I have just bought a Beaulieu 4008 ZMII (have fallen in love with it...is this wrong? ) I understand that if I want to shoot widescreen that the 'Super Duper 8' gate modification is not possible on a Beaulieu. So, as far as I know, my only option is to shoot with an awareness of how much of the image will be lost if I still want to blow the image up for 16:9. I have trawled the net looking for a little diagram that shows me the percentage of loss (top and bottom) of the frame if I want a widescreen image. Does anyone have one? Is the sacrifice worth it, I wonder?
Is it possible to make/purchase a little piece of glass/plastic, with the 16:9 image area marked on it, that can somehow be inserted in the viewfinder eyepiece?
Maybe there is a Beaulieu modification that can be made?
If you absolutely must shoot 16:9, you may be better off getting rid of the Beaulieu and finding a Nikon Super 8X or R8/R10 camera for Super Duper 8 modification, or getting an anamorphic lens adapter for the Beaulieu, or cropping the frame for 16:9. Or shoot in a format more suitable to 16:9, such as Super 16 or HD video.
Or you can shoot 4:3 and stretch the image in video to 16:9, or shoot 4:3 and leave it that way (with black bars on either side of the image).
Who said it cant be widened? Though I am sure it's not advisable due to the lens vignetting and difficulty in framing. I had my my Beaulieu 5008 MS converted, I had the gate widened and the viewfinder optics were also adapted to accomodate the extra width. It worked fine, though at some focal lengths there is a lot of vignetting.
Dr Smith wrote:I have just bought a Beaulieu 4008 ZMII (have fallen in love with it...is this wrong? ) I understand that if I want to shoot widescreen that the 'Super Duper 8' gate modification is not possible on a Beaulieu. So, as far as I know, my only option is to shoot with an awareness of how much of the image will be lost if I still want to blow the image up for 16:9. I have trawled the net looking for a little diagram that shows me the percentage of loss (top and bottom) of the frame if I want a widescreen image. Does anyone have one? Is the sacrifice worth it, I wonder?
Is it possible to make/purchase a little piece of glass/plastic, with the 16:9 image area marked on it, that can somehow be inserted in the viewfinder eyepiece?
Maybe there is a Beaulieu modification that can be made?
I've done only one SD8 mod to a Beaulieu, and have not yet had any feedback wrt vignetting or other problems.
Sleep Always was filmed with no modification to the VF; a quick and precise pan to the right revealed what would be in that area of the frame.
The main goal of the mod is to eliminate the need to "TV safe" right-side masking [less enlarging of the image] and tighten grain while compacting and therefore intensifying colour; if you're like most people, including myself, you naturally frame the 4:3 image with enough headroom to allow for letterboxing anyway. The ideal letterboxed medium shot of a person has the top of their head right up against the upper black band. Closeups should crop out the top of the hair, and maybe even some forehead.
Finally, if this camera is to be used for your classic looking B+W horror suite, I recommend shooting 4:3 as this ratio better suits the genre, IMHO.
Dr Smith wrote:I have just bought a Beaulieu 4008 ZMII (have fallen in love with it...is this wrong? ) I understand that if I want to shoot widescreen that the 'Super Duper 8' gate modification is not possible on a Beaulieu. So, as far as I know, my only option is to shoot with an awareness of how much of the image will be lost if I still want to blow the image up for 16:9. I have trawled the net looking for a little diagram that shows me the percentage of loss (top and bottom) of the frame if I want a widescreen image. Does anyone have one? Is the sacrifice worth it, I wonder?
Is it possible to make/purchase a little piece of glass/plastic, with the 16:9 image area marked on it, that can somehow be inserted in the viewfinder eyepiece?
Maybe there is a Beaulieu modification that can be made?
I believe that Pro8mm will do this mod to your camera. Isn't the 4008 the camera that they will sell you with thier max 8 format anyway? Check them out at http://www.pro8mm.com, they are in london also.
Finally, if this camera is to be used for your classic looking B+W horror suite, I recommend shooting 4:3 as this ratio better suits the genre, IMHO.
I'm totally with you on that point, Mitch. But lets just say I had wild fantasies of seeing my opus blown up for 35 mm projection, which of course I don't because that is frankly delusional and a bit sad, heh heh :oops: but just for the sake of discussing it, if I shoot 4:3 but want to know which bits would be lost if it were blown up, what percentage top and bottom would I want to keep out of. If you have done it before did you mark the viewfinder in anyway or is it a rough approximation thing? I am sure I have seen a little diagram of a Super 8 frame with lines marking which bits of the frame would be lost in a blow up to 16:9. Might even have been something promoting Super Duper.
As for trading in my Beaulieu 4008 ZMII for another camera - forget it - we're to be married shortly. It is true love, even if they say its wrong. :lol:
Dr Smith wrote:Is it possible to make/purchase a little piece of glass/plastic, with the 16:9 image area marked on it, that can somehow be inserted in the viewfinder eyepiece?
Maybe there is a Beaulieu modification that can be made?
Pro8mm offers their "MAX 8" widescreen upgrade for the Beaulieu 4008. As I understand, it consists of widening the gate, recentering the lens and including 16:9 framelines in the viewfinder. I was quoted a price of $500.
I decided against spending that kind of money on my Beau. The Schnieder zoom is tack-sharp and I'm happy shooting in standard aspect and cropping, although having a widescreen viewfinder would really help with image framing.
I suspect a widescreen viewfinder mod would be a fairly simple addition to the ground glass -- it just needs to be scored so there are framelines in it.
Dr Smith wrote:if I shoot 4:3 but want to know which bits would be lost if it were blown up, what percentage top and bottom would I want to keep out of.
I think 35mm is 4:3 too. If you wanted to blow up to Super 35 you'd definitely want to mark the S8 VF, since the blowup is kinda serious stuff $$ wise.
I'm not much of a numbers guy - I like to stretch the format, but only in the most intuitive way possible. I don't want to know anything I don't have to know.
Dr Smith wrote:As for trading in my Beaulieu 4008 ZMII for another camera - forget it - we're to be married shortly. It is true love, even if they say its wrong. :lol:
How can it be wrong when it feels so right? 4008 is a beautiful camera, and can even be used to capture your wedding day to itself, or whatever.
Enough of this - you have a script to polish and people to convince.
) I understand that if I want to shoot widescreen that the 'Super Duper 8' gate modification is not possible on a Beaulieu. So, as far as I know, my only option is to shoot with an awareness of how much of the image will be lost if I still want to blow the image up for 16:9. I have trawled the net looking for a little diagram that shows me the percentage of loss (top and bottom) of the frame if I want a widescreen image. Does anyone have one? Is the sacrifice worth it, I wonder?
