Super8 and its bastard vidi brother, the PXL2000!

Post by **mr.jordan** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:29 pm

Just a question of interest...Has anyone here played around with the PXl 2000? I just got one off Ebay. Works about 80% which makes for quite a fun expereimental camera.
I Do alot of expereimenting in S8, and would recommend this fun little camera to anyone else that does.
Even though it is video based it has quite a beautiful, film-look to it. especially when the heads are dirty, it looks like a very dilapidated, sunbleached Super8 film, which is a beautiful thing! (when its done right)

Anyone else out there use this camera? Im thinking of combining it with super 8 for my scifinoir feature. (whenever i can find some talented actors, that is....) :roll:

-jordan

Post by **greasemonkey** » Sat Oct 23, 2004 11:51 pm

I have one. i just started playing with it. When I record onto a cassette the image is pretty faint but recording straight to a VCR produces really nice contrast and sharper image (ie. the corners on the pixels are sharper. What your shooting doen't improve much). I am going to keep playing with it more this winter to see how it works in various situations and making whatever modifications I can think of.

Post by **Nigel** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 4:30 am

I have thought about getting one for years. There is a company in Florida that does full overhauls and upgrades to them too.

Right now I am thinking about going and getting a cheap Digital Camera that will record movie-clips and using that instead. They sell for 20 bucks and are just as pixelated.

Good Luck

Post by **greenplastic79** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 4:58 am

Every time I go to Goodwill or Salvation Army ( 3-4 times a week) I have rampant dreams of finding a PXL 2000, an underappreciated super 8 dream machine, or perhaps a 1st edition by a rather collectibly dead wordsmith. Instead I always find fat loathsome women managing vulgar handfuls of romance novels while young children beg innocently for the simple sanctitiy of new shoes, 25 dollar video machines choaking on expired technology, and racks and racks of the nonsense the dead were wise enough to bequeath.

Perhaps I should lay of the Ginsberg for awhile.

Post by **mr.jordan** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 5:41 am

nigel,
which type of digi camera are you referring too? sounds great. the PXL's are definetly too overpriced. and do you have the info of the company in florida?

greenplastic,
i dig the ginsberg reference. try resding The Howl 3 times in a row, it can make you physically dizzy and sick!
I was in the same position as you with the thrift shops, always looking for PXL. That persitence payed off for a number of other things, but the PXLs are like kryptonite in those places. theyre just not of this earth. Ebay seems to have a monopoly over them. i got mine for just under a 100 and thats almost a steal!
Good luck.

Post by **Scotness** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 1:32 pm

Can you put a figure on the resolution of these things -- sounds like fun

Scot

Post by **Lunar07** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 4:42 pm

Nigel wrote: I have thought about getting one for years. There is a company in Florida that does full overhauls and upgrades to them too.

Which company is that? And what kind of upgrades do they do?

Post by **Nigel** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:06 pm

Go to the electronics section at Wal-Mart and there you wil see a small digital camera that is about 1" wide 6" long and 1/2" thick. They sell for 19.95 and have the resolution of something on par with a Phone(Maybe even less).

As for the compnay in Florida was at one time talking about making an interchangable lens system and improve the video out...I think it costs inthe range of 300 bucks which may or may not be worth it. Labor is 90 dollars an hour for all services. The company is called Cinema Technic I can't remember their website.

Good Luck

Post by **mr.jordan** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:09 pm

wow, im not sure what the resolution is exactly, but from the look of the playback of mine, its close to 100~200x100~200 black and white pixels
i might be completely wrong, but thats what it looks like. VERy pixelated, VERy neat!

im interested in this Florida company too

tell us whats going on...

-Jordan

Post by **Lunar07** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 7:35 pm

mr.jordan wrote:wow, im not sure what the resolution is exactly, but from the look of the playback of mine, its close to 100~200x100~200 black and white pixels
i might be completely wrong, but thats what it looks like. VERy pixelated, VERy neat!

im interested in this Florida company too tell us whats going on...

-Jordan

Cinema Technic -
http://www.cinematechnic.com

Did they ever make these cameras in color or just black and white?

Post by **timdrage** » Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:08 pm

I want a pixelvision camera! Don't think I'll ever find one tho, I don't think they were ever even released here in the UK.

This guy modifies/circuit bends them to interesting effect. Pics and video on there, + he does sell/customise to order.
Also, info on 'Sanpix 1000' bootleg Japanese PXL made in the 90's!

There's a pixelvision sequence in Richard Linklater's film Slacker (not to mention the super-8 finale) ... also the indie vampire film Nadja, (with David Lynch cameo) uses PXL footage for the vampire's POV. The rest of the film is black+white 16mm I think,

Another good option for lo-rez toy photography is the Game Boy Camera which can be picked up really cheap these days. Lots of fun, takes stills tho you can animate to a limited degree (not many frames!). (it also includes a surprisingly good tho very limited 3 channel synth/sequencer disguised as one of it's 'games') You can get a link cable to download the images to PC, or you can do what i do and video capture from the 'Super Gameboy' SNES add-on.

I picked up a toy video camera from the car boot sale which is nowhere near as cool as PXL, basically just a tiny monochrome CCTV camera in a camcorder-shaped plastic enclosure. It doesn't record, you're just supposed to plug into the VCR. Very blurry, wobbly image, tiny enough to have fun attatching to things/people!

Oh, and my favorite: the DigitalDream l'Espion digital camera. keyring sized, takes very low rez but strangely pleasing photos, also can take up to 10 seconds of video. Really nice gadget, and getting pretty cheap now that technology is moving on!

Hmm, enough rambling about lo-fi video for now!

Post by **Angus** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:11 pm

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?

Post by **timdrage** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 2:27 pm

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

That's the one!

Ahh, so I just have a ludicrously slim chance of finding one rather than none whatsoever! Thanks for the info.

Post by **bakanosaru** » Mon Oct 25, 2004 11:22 pm

From what I can tell there is a person called "waterhed" who is recommended on a number of forums and sites about pixelvision 2000 cameras.
He regularly sells modified cameras on ebay (quite expensive though).

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... eName=WDVW

Perhaps this is who you were referring to?[/quote]

Post by **super8man** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 12:01 am

I had one - found it at a yard sale for $5. Talked them down to $3. I knew what it was but figured I would try to get the best price I could. It was a fun piece but in the end I found it better to go with super 8. Prices ranged in the $250 range for a long time on ebay (years) but lately I think they go for about $100. Fair deal at that price - at least in my mind. Better deal for about $50 or less. And today, with all the electronic gizmos you may as well use a sony mavica or some other still camera and use the low-fi movie recording functions. Just a thought. My advice is not to go too head over heals on this kind of format. It's hard enough making dealing with an 8mm negative!

Good luck out there.