasting some negative, but it's easier to use regular lenses than anamorphic lenses.

Plus you'll have problems finding anamorphic lenses with short enough focal lengths for Super-16/16mm. The wider-angle 35mm anamorphic lenses generally start in the 35mm to 40mm range, which are not very wide-angle on a 16mm camera.

Any of the modern Super-16 cameras can take good images if they are well-maintained and you use good lenses and good film stock and expose it well. By "modern" I mean the Aatons and the Arri-SR's. The newer cameras are the Aaton XTR-Prod and the Arri-SR3, but the latest, state-of-the-art Super-16 camera is the new Arri-416.

However, a new Arri-416 and new Zeiss Ultra or Master primes or Cooke S4 prime lenses are as expensive to buy as most 35mm equipment.

 

[madhanpatel]

Thank U very much for the replay

Thank U very much for the replay

Hi David,
Thank U for the guidence, How about buying the NPR ECLAIR S16 Camera?
Mpatel

 

[David Mullen ASC]

Have you found an NPR that has been converted to Super-16?

I used NPR's in film school and they worked fine. They are one of the cheaper old 16mm sync-sound cameras out there, rather heavy and awkward for handheld shooting but good because they are relatively quiet (you can use a barney if necessary), have an orientable viewfinder (unlike the odd design of the Arri-16BL where the image rotates as you rotate the finder), and have a variable shutter.

Trouble is that they take both c-mounts and Eclair bayonet (CA) mounts. Don't know if it's worth modifying to remove the switchable lens mount and replace it with a permanent PL-mount so you can use modern lenses that cover the Super-16 gate (assuming you can get the camera converted to Super-16 -- not all 16mm reflex cameras can be easily converted.)

I'd try and get an Arri-SR2 or Aaton (LTR or XTR) before I looked into the cheaper, previous generation (1960's) of sync-sound cameras (Eclairs, Arri-16BL, CP16, etc.)

 

[madhanpatel]

Super 16 Camera

Super 16 Camera

Hi David,
Once again thak u very much, Please suggest me the affordable and good Super 16 Camera.
Musical regards
MPatel

 

[David Mullen ASC]

"Affordable and good" is not quite as bad as "best and cheapest" I guess.

What's affordable and what's good enough are personal, subjective opinions. I'd say get a used Aaton, but that might not be affordable for you. Maybe an Eclair NPR is your best choice, but you may not be able to get it converted to Super-16.

 

[directedition]

If you keep a hawk-eye on eBay for a while, you might find an S16 NPR for under a thousand.

For budget S16 sync sound, I really don't think you can beat the NPR. It's a solid and quiet machine that's easy to use. An ideal S16 setup would be using one of the Arri SR series, but that would put you back $10,000 easily.

edit: for MOS sound, there's no shame in buying a K3 camera and having it converted to S16 (conversion to U16 is much cheaper, but fewer transfer houses support it). A converted Bolex would be much sturdier, but almost much more expensive.