widening film gate

Post by **souper8** » Fri Sep 27, 2002 7:48 pm

I am thinking about widening my film gate on my camera. It would be great to maximize the width of the super8 film. Did anyone do it successfully or think about doing it. I read that Phil Vigeant is experimenting with this idea.

souper8

konton · Post by **konton** » Fri Sep 27, 2002 8:28 pm

Don't do it Mike it's a trap!

Post by **jukkasil** » Sat Sep 28, 2002 8:28 am

I have shot couple tests with modified super 8 camera (primitive Lomo Aurora 219, I filed myself the film gate) and transfered film with my Workprinter-3 to digital (1.77:1 ratio). That modification has its own problems, but it would be possible anyway. You'll get only 1.60:1 aspect ratio with this way, so you have to crop little the image to get it suitable for 16:9 (1.77:1).

Here is my sample mpg of that test (I used Kodak bad K40 roll, so don't care about these jumpping frames):

http://www.sorb-i-tol.com/super8widescreen.mpg (7.3 Mbytes)

I just bought one anamorphic lens via ebay (to get 2.66:1 ratio) and I'll make some tests with this one to find out which way is the best for my needs.

Post by **souper8** » Sat Sep 28, 2002 8:30 pm

Konton, I am planning on doing it to a cheap camera. I'm not crazy to mess with my Beaulieu.

Jukkasil,
That's a sweet looking transfer. How much of the sides did you chop off on the transfer? Did you image extend to the sprocket holes? Did you remove the gate for the filing?

Post by **jukkasil** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 10:59 am

souper8 wrote:Jukkasil, That's a sweet looking transfer. How much of the sides did you chop off on the transfer? Did you image extend to the sprocket holes? Did you remove the gate for the filing?

Yes, I removed the gate. It was easy in that russian camera-model.

Here are links to some still images of this test , would help you find out the aspect ratio etc:

http://www.sorb-i-tol.com/thewholeframe1.jpg

http://www.sorb-i-tol.com/thewholeframe2.jpg

http://www.sorb-i-tol.com/thewholeframe3.jpg

Post by **Old Uncle Barry** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 11:41 am

8O

Dont do it,the extra you get just is not worth it particularly as one correspondent has mooted the point of top and bottom gate masking to give you a wide(ish) format.

Save your money and get a proper anamorphic lens and you will be amazed at just how good Super8 can get.