The Supermag 400 is now ready!

[supermag400_inventor]

I may have discovered the reason for the recent fogging problem on the last test film. I was thinking it over and it occured to me that the exposure may be coming from the camera door "window". Since the mag is made like a sound cartridge, the bottom of the magazine is open in the sound gate. When I shot the fiilm the other day, it was very bright outside and the light comming through the door window may have done it. Since the foam that surrounds the window on the door has deteriorated over the years. That may be the culprit. So, I plan to shoot another test with the door window blocked out. Lets see it that helps!

Again guys, thanks for your support! I do appreciate the butt kicking. Now I can see my errors.

Dave

[Dave Hardy]

Hopefully no one jumps the gun at this point. The last thing Dave needs are unhappy users who are spreading the word on the net that the magazine scratches & fogs film. Without the internet most of us would have thought the bad processing of Pro8 labs that we witnessed were isolated incidents.

On the hand Roger's Workprinters benefit by the good reputation for quality that results from the word spread by his satisfied customers. As the consensus in this forum has always been that users would prefer a 200' magazine, it's necessary to establish that the quality of gate results in improved registration, reduction in breathing & side to side weave in the gate. Bigger is not always better. More people will opt for the 400' mag if it can be established that there is an improvement in quality in addition to a longer run.


Dave

[supermag400_inventor]

I just returned from the local park where I shot over 275 feet of 100 T stock that I had left. I filmed my grandson and his father, plus I got some really great footage of a soccer game. Rich color and action. I used the manual exposure setting and dropped down the F stop a few points to help reduce the chance of over exposure. The lighting was perfect and the mag worked like a charm. I stopped and started many, many times. The film seemed to be registering well, but I won't know absolutely until I get the results back. I used a UV filter and a polarizer to cut down the glare and color shift, since I was using a sensitive low light negative stock and not daylight reversal.

I taped up the gate door to prevent any chance of light getting in through there. So if the fogging is still an issue, then it's the handling of the film that must be causing it. We will see!

Dave Sipmann
Inventor of the Supermag

[Dave Hardy]

Thanks for the update Dave. Hopefully you didn't underexpose too much, negative stock can cope with overexposure much better than underexposure. An incident light meter reading would be the way to determine accurate exposure control.

Glad to hear you took the precaution to tape the magazine door to prevent the posibility of fogging. Hope all goes well. Dp you have any stills of the pressure pad (gate) of your magazine? I'm sure everyone is eager to see some photo's of the Feed Spool mechanism & possibly a diagram of how the film is laced in the magazine.

All the best.

Dave Hardy

[supermag400_inventor]

Actually, I plan on doing a full spread layout of the internal parts and the functions very soon. I'll put it up on the site.

The pressure plate is metal. Polished stainless steel. NOT PLASTIC!
I tried the plastic one....crap!
I decided to use stainless steel for durability and smoothness. Then the gate plate is adjustable by a small spring loaded nut that puts pressure on the gate. It's simple and works great. I hope this test is a winner.

I love this thing....so much fun to play with. It's like holding a 16 mm camera without the weight. And it's really fun to watch the public's reaction when they see me holding this impressive camera setup. "You filming for TV or something? " , they'll ask.

So much fun !!!! If anything comes out of this it's going to be that the world will not look down on super 8 anymore as being wimpy.

Dave

[Dave Hardy]

That's terrific news Dave. Good to hear about the spring adjustable nut on the stainless steel pressure pad. That should allow local camera repair shops to tweek up the pressure for the individual users camera to optain the quality from your magazine. I look forward to your brochure & the report of todays test.

All the best.
Dave Hardy

[paulcotto]

Glad to see those pressure plates are working out for you! I think steel is the way to go on them.

Regards,
Paul Cotto

Actually, I plan on doing a full spread layout of the internal parts and the functions very soon. I'll put it up on the site.

The pressure plate is metal. Polished stainless steel. NOT PLASTIC!
I tried the plastic one....crap!
I decided to use stainless steel for durability and smoothness. Then the gate plate is adjustable by a small spring loaded nut that puts pressure on the gate. It's simple and works great. I hope this test is a winner.

I love this thing....so much fun to play with. It's like holding a 16 mm camera without the weight. And it's really fun to watch the public's reaction when they see me holding this impressive camera setup. "You filming for TV or something? " , they'll ask.

So much fun !!!! If anything comes out of this it's going to be that the world will not look down on super 8 anymore as being wimpy.

Dave

[Alex]

I may have discovered the reason for the recent fogging problem on the last test film. I was thinking it over and it occured to me that the exposure may be coming from the camera door "window". Since the mag is made like a sound cartridge, the bottom of the magazine is open in the sound gate. When I shot the fiilm the other day, it was very bright outside and the light comming through the door window may have done it. Since the foam that surrounds the window on the door has deteriorated over the years. That may be the culprit. So, I plan to shoot another test with the door window blocked out. Lets see it that helps!

Again guys, thanks for your support! I do appreciate the butt kicking. Now I can see my errors.

Dave

For what it's worth my 35mm camera had overexposed film from my inadvertent removal of the foam that surrounded the small ASA window.
I've also seen a hole in the bottom of a camera under the film cartridge chamber cause fogging so you are probably onto to something.

Another way to tell is to see if the film periodically "fogs/flashes" at approximately the same moment in time after every time you stop filming.

For instance, you finish shooting a scene but the scene flashed say one second before stopping. If your footage fogs/flashes one second before stopping (or in some other consistent manner) everytime, then you have a light leak somewhere.

I'd review the fogged footage you have already shot and see if you can notice a distinct moment in time as it relates to the stopping and starting of the camera where the fogging intensity changes.

[Dave Hardy]

Hi Paul,

Any update on your perforating machine? Did it not turn out to be practical to impliment?

All the best
Dave Hardy

[paulcotto]

I guess you missed my last post about the perforator. It's sitting in my garage at the moment waiting for the proper environment to work in. I am going to convert a small utility room in my house to use for the perforator. I need to install an air filtration system a light tight door and temperature control to avoid conditions that would ruin customers film. I live in Houston Texas and the heat and humidity here would quickly destroy any film I tried to perforate without the proper conditions. All this will cost a few thousand dollars and I will do it as I get the funds. The project is moving more slowly since I depleted the loan I got at the start of the project. Thank you for your interest in my project.

Regards,
Paul Cotto

Hi Paul,

Any update on your perforating machine? Did it not turn out to be practical to impliment?

All the best
Dave Hardy

[supermag400_inventor]

For those of you who would be interested to know. Paul Cotto was very very helpful to me in my development of the Supermag 400 gate plate. He aided me in designing the plate out of steel. I sent him a plastic one I used and he did a CAD drawing of a Russian plate that was even better. Then I had it made into the steel parts I'm now using. He deserves a hand of applause!

Thank you Paul.


Dave

[mattias]

would a pressure plate from a single 8 camera work? i don't know what those super tiny ones (hardly any bigger than a cart) are called, but they can often be found for $10 or so, or even less if they're not working. just an idea.

/matt

[supermag400_inventor]

The gate plates I use are well made and work very well. They are smooth and I polish them in a rock polisher to give them a buff finish.

I could not have hand made a better one. Which I tried to do and it was hell.
I filed and cut and puffed only to be disappointed in the results.

These plates are all exactly the same size and well made. I give credit to the e-machine shop that did them. They do good work. If anyone ever needs to have a part made, this is the place.

http://www.emachineshop.com

Just download their CAD program and your off.


Dave

[mattias]

yeah, i wasn't suggesting there's anything wrong with those you have, just an idea for a less expensive option.

/matt

[supermag400_inventor]

Actually, these plates are the cheepest item on the list of components in the mag. They only cost me about $2.00 each. That's cheep!

The only drawback is I have to order a lot of them in order to get that price.
Lets just say I have enough parts to keep me in stock for a long time.


Dave