Super8 and its bastard vidi brother, the PXL2000!

Post by **Freya** » Thu Oct 28, 2004 10:07 pm

Angus wrote:The Pixelvision camera was launched here in the UK but it died a very quick death....if it is what I think it is.

Here it was marketed as the Fisher PRice KiddyCamCorder.

That's the horrid B&W camcorder that recorded onto audio cassettes at about 6fps, right?

Wow! I've NEVER heard of a PAL pixelvision! In the usa it films at 15fps, so I would guess maybe 12 fps in the u.k.?

Have you really seen one somewhere Angus?

Even the japanese version of this camera is incredibly rare but it was thought that there never was a pal version!

love

Freya

Post by **greasemonkey** » Fri Oct 29, 2004 11:56 pm

It records a 90X120 image at fifteen frames a second. I got mine for twenty five dollars off ebay in pieces and ended up having to spend an additional $114 to get it fixed. Almost all of them have a broken tape transport but if you set it up with video outputs you can just record to something else like with the tyco kid cam. It does produce a really cool image compared to other lo-fi video. I don't see why everyone is obsessed with adding special lenses to them. I can't imagine how such a low resolution camera would benifit from an expensive lens. Other than you get to sit and look at it and think "I am so cool". I have been thinking about hacking up a camcorder to set it up with a viewer and maybe replace the tape mechanism with the one from the camcorder. Then I'll be the coolest kid in town.

Number216 · Post by **Number216** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 3:38 am

Wow, I think you just got me interested in yet another obscure filmmaking format!

Now, I'd REALLY love to make a feature-length film made with nothing but obscure formats that are thought to be dead.

That is, if I ever get my hands on one of those cameras, and some S8 film. Hooking to a VCR and recording the image there? Since the camcorder I'm using is a Digital-8, I can just hook the cable straight into there (I think it has someplace you can hook an RF cable- otherwise, I'd have no problem buying a crapload of audiotapes), and record onto THAT tape.

The Game Boy Camera doesn't sound like too much of a bad idea, either, but you can only take pics at such a rate. (and only 30 frames) I still have that thing, too! Now, this limited synth/sequencer, as I remember, only played a couple of tunes at varying speeds and tempos... but not actually enabling you to compose your own score? (the other thing I'd love to do is scoring a film with synth music as you'd hear it on an NES or old-fashioned Game Boy)

Post by **Cranium** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 6:18 am

I sold a PXL2K a few years ago for like $200. Found another last summer for $1. Guy wanted $5. This one had a moldy filter, so I had to remove it. Other than that, it's not too shabby. Transport's broken, but I really don't care.
Coolest thing about them? Infinite focus. If it's set up right, everything from the sensor on out to the resolution limit of the format is in focus.

On this Gameboy thing, I thought of that a few years ago as well. Here's the trick I came up with at the time:

They made an adapter cartridge that allowed you to plug GB carts into (I think) an Super-nintendo. Might have been just a Nintendo. Anyway... Seems to me like you could use one of those carts, put the GBCam in, and get a video out?
Aren't there super-dinky handheld NES systems now?

Post by **timdrage** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 11:46 am

Now, this limited synth/sequencer, as I remember, only played a couple of tunes at varying speeds and tempos... but not actually enabling you to compose your own score?

You certainly can edit the music!... you can choose 'sample', 'new' or 'saved'... sample is the demo tune, new is blank. just choose one of these and on the screen with the little DJ guy, press 'select' and you'll go to the sequencer... there are 3 channels, you cycle through windows by pressing select again. B exits back to the dj playing screen again.

It's a surprisingly advanced little sequencer, has modulation and even a waveform editor!!

Crazy device, there's all sorts of cool semi-hidden stuff like that.

Now, I'd REALLY love to make a feature-length film made with nothing but obscure formats that are thought to be dead.

I've thought the same thing, would be nice! Could be interesting to combine film (esp small formats and/or shot with very old/odd cameras) with lo-fi video...

Hooking to a VCR and recording the image there?

A lot of PXL users seem to advocate recording to a 8mm video walkman of some kind, seems like that would be pretty convenient.

Seems to me like you could use one of those carts, put the GBCam in, and get a video out?

That's exactly what I did to capture my images.. using the Super Game Boy adaptor for the SNES. thought of using the setup for video but haven't yet. Also it'd probably be fairly easy to make it portable (albeit unweildy!!) as the snes could be run off an external battery, then you'd just need a camcorder with input, or a video walkman, to record it to.

The resulting footage would need cropping tho, as the Super Gameboy presents a small image with various colourful borders around it (i think you could set it to just black) and squashes the image to a rectange ( GB screen is nearly square.)

I suspect you could also with careful setup get a pretty nice image just shooting the screen of a backlit GameBoy Advance! Maybe even on super-8 with a fast enough film!?! Or long exposure stop motion. Could look interesting!

The gameboy cam live feed is pretty low frame rate though... lower than pixelvision.... tho I think it may vary, possibly (tho not tested) it works a bit faster with fresher batteries... it certainly seems to generally take better pics with full power.....

OK,

I just switched on the GB for a test, I;ve just discovered that the frame rate increases if there's more LIGHT! If it's dark it auto-adjusts ok but slows right down! If I point it at the window it's pretty smooth! So filming outside would be best I suppose...

AAAaaaaanyway... :lol:

Number216 · Post by **Number216** » Sat Oct 30, 2004 7:13 pm

timdrage wrote:The resulting footage would need cropping tho, as the Super Gameboy presents a small image with various colourful borders around it (i think you could set it to just black)

Or, you could just do what I do, editing on Adobe Premiere, garbage matte to the rescue!

I lack a Super NES (let alone a Super Game Boy). How many seconds of footage comes off of this? I could imagine 30 frames of storage, even with such a low speed, doesn't provide any more than four seconds. Wow, to think lighting would actually be vital on such a thing.

One thing I'd sure love to do is, if I'm able to make it, edit all this footage VCR-to-VCR. Many directors talk of having edited films with this painstaking process (mainly Robert Rodriguez and Paul Thomas Anderson), and I've already done it twice with some Digital8 footage. (the first time, the editing looked painful- I didn't know you were supposed to push the pause button (not the stop button), so every cut there was 2 seconds of blue screen. The second time, it looked a lot cleaner (and I learned more about timing))

"Slacker" is a film I've wanted to see for a very long time (ever since I've seen Linklater's "Waking Life", which some people like to call "Slacker 2"), but I've never found it. (for rental, that is- I've come across the new Criterion DVD once in a video store, but I hesitated due to the $40 price tag)

Post by **timdrage** » Sun Oct 31, 2004 3:44 pm

I lack a Super NES (let alone a Super Game Boy). How many seconds of footage comes off of this?

When you are taking a picture you get a live feed, I was thinking more in terms of just recording this than actually taking frames on the camera. But you can make nice 30 frame loops... you can draw + add clip art + text to the photos so you can make some nice silly animated loops if you have the patience!

Post by **malisia** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 3:24 am

hi! I've bought a Pxl2000 on ebay 3 years ago. And I did this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2_7BaZ5YSA

Post by **Rick Palidwor** » Wed Mar 01, 2006 6:53 am

malisia wrote:hi! I've bought a Pxl2000 on ebay 3 years ago. And I did this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2_7BaZ5YSA

Cool video Malisia.

I shot a music video for Gesundheit on a pixelvision camera. I was going to be at a show shooting super 8 and I found out one of the guitar players had one and told her to bring it out. The battery compartment was corroded and I was able to get it clean just before the show started. I had never seen one before and had brought a 60 minute tape thinking I could 30 minutes recording time (like an audio cassette).

I had a couple super 8 cameras loaded - that's why I was there - and once and a while I'd pick up this pixel vision and pull the trigger. The band was super loud and I couldn't hear the camera and I had no idea I had blown through the tape after a couple minutes. (I managed to squeeze a four minute video out of it by repeating footage.)

(And the heads were dirty which made the footage that much better.)

And that's my pixelvision story

Rick