8mm Forum: Shooting in scope, how do I do it?

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Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on January 24, 2012, 02:19 AM:

OK, so I have a wedding coming up soon, my own in fact, and I will of course capture it on film!

However, I also wish to do at least one of the reels in scope! So my question now is, how do I do that?

I have the following Super 8 cameras at my disposal:
- Sankyo EM-60XL
- Bell & Howell T30XL
- Canon Autozoom 814 (old model)

I also have two scope lenses:
- Kowa 8Z
- Proskar Anamorphot 2X

Now my question now is, how can I combine these in a way that makes for good shooting?

Posted by Lee Mannering (Member # 728) on January 24, 2012, 02:57 AM:

Congratulations to you both Christian and also for your forthcoming wedding day.

When we married I got a video produced of it also retained the original camera tapes. It was also filmed on 8mm silent and I later used the video camera tapes to dub live sound onto the cine film at crucial points like the vows, so it was a good way to record the audio.

To film in scope I would use the Kowa 8Z as the results are much better with this lens and I also use a Sankyo. What I would do is offer up the lens to the Sankyo with the camera mounted on a tripod and see if you get any cut off from the Kowa at wide zoom. You may see just a little at the edges which is something to be aware of but not disastrous as you can put a little mark on the cameras zoom ring showing how wide you are able to go. Some years ago when I first used the Kowa I didn’t have a mounting bracket for it so used gaffa tape to attach it to the camera lens for testing prior to having a bracket made. Once on and looking through the viewfinder you need to rotate the lens until you see a squashed image.

Remember that attaching another lens to the camera will also reduce the amount light getting to the film so it’s worth checking out light at the venue before the day particularly at a Church. I think your camera is a low light model which will also help.

Top tips.
Be sure to carry a spare set of new batteries.
Use a tripod as much as possible when filming scope.
If you have time shoot a test reel to make sure everything is working. It’s a once in a lifetime event so you wont get another chance.

And finally, have a wonderful day!

Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on January 24, 2012, 03:08 AM:

Thanks for your tips and good wishes, Lee.

In addition to shooting on both Super 8 and Single 8 with FIVE seperate cameras at once, I will be filming with my DV camera and two HD SLR cameras (for both images and video), so it should make for one helluva production!

I will do some tests with the Kowa and Sankyo and see how it works :-)

Posted by Joerg Polzfusz (Member # 602) on January 24, 2012, 04:09 AM:

Hi,

you can get special mounts like this one from FFR to connect the Kowa to your camera:
http://www.ffr-film.de/_bild/11290019.JPG
(Other sources have been listed here again and again. Sometimes you'll also find mounts on fleabay.´like this one: http://www.ebay.de/itm/ANAMORPHIC-LENS-CLAMP-KIT-KOWA-SANKOR-SINGER-ISCO-/300569782054?pt=Camera_Lenses&hash=item45fb5ae726 (I hope that I linked the correct article as some of these clamps aren't to mount the anamorphot to the camera, but to add a filter-thread to the anamorphot's front...))
However -as long as the anamorphic attachment has got a thread at the end- you can also simply attach the anamorphot via some step-up-/step-down-filter-adapters (those cheap Chinese adapters from fleabay will do). When you add a rotatable filter (with the glass removed) to this combination, it's easier to rotate the anamorphic attachment back to the correct position after zooming/focusing.
Keep in mind that with the Kowa 8Z both the camera and the 8Z have to be set to the correct focusing distance!

Jörg

Posted by Osi Osgood (Member # 424) on January 24, 2012, 12:54 PM:

Believe it or not, I always used the "handymans secret weapon"

duct tape!

I would duct tape that old scope lense on the front of my super 8 camera and shoot away.

However, you would have to be sure that you had the iamge centered properly, AND, I noted that you'd have to bring in the "zoom" just a little, to make sure you didn't get any "fringing" on the edges of the super 8 film frame, (from having what you were shooting to far back.

The one drawback I had was that I could do no extreme close-ups, but boy, I'm still impressed with how good that Kodachrome looked shot in scope!

Posted by Christian Bjorgen (Member # 1780) on January 24, 2012, 04:12 PM:

Thanks for your tips, all of you.

As for duct tape, doing that makes me lose the ability to focus, so that's a no-go, at least as far as the Canon goes.

Posted by Claus Harding (Member # 702) on January 24, 2012, 05:58 PM:

Haha, yes, a duct-taped scope lens would rotate as you focused (assuming the lens would even take the weight) leading to all kinds of fun images, but not exactly what you were after. The scope lens sits on a bracket, and you focus your lens and it separately.

Good luck with it!

Claus.

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