Motor driven 135 camera for cinematic use.

[paniolo]

Hello Photographers,

I look for a compact camera that lets me shoot 6-24 frames per second with normal 135 film.
Something like a Royal Robot / Lomo 135vs but with continous shooting.
Half or square format would be good to increase the length of the sequences limited by the 135 film.
A motor driven SLR would be too big and the 36x24 format isnt well suited.

Any ideas?

 

[Roger Hicks]

Don't think so. You need quite a lot of reasonably substantial machinery to move 35mm film faster than about 6 fps, at least reliably and with good register. Even at half-frame, 24 fps will finish a 36 (=72) exposure roll in 3 seconds. The few cameras that did shoot both still and cine, such as the Debrie Sept (patented 1919), were quite bulky.

What application have you in mind?

Cheers,

R.

 

[nongfuspring]

Not a motor drive, and definitely not 26 fps, but there is the Lomokino. It's hand cranked, shoots 144 (wide and narrow) frames per 36 roll of film.

 

[paniolo]

The idea is to have a compact cine camera with me to support my documentary photography and add short sequences (3-7 seconds) to my photo shows.
Theres no need for 24fps but if its avaible, why not use it.
I think 8~12fps will be enough to make it flow.
I imagine something like an Arriflex but way smaller and of course for still film.
Super 8 came in my mind too, but development could be a problem.

Edit:

HAHAHA yea the Lomokino... I once hold it in a store in Berlin, funny little ******* but way toooo plastic and shaky while winding.
But hey, thank you! Maybe I will give it a new try.

Anyone know of a Lomokino alternative for "serious" use?

 

[Markus B]

There is the Samurai Z half frame auto focus camera of the late 80's, but it is only 4,5 FPS (or at least it claims to be, I haven't used one myself).

 

[johannielscom]

My 2 cents.

I myself would seriously question the artistic intentions or capabilities of my audience if they would reject my project just because it was partly digital. So why not shoot digital film and post-process in iMovie or the likes? You can have all the frame rates you want and it won't be hard at all to make footage look like it was film-shot.

An artistic-inclined audience will not be interested in the fact that you used 'real film' to shoot the sequences. Only engineers and gear heads go for stuff like that.

 

[ruby.monkey]

How about a Nikon F5?

 

[ronnies]

Some sort of Arriflex perhaps ?

Ronnie

 

[tonyc]

There is the Samurai Z half frame auto focus camera of the late 80's, but it is only 4,5 FPS (or at least it claims to be, I haven't used one myself).

I have tried the Samurai for a similar purpose.
It is almost perfect except, the lens quality
is not great and it is auto everything, so the
FPS is slightly dependant on the light levels
as you can't lock the shutter speed.
In bright light the lens is ok.

PS if you are used to Arri then you might
want to look away, the Samurai is an ugly '80s
design, not pretty.

-TC

 

[tonyc]

Hello

Sorry had another thought.

In Japan Fuji made a "Golf Swing" camera
for analysing your swing.
They shoot around 16frames in a burst.
The frame size is a bit smaller than half frame.

Again the lens is not exactly Zeiss Ultraprime territory !

-TC

 

[paniolo]

huuu nice tip, thank you

 

[Dralowid]

I don't know where you are but in the UK at least Super 8 is supported to an extent (as is Standard 8 to a lesser extent). Even excellent cameras are mostly dirt cheap and some are quite compact. Fully automatic light metering is normally the achilles heel. Canon 814, 518 etc etc

16 mm is also still OK but the gear costs more.

Yes, film and processing is expensive but for your purposes I doubt you'd use much?

Scanning is generally available (I guess one could do one's own?) and there is also a machine that produces excellent results called a Kinetta http://www.kinetta.com/

OK, so its another interest of mine...but I limit myself to clockwork.