K40 pinhole camera test

[timdrage]

Got round to trying my scanner's transparency setting on super-8... here are some images of a short test of pinhole photography I did recently, using the technique of basically putting a pinhole over the S8 cartridge opening and turning the spool manually!!! Totally unregistered of course...

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EDIT: better scan!!! -

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- randomness


- vaguely recognisable photo of my laptop

I'm pleased with how it looks, some beautiful light blobs and colours! It's not too great in motion as it just flickers past in less than a second, I didn't shoot much. I like it more as a still... always fond of photos that go right to the edge of the film over sproket holes...

Anyway, it's promising, I really like the abstract sci-fi-ish look of it! Will definitely experiment further with this kind of thing!!


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Movie clips! Thanks very much to tlatosmd for putting these together from my scans!!!:

gif:


Divx AVI clips:

small version - 80x60 - 28k
http://www.cultivatetwiddle.com/filmsho ... ation1.avi

large version - 320 x 240 - 268k
http://www.cultivatetwiddle.com/filmsho ... ation2.avi

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[tlatosmd]

Wow, I'd love to see a whole abstract sequence or scene like that! 8O

[timdrage]

Thanks! Yeah, I'll definitely film some longer sequences now I've seen how it looks.... when projected it's of course insanely flickery and all over the place but looks pretty cool... I think the kind of strings of light blobs would flow well if they went on for longer...

I might also find a junk camera to remove the lens and replace with a pinhole (and either slow the motor right down or make it hand cranked) in order to film some with registration... which will be much less abstract of course but should look interesting too...

[MovieStuff]

Oh man. Waaaaaayyyy cool. Now it's a race to see which happens first: the qualudes kick in or the 3.5 minute pin-hole reel ends......

Roger

[Sparky]

Thats Beautiful! and interesting! are you sure its not the birth or death of a star as seen by hubble? ;-)

[super8man]

Post it on your timeline and stretch the time to ridiculous long lengths...that may help...you could also use it as a semi-transparent mask over normal footage? Just an idea or two...very neat.

[Sparky]

Perhaps it would look good with a slow moving non-intermittent projector?

Mark

[focusmatic]

absolutely a great idea!!!!!!

i love your first test stills!!!!

i have to try this!

thanks

[timdrage]

thanks all,

Perhaps it would look good with a slow moving non-intermittent projector?

Hmm, wow, that idea really appeals to me!! I may try it! Reminds me of the crazy epic sci-fi/greek gods rotating glass projection thingy that they used to shine on the curtains before the film started at my childhood local cinema!

I think next time I'll make a better crank handle for the cartridge... I basically used an old pen barrel with a slot cut in, which worked but of course had no real leverage, so was hard to get much of a smooth/continuous movement going for long... I'll make a proper crank shaped crank in future!

[Sparky]

Hey Tim, what was the subject you filmed and how did you calculate how fast/slow to advance the film?
Do you know what caused the dark stripe along the perfs?
How big was the pinhole (what sized pin ;-) ) and how far away from the film was it?

Mark

[tlatosmd]

I've put this into three vids, two like using a Malteser cross (two different file formats), the third like without one. Unfortunately, photobucket.com only lets me upload the animated gif that is like using a Malteser cross. The other two are AVIs, one is 32kB, the other is 272kB.

[reedsturtevant]

- randomness

Wow, just beautiful!

[timdrage]

I've put this into three vids, two like using a Malteser

Ah, wow, cool of you to do that, thanks!! The gif looks pretty nice! If you wanna email me the others I could host them on my site + link here?

Hey Tim, what was the subject you filmed

This was just a total spontanious test so it's mostly just my desk, lights in the room, computer monitor etccc... possibly my face upside down in there somewhere? I can't quite tell!

and how did you calculate how fast/slow to advance the film?

Uh, ...not at all!!! I just turned it arbitarily... the friction made it kind of judder in incriments which actually helps in terms of getting 'frames' (albeit non-registered!) rather than a continious blur... The very white areas are when I was turning it really slowly or stopped entirely of course...

Do you know what caused the dark stripe along the perfs?

Hmm, I'm not sure actually... good question!

How big was the pinhole (what sized pin ;-) ) and how far away from the film was it?

Uh, again i didn't really do a very scientific test! Just a normal needle, quite a small hole...drilled with a needle in a section of coke can metal, then coloured black with marker....

to distance it from the film i basically taped a nut (ie from a bolt, not a tree! over the cartridge opening and put the pinhole on that.... so maybe 3mm or so?


ah, found it:
HERE is the mailing list post that I found when I was first researching this, from which I got the idea of quite how to do it...

[Lunar07]

Hey Tim, what was the subject you filmed and how did you calculate how fast/slow to advance the film?
Do you know what caused the dark stripe along the perfs?
How big was the pinhole (what sized pin ;-) ) and how far away from the film was it?

Mark

There was a discussion here on pin holes months ago. It goes into distances and the 'focal length' of the pin hole as related to the diameter of the hole itself.
For example check:
http://www.photo.net/learn/pinhole/pinhole
and
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/hmpi/Pinh ... n_aper.htm

The question to timdrage is:
Can you tell a story with it?

[teadub]

I like it. Why not try the Russian Quarz camera. Take off the zoom lens and there is a fixed focus lens inside the camera.